The side of one of our busses.
Me with a camel in front of one of the Giza pyramids. The owner of the camel is standing by and his friend is taking the picture. There was quite a negotiation on what the tip should be for the use of the camel, etc.
Some idea of scale. These are big blocks and there are a lot of them.
This is one of the Solar Barque recovered in 1200 pieces from a pit near the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) in 1954.
This is the real cedar boat, reconstructed from the pieces found, and housed in this special museum next to the pyramid.
Khufu's solar barque is believed to be the oldest boat in existance, built around 2500 BC.
Pyramid of Chephren. This is the only one that still has some of the original limestone cladding intact, showing how smooth the surface was originally
Nomadic tourists in the desert.
The three main Giza pyramids. The largest is the Great Pyramid of Cheops to the left. It looks smaller because its base is lower, and it is farther away. The one with the limestone cap is Khafra's pyramid, and the smaller one is the pyramid of Menkaure.
The camels were really quite nice, but I decided to save my back for the rest of the trip.
The Greek's had alternate names for these pharaohs: Cheops for Khufu, Chephren for Khafra, son of Khufu, Mycernius for Menkaure, son of Khafra.
Our first look at the spinx
The "golden" group in front of the sphinx and the pyramids of Chephren and Cheops (Khufu). Note the solar barque museum next the the big pyramid.
The family home of our program director, Farid. As a child, he used to play hide and seek around the Sphinx and the pyramids.
Shot from the bus of the town adjacent to the Giza pyramid site.
A countryside mosque.
Common form of transportation.
On the way to Saqqara, we stopped to have lunch at this restaurant.
Making bread for us.
A summer home in the countryside.
The main entrance hall to the burial court of Djoser in the Saqqara necropolis.
Shaft leading to the burial chamber of the Southern Tomb, believed to be for "conopic jars" to hold the entrails of the king.
There were a lot of people working on reconstruction or selling souvenirs around this site. Not many women, but this one looks like she was carrying water to workers.
The step pyramid of Djoser. This is the oldest known of the 100 or so pyramids in Egypt. It is stepped because the original tomb was a mastaba - just the bottom layer with a flat top. Imhotep, the architect, just added successive smaller mastabas to form the pyramid.
Reinforcement work on the step pyramid. They are not restoring it, but propping up unstable parts to keep it from collapsing.
The new rock walls come up to the more structurally sound parts of the original pyramid.
Older reinforement work at a corner. Note how undermined soem parts have become.
Part of the remains of Heb Sed Court inside the walls of the burial complex. Heb Sed was a ritual to show the strength and vitality of the king
Other pyramids visible from the Djoser complex. The one to the left seems to been the pyramid of Teti I.
Detail of the three distant pyramids with contrast enhanced. You can see the Teti I pyramid is a step pyramid.
"House of the South" in the shadow of the pyramid
The pyramid of Userkaf, the founder of the fifth dynasty. This pyramid is in the shadow of the Djoser step pyramid.
Remains of the "Heb Sed Court"
Countryside shot from the bus shortly after leaving the Saqqara site.
One of many "Carpet Schools" in the Saqqara area. We visited this one. This is a school, but also a place where they make carpets - kind of a "work-study" program.
Kids making a silk carpet.
Advanced student "improvising" a carpet design. The design is all in his head.
Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt. Under Islamic Shari'a law, charging interest is prohibited usury, so other models of revenue are used. Islamic banking is also instrumental in the ritual of Zakah. For an interesting explanation, see this web page