Ancient Times

thatlittleegyptologist:

Today’s Egypt post comes from Saqqara and the surrounding tombs. 

Saqqara was really early on in the 16 day trip we took (in fact I think it was the first day. Memories are hazy) We’d barely touched down in Cairo and were subsequently whisked off to our hotel from which we could see the Pyramids at Giza. 

After an interesting night with interruptions from various car and taxi horns (admittedly we did spend time on the balcony watching the traffic jam as it was hilarious. Egyptian drivers are badasses) we took the coach to the Imhotep museum, which was blessedly airconditioned, and then onto the Old Kingdom tombs  and the Pyramid of Teti. These were pretty cool and yes we did manage to get photos inside the Pyramid (for some reason we weren’t told we couldn’t and no one stopped us so we did) and then a talk by the bloke who was Hawass’ second in command (I can’t remember his name now) who then took us on a tour of the tombs. 

From there we went across to Djoser’s pyramid complex in which were a lot of dogs. We’d been told by one of our lecturers throughout our undergrad (I was at the end of my 3rd year when I went on this trip which seems so long ago now) told us that the reason they always use the phrase “Anubis on his mound” and the corresponding hieroglyph is that you always find dogs at Saqqara sitting atop the monuments or tombs. He usually told a lot of odd stories which we ignored but to find out that this was true was pretty awesome. 

We wandered about the Heb Sed court for a bit taking pictures of each other and jumping off rocks. I also found a random statue ear on the floor (see last picture) and quite a few other random fragments. It is true that you can dig anywhere in Egypt and uncover its history. 

After that we visited Unas’ causeway. At this point, having only been in the country for 24 hours, the heat was beginning to take it’s toll so we went down to visit the Tomb of the Two Brothers. Universal consensus of people on the trip….not brothers. Definitely not. 

Saqqara: I gave those bitches dogs monuments. Bitches Dogs love monuments. 

(via rudjedet)