Adventures of both Western and Ancient varities

Last time I wrote, I wrote a rather short blog of things that I had missed because it had been two months since my adventure in Cairo had begun! That weekend, I did have other adventures other than lusting over home and the States (who would have thought that I would miss the States after all this longing to live abroad?). Friday, Amelia, Ashley and I ventured out of Zamalek to the big world of - this - right here off to the ride side of the screen. That, my friends, is City Stars Mall near the Cairo airport. Built with over 800 million USD, it's over six floors high, and I'm pretty sure has over 600 stores and stalls. Everything from H&M and the Gap to Virgin Megastore (apparently popular in Europe) to DQ, Auntie Anne's, Ruby Tuesday's and a movie theater. Amelia wanted to get Disney movies in Arabic (harder than you think they are to find!) and I primarily wanted new sunglasses, as mine broke. R.I.P. sunglasses - I think you lasted me over a year, which is rather surprising. We spent a lot of time getting lost on the floor that we entered in the first place, and then once we found Virgin Megastore to look for Disney DVD's, it was closed, so we decided to be brave and go up a couple of floors. We found the movie theater (which was playing Lion King in 3D! YES!) and we vowed to come back, eat at Ruby Tuesdays for a little bite of home, and go see Lion King.

We found about seventy bazillion coffee places, from Costa's to Starbucks and everything in between. Smoothie places, cakes, deserts, ice cream, full out restaurants and cafes. You name it, it was there. I settled for some cinnamon sugar pretzel sticks at Auntie Anne's as a little taste of the good ol' York Galleria, and swiftly noticed shopping differences between here, and the States. In the States, you always have those people to greet you at the door, and follow you until they have a chance to ask you if you need any help when all you really want to do is be left alone.

Here, there is none of that. In H&M there was a guy standing at the door primarily for security, but no one bothered you. You were free to roam, but the moment you needed help - you could find someone and they would help you! It was very nice. Also something I noticed... despite the fact that people here take their time doing things (it took the guy at Auntie Anne's five minutes to find a lid for my cup...) some certainly do not have a concept of personal space, or spatial reasoning. The same guy, in three different spots, ran into me three different times. And it wasn't just a brush on the shoulder with an apology. Full on shoulder bumping and then just walk away.

Hmm.

Regardless - I wish we could've spent more time wandering around - I never get tired of wandering (for the most part, inside a building anyway) and there was so much to see. Things were more American priced... Except for the books :)

To the left of this paragraph is a picture of Harry Potter books. In Arabic. Yes. I did buy some of them despite the fact I already bought the fifth one in hardcover Arabic.

So what!?

I came back Friday and spent the rest of the attempting to do work. Then Saturday, I got up early to go on an Egyptology department field trip to see tombs and pyramids in Dashur and Saqqara, and then Giza once more! Time for some picture spam and then I will explain.

               

These first three pictures are of Dashur and Saqqara. Dashur is where King Sneferu chose to try and build his part of the necropolis in the fourth Dynasty. He was actually the first King in the dynasty and decided he didn't want a simple Mastaba anymore, so he tried to build a pyramid. But he kind of failed. He started building his base too big, so he capped it off early to prevent it from crumbling in on itself - thus, we have the bent pyramid (top row left side). Then, he tried again, not too far away from his Bent Pyramid. We have the Red Pyramid, which is the first true Pyramid in ancient Egypt. I will show pictures of the inside of the Red Pyramid a little later. The second picture on the top row is a picture of King Djoser of the Third Dynasty's Step Pyramid, the first "pyramid proto-type" in Ancient Egypt. Designed by Imhotep, which you may know thanks to Brendan Fraiser and The Mummy. 

Imhotep really was a genius architect, though. Saqqara, where the Step Pyramid is located, is a huge complex. The lower picture is the entrance of the complex, and I'll try not to bore you with my geeky architecture knowledge too much, but basically the premise was that the outside was fitted to look like the facade of a palace, to establish that Djoser thought of himself as a God, not as just a human King, and that he was resting in his home, not his tomb. The enclosure wall is fitted with 14 "dummy doors" (doors that are not really doors and do not open) for the fourteen Kas, or spirits, which establish that he is like the god Ra, who also had fourteen kas. 

There are stone swinging doors inside the facade which do not close and open (duh, they are stone) because only the spirit of the King, in the form of sunlight (yay, Ra!) could open and close them. There are SO many cool things about the architecture in this complex, I can't even explain how cool it was to see in person what I was learning about in class!

But back to the Red Pyramid. The first "true" pyramid in Ancient Egypt, home of King Sneferu. We went inside. Yeah, be jealous. I actually was allowed to take my camera in too! So now, you guys can see what the inside of a pyramid is like (thankfully for you, you don't have to smell the pyramid. It smells like bat poop, and thousands and thousands of years of people's sweat). The picture off to the right side of this paragraph is the outside of the Red Pyramid, and our group of people walking up to go inside. The scaffolding in the center of the pyramid is the entrance). Climbing up those stairs was NOTHING compared to climbing further up inside...

So in short, really, climbing pyramids is a bigger workout than anything I've ever done, including running suicides in softball practice (this is coming from someone who isn't really fond of working out or running - so softball practice is my immediate connection in terms of anything physical!). But yes. My legs... three days later, still hurt!

These are the stairs up to the burial chamber AFTER you go up inside the little hole and climb down and down and down in a primarily dark and tiny space. This chamber houses the scaffolding stairs up to the burial chamber, which smelled like bat poop and ammonia. Guano, is the proper term.

Anyway, below are some more pictures of the inside of the burial chamber and the ceiling of the chambers themselves.

Ceiling of the chambers

Burial chamber - messier than the Great Pyramid chamber

From Saqqara we headed to the Giza complex once again. Giza this time was not as exciting, though I did get to see the stone quarries behind the Pyramid of Khafra and I didn't get hassled as much, and I actually got to go closer to the Sphinx! Anyway, I will leave you with my favorite picture of the pyramids of Giza that I've ever taken. The way the sun was in the sky, positioned perfectly over the Pyramid of Khafra ... it was just amazing!

The sphinx, and finally....

Until next time!

• Ten days until my Eid vacation to Athens, Greece!
• And climbing Mount Sinai for Thanksgiving!