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For most visitors Egypt is synonymous with majestic pyramid of Giza and Sphinx. We decided to take a less traveled route on day 2. We took a cab from outside of our hotel , it was an old fiat model , looked straight from junkyard. ย The driver was also aged like his car but he was a nice chap.
We first visited Saqqaraย , which was the ancient burial site for the ancient Egyptian capital Memphis. The main attraction here is the ancientย Step pyramid of Djoser which was under renovation.
This is a huge site and it contains monuments from old, middle and new kingdoms . There are several other pyramids and mastabas. I visited few important mastabas. These are flat roofed, rectangular structure with inward sloping sides, almost like inverted pyramid constructed out of mud-bricks (from the Nile River). These edificesย ย marked the burial sites of eminent Egyptians during Egypt’sย Early Dynastic Periodย andย Old Kingdom.
Then we visitedย Serapeum .ย ย It was a burial place ofย Apis bulls (ย sacred bullย worshipedย in theย Memphis region. Identified as the son ofย Hathor)ย ย which were incarnations of theย deityย Ptah.
Our next stop was Memphis, the ancient capital .ย According to a commonly accepted tradition, Memphis was founded about 2925ย bcย by Menes, who supposedly united the two prehistoric kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. Eventually it started loosing importance ย from middle age and completely destroyed during Arab invasion. Today virtually nothing remained of the ancient city , however there is an open air museum which exhibits various artifacts and some colossal statues of Rames ย II.
Our final stop was Dahshur. This site is famous for black pyramid , bent pyramid and red pyramid. Black pyramid is heavily eroded . Unlike other pyramids this is made of mud brick and clay.
Bent and red pyramid both were constructed during time of Pharaoh Sneferu. Bent pyramid was originally planned to be a smooth – sided pyramid but due to a design flaw the angle was changed halfway up.
