Category Archives: travel

Today we’ll finish up with Saqqara, then head on out for some local culture. By culture, I’m referring to the making of papyrus, by hand, and then we’ll go into a shop specializing in essential oils, if you’re into that kind of thing. We’ll begin to day with another view of the Pyramid of Djoser:

One thing I did not touch upon on Monday is Djoser, the pharoah for whom this comlex was built. Djoser ruled for somewhere between 19 and 28 years, depending on how the ancient texts are interpreted, but 28 years is probably the more accurate of the two guesses judging from the buildings for which he had built. That would put him in the Second Dynasty in the Old Kingdom. And that would place him at the beginning of the “Age of the Pyramids,” which is appropriate since the Step Pyramid was Egypt’s first.

Looking at the picture above, you may notice a pyramid-shaped pile of rubble in the background. Well, that pile of rubble truly is another pyramid within Saqqara. It’s the Pryamid of Userkaf, and it was constructed some 200 years after the Pyramid of Djoser. It fell into so much disrepair that it wasn’t even officially identified as a royal burial pyramid until 1842. It appears that 5th Dynasty King Userkaf’s pyramid just didn’t get the same respect as the pyramid erected by his 3rd Dynasty predecessor King Djoser. So, let’s leave Saqqara behind with one last image of the Rubble Pyramid of Userkaf:

After Saqqara, our tour guide took us to the ever-present, forever-required tourist stops that nearly every guide seems intent upon including because they get a kickback. The first was a total nonstarter, an essential oils proprieter. But it did give me at least two colorful fun shots:

Before that, however, we actually had a fun visit with at a papyrus art shop. This is the Egypt Papyrus Museum and it’s not an actual museum, but rather a nice store. Here the proprietors actually make their own papyrus paper by hand. First, our demonstrator took water-soaked stems from the papyrus plant and rolled them out:

Afterward, she laid the stems in a crisscross fashion, but always flat with the edges slightly overlapping. The stems are never twined together, as braiding or weaving the stems would result in an uneven surface unsuitable for writing and drawing. After assembling, the papyrus paper is pounded, dried under pressure, such as weights or a vice. The paper is then hand polished to smooth it out even more.

If you do it properly, this is the beautiful end result after trimming:

And, yes, there’s a lot of very interesting art to purchase here:

Next week, after this week’s first of several Fun Photo Fridays featuring Cairo favorites, of I’ll show you the Giza Pyramid Complex.

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