Papyrus Museum and Carpet School
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2008
1
93
148
Trip End
Dec 09, 2008
Giza,
Egypt
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Despite asking if we could skip it, our driver Said insisted that we visit a "Papyrus Museum." I'd read about this in the guide book. It was no museum, it was a sales pitch. First we saw a demonstration about how the ancient Egyptians made paper out of the stalks of the papyrus plant, and then we were encouraged to walk around and look at all the papyrus scrolls with various painted designs and pick out which ones to buy. I was pleased that it wasn't a flat-out hard sell, and I didn't buy anything, but Wreath and Blink Blink were pleased with the souvenirs they bought. Wreath got a design where her grandparents' names were written on a papyrus cartouche in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The four tomb raiders at Saqqara
At the papyrus place, we got our second compliment from an Egyptian woman for respecting their culture and religion enough to wear the hijab head scarf. Mine keeps falling off and I don't have any idea how to drape or pin it, but it's nice that our effort has been appreciated.
Then Said drove us to the step pyramid at Saqqara. I liked the style of this excursion, because we didn't pay anything in exchange for just driving by and snapping pictures. The Saqqara pyramid was built for King Zoser, and it is the first pyramid in Egypt, predating the Giza trio and illustrating the progression of pyramid architecture. We had to speed out of Saqqara in a hurry because a huge dust and sand storm arose over the palm trees.
Then we stopped at a "Carpet School," which was no more a school than the papyrus place was a museum. We were treated to a demonstration of rug knotting, and learned about the difference between silk rugs, wool rugs, and camel hair rugs. And then we were invited to range around the showroom picking out rugs to buy. Many of the rugs really were astonishingly beautiful, but the camels took all my money this morning and how on earth would I get a gigantic rug home? So we didn't buy anything at the carpet school
Step Pyramid at Saqqara
.Our last stop of the day was to the Red, Bent, and Black Pyramids at Dashur. The Black Pyramid belonged to Amenemhet III, thought to be the Pharoah who listened to Joseph's prophecy dreams in the Hebrew Bible. The Bent Pyramid was started at a steep angle, and then two thirds of the way up, they switched to a more gentle angle, so it literally looks like it bend out toward the top. There are different theories about why the architect abruptly changed the building plan, but we don't know for sure. The Red Pyramid belonged to Snofru, the father of Cheops who built the biggest pyramid at Giza. Snofru was not actually buried in the Red Pyramid, he was found in the Bent Pyramid beside it, so there are competing ideas about why Sonfru had more than one pyramid built for himself.
Click, Blink Blink, and Wreath of Roses climbed the 130+ steps to actually enter the Red Pyramid, but I stayed behind because I wasn't enchanted by the notion of climbing all those stairs for the privilege of entering an airless shaft too low to stand up, and then crawling along to reach a tomb that's empty (because remember Snofru wasn't buried in this one). When the students returned, they reported the experience was all that and worse, it smelled fetid like formaldehyde!
Palm trees at Saqqara before the sand storm
That's ok, now they can say they stepped foot into a pyramid, and unlike the Giza site, entrance inside the Dashur site was included in the admission charge.Finally we got back to our hotel. It was only 2:30pm, but it felt like it should have been 10:00pm because of the very full day we'd had and our very early start. All four of us dropped into our beds and zonked out for hours. As I write this, Blink Blink and Click are still sleeping and I'm not sure if we're getting any food tonight or just continuing to sleep. Lying in a bed not moving my sore muscles sounds kind of good, but my stomach might need something more in it than a protein bar today. I'll keep you posted about whether they choose food or sleep for the rest of the night.
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UPDATE! Wreath of Roses and Blink Blink got up but decided not to range out to get food. They'd brought some munchies with them in their baggage. Click woke up and was hungry, so she and I braved the street (crossing the road is crazy!) and made it to Egyptian Pizza Hut. It was great! We had a veggie pizza (first American fast food I've had in two months), salad, and sodas, all for a very reasonable price in Egyptian pounds. Even better, the waiters were extremely nice. They all wanted to talk to us in English, and we told them how much we're enjoying Egypt. One of the waiters played brain teaser games with us. I feel greatly revived now, ready to relax tonight and jump into our next adventure tomorrow.
