 Names like Ramses, Cleopatra, Tutankhamun and Nefertiti, echo through the art and literature of so many different cultures. Religion was the backbone of life in Ancient Egypt and mythology its bloodline. Death and the afterlife were essential to Ancient Egyptian society.
5,000 years ago, the first Pharaoh, King Narmer, founded the world's first nation state, recording it in the world's first written script. The pharaohs were not just kings or queens, they were gods and they were worshipped as divine rulers. But they also commanded vast administrative armies, models of modern management and efficiency.
It was their sophisticated system of bureaucracy that enabled the construction of Egypt's greatest monuments, the pyramids of course and also the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the great temples of Karnak, the ruins of Thebes not forgetting the Sphinx at Giza.
The relics of Ancient Egypt still survive to bear witness to the refinement and beauty of many golden ages.
PYRAMIDS
Although the construction of the pyramids was only an episode in the long history of the pharaohs, this period has left us some of the most impressive monuments that can be seen. Besides the three giants of Gizeh, more than 70 pyramids can be counted along the Nile.
 Al Giza Pyramids
Guarded by the familiar lone lion-bodied Sphinx are the three Great Pyramids of Giza. Over 4,000 years ago, the mummified bodies of Kings Cheops, Kefren and Mykerinos were ferried down the Nile to be buried and prepared for the journey to the afterlife within these massive monuments.
The largest, oldest and finest of all three is Cheop's Pyramid, simply known as the "Great Pyramid". It was the tallest structure in the world until the end of the nineteenth century (145 meters). But Kefren's Pyramid, Cheop's son and successor, makes a bigger first impression. On higher ground with its limestone cap still intact, it looks loftier even though it's 4 meters shorter.
The smallest of the three, Mykerinos' Pyramid, makes up for its size with its fine funerary and valley temples.
What to see in Giza :
One of the three Pyramids, the Solar Barque Museum, the Sphinx Complex and the Sphinx Sound and Light Show.
But the Giza necropolis is also the final resting place of the Pharaoh's family and high officials. Buried inside the mastabas and minor pyramids which dot the plateau are queens and royal courtiers. There are also tombs of the craftsmen and engineers who toiled over these epic edifices.
Dahshur Pyramids
There were originally 11 pyramids at Dahshur, although only the two Old Kingdom Pyramids, the Bent and the Red Pyramid, remain intact. Pharaoh Sneferu, father of Khufu and founder of the 4th Dynasty, built Egypt's first real pyramid, the Red Pyramid, here. It is a quiet place where you will be able to enjoy the monuments in peace.
Saqqara Pyramids
 Time has all but erased the once mighty Memphis from the Egyptian landscape, however, the city of the dead has been excavated and exhumed from the desert sands, the vast necropolis of Saqqara. Memphis is some 23km south of central Cairo, in the center of the floodplain on the western side of the Nile. Memphis was traditionally founded in 3000 BC by Menes, the legendary figure credited with the creation of a politically unified Egypt. Memphis served as the effective administrative capital of the country during the Old Kingdom and partly in later times.
It's eleven pyramids, countless mastabas and lone Coptic monastery stretch over 7km from north to south, and span three and a half thousand years of Egyptian civilisation. At its centre sits King Djoser's "Stepped" Pyramid, the very first pyramid and the first great stone structure in the world. North of the pyramid, inside a stone "serdab", sits the Ancient Pharaoh himself.
Saqqara also includes the Serapeum, represented by a life-sized sculpture of limestone, the original of which is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and an astonishing collection of mummified Apis bulls in gargantuan granite coffins. Of its eleven pyramids, King Teti boasts the best preserved burial chamber, with pyramid text lined walls mapping out his journey to the afterlife. The walls of Mereruka's multichambered maze-like tomb are covered with exquisite murals, showing scenes of everyday life.
What to see in Saqqara :
Zoser's funerary complex, Mereruka's tomb, Serapeum. |
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