The Felucca!

A giant statue of Ramses II

The Step Pyramid

Today we toured Memphis and Sakkara! There were a LOT of things to see so we woke up at 8 am to get going on the bus. First we went to Memphis where we saw yet another open air museum and learned about how Ramses II always put his name on statues that weren't even of him (they were of previous pharoahs) so that's why he has the most statues to this day. Ancient identity theft! We also saw a gigantic statue of him taken from the Ramesseum (a temple he built) that took up a whole building. And it wasn't even the whole statue! After this we went to a museum in Sakkara with remnants of ancient tombs (Sakkara is an ancient cemetery) and then went to see the tombs of some nobles. They consist of a mastaba, which is the mound or building built over a shaft with hieroglyphs everywhere and offering tables, and then a shaft leading to a burial chamber. These shafts were so deep, we couldn't see the bottom of some! We also saw the Step Pyramid built by King Djoser who tried to build a pyramid but couldn't get it exactly right... and the huge complex around it had a temple and shrines and all sorts of interesting ruins, along with tons of stray dogs that greeted you as you stepped off of the bus.  It's the last 5 days in Egypt, I can't believe our time here is almost up! It's crazy to think about. I feel ready to go to India though. Here's some pictures from the day!

The narrow gangplank leading up from an underground tomb

Stray dogs are EVERYWHERE