Driving Miss Karen

A blog about our travel

Egypt Finale: Pyramid 101

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We finished up Egypt by closing the circle on the pyramids at Saqqara and Dahshur where it all began. The pharaoh Djoser had as his advisor, a genius named Imhotep (high priest, scientist, architect). He wanted to build Djoser a memorial for all eternity. The rest as they say is history.

The prototype pyramid upon which others are based. Really all the pyramids are step pyramids but they have many many steps which are then hidden with the casing stones to make the pyramid smooth. This was 200 years before the other pyramids were started.
The step pyramid is inside a giant walled compound. Really impressive in real-life
Nearby are later tombs of nobles that were the first to use drawings and hieroglyphics in them setting the stage for the Luxor tombs
They used alabaster for some of the stone which is translucent and beautiful when lit
Oh No! This epic fail is the first attempt at a normal pyramid. The initial angle was too steep so they had to change it half way up. It is called The Bent Pyramid
The first normal looking pyramid was called The Red Pyramid and is third in size after The Great Pyramid and Khafre’s Pyramid. The Great Pyramid was started almost immediately after the Red Pyramid was completed.
Gynormous Ramses II statue found in Memphis
It was Date harvesting season in Egypt. A lot of families out in the groves
Our final stop in Egypt was the ancient capital of Memphis. Not much is left of Memphis except for some giant statues like this one of Ramses II. He is famous because he was really into promoting himself and was a prolific statue maker (of himself) and occasional statue taker (claiming other pharaoh’s statues as his own).
Look familiar? Rhymes with Maul Dewman. It’s funny but it shows that a lot of laws just really aren’t followed
Construction worker, working from his easy chair
The not so nice part of Cairo/Giza that we saw during a shortcut to avoid traffic
I like Egypt but it definitely has some issues to work through. I’m rooting for them to get their act together

Jose

AKA Alfred

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