Ancient sites and sand
UNESCO UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. It was involved in the moving and restoration of many temples in Egypt after the building of the Aswan High Dam. The dam created Lake Nassar, which would flood many miles of the Nile south of Aswan and in the process, bury forever many […]
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A bit melodramatic, but worth the views of the giza plateau lit up with spotlights and lasers
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Most of the sites in Egypt are vast, covering square miles of barren ground marked only by a few wooden signs and vague shapes under the sand. Most of Saqqara is the same. Saqqara was the original necropolis for the early pharaohs, and is Egypt’s largest archeaological site. It was used until the 4th Dynasty […]
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Anyone who has ever seen pictures of Egypt, or studied the history of architecture has seen the marvel of Saqqara, the Step Pyramid. Halfway between a flat, loaf-like mastaba and the true pyramids that are so iconic of Egypt
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The Step Pyramid is only the most visible part of an enormous funerary complex that was oriignally surrounded by an enormous wall almost 11 meters high. It encloses a courtyard 544 meter long and 277 meters wide.it is not aligned directly north-south (although the Pyramid inside is carefully arranged to the compass points). There are […]
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Just southwest of Djoser lies the rounded mound of Sekhemkhet’s pyramid, a complete complex meant to have all the element of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, but apparently abandoned before it was finished
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The Pyramid was closed when we went — many of the sites in Saqqara are closed for renovations or restoration work — and from the outside it doesn’t look like much. A pile of limestone rubble in the vague shape of a pyramid originally 44 meters high, but squashed down to less than 20 now. If […]
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Memphis is an ancient necropolis. It is considered the oldest “imperial” city on earth, and was founded at the beginning of the first dynasty (c. 3100 BCE) by Menes.
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