Starter Pyramids

The same evening we returned from the desert, our long awaited travel companions arrived in Cairo.
Yes, folks... you have waited many weeks... introducing, from the Island of Jersey, the Oakleys, Helen and Ryan, and the crowd goes wild...

Of course, everyone knows of the famous Great Pyramids of Giza, the last of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World still in existance. But the Egyptians didn't just crank out these masterpeices straight out of the sand... they had a few test run.

Ryan, Helen, Heather and I spent the first half of the first day visiting the "starter" pyramids of Dashsur and Saqquara.

The Red Pyramid of Dashsur served as a template for the first of the Great Pyramids...

This pyramid is off the beaten track and almost no tourists visit, so we had the place completely to ourselves. The tomb is open and tourist can go all the way inside, deep into the burial chamber, which is accessed by a 165 meter tunnel straight down underneath the base.
This is a shot of the entrance half way down, just as I started to hyper ventilate as my mind raced with exactly how much sand and stone was directly above me...

There were 3 separate chambers. This was the bottom of the last one where the sarcophagus was found, (unfortunately everything was stolen by grave robbers centuries ago).

Heather and I squeezing through an antechamber...

It was very difficult to capture the scale within the chambers. The roof of the first chamber rose 15 meters above.

Pharoh Imotep II was buried at another starter pyramid, the Step Pyramid at Saqquara. There was a small museum where we were able to take a few pictures of the amazing relics found inside, (pictures are not allow in almost all other museums through out Egypt).
Statue of a royal scribe found within the tomb...

5000 years old, and his skin looks better than most of the orange beach bums on the SoCal beaches...

Baby "stepping" their way to the Great Pyramid... Step Pyramid at Saqquara

The city of Cairo should be clearly seen in the distance, but unfortunately, it is now the most polluted city in the world, therefore all that can be seen, is a smokey haze. I have the black lung to prove it...