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A Few Egyptian Firsts Egypt, Part 12
(by Patti Day-Miller - August 23, 2010)
This was to be our last day in Egypt, and our guide said hed saved the best for last. We were off to visit the site of the oldest capital of ancient Egypt and then to its important necropolis nearby, considered one of the richest archaeological sites in Egypt. (I was pleased that we had no 4 or 5 a.m. wake-up call that day and werent scheduled to leave the hotel until 8 a.m.)
Memphis, the oldest capital of Egypt is thought to have been founded about 3100 BC by King Narmer (also called Menes), the ruler responsible for uniting Upper and Lower Egypt. (In Part 11, I spoke about the importance of the double-sided Narmer Palette.) Situated symbolically at the head of the Nile Delta, on the spot where Upper and Lower Egypt meet, this once majestic city controlled important overland and river routes. It was the capital during most of the Pharaonic period. Memphis (whose name means established and beautiful) was still important well into the Ptolemaic era. (In the 5th century AD, the historian Herodotus described it as a prosperous city and cosmopolitan centre.)
Now, however, little remains of Memphis. The city has almost completely vanished. Its palaces and temples were torn down and pillaged by foreign invaders, and the ruins were then buried under the alluvial mud deposited by the annual flooding of the Nile. Palm groves, fields of crops, and small villages now cover most of the site of this once impressive city.
There is a small, open-air museum in the village of Mit Rahina. There one views a colossal limestone statue of Ramses II, which lies in a viewing pavilion. (The statues twin will grace the new Egyptian museum being built in Giza.) In the garden, there are more statues of Ramses and an 18th dynasty sphinx, weighing 80 tons. In the sculpture garden are the huge travertine beds on which the sacred Apis bulls were mummified before being placed in the necropolis at Saqqara.
Then it was off to nearby Saqqara, the huge cemetery (four miles long and one mile wide) of ancient Memphis, which was an active burial ground for more than 3500 years. Old Kingdom pharaohs were buried in the 11 major pyramids, and their subjects and sacred animals were buried in the hundreds of smaller tombs found here. Most of Saqqara was buried under sand until being discovered in the mid-19th century by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (you may remember that he founded the Egyptian Museum in Cairo), and it was in 1924 that Djosers Step Pyramid was discovered. French architect Jean-Philippe Lauer began work on the Step Pyramid in 1926 and was involved in its restoration for 75 years until his death in 2001.
The centerpiece of the Saqqara necropolis is the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the prototype for all other pyramids. It was built for 3rd-Dynasty King Djoser by his architect, the high priest Imhotep in the 27th century BC! The pyramid marked a huge leap forward in the history of world architecture. (This is why our guide Ibrihim said he saved the best for last.) Until then, royal tombs had been underground rooms covered with low, flat, mud-brick mastabas. Imhotep chose to use stone, rather than the mud-brick, and to built not just one mastaba, but six, one on top of the other.
The vast enclosure (a 34 ft. high limestone wall) surrounding the step pyramid marked yet another major achievement. (The entire complex included vast open courts, pavilions, shrines and chapels.) A part of the ancient wall has been restored and provides the entrance to the enclosure. A colonaded corridor of 40 pillars, ribbed in the likeness of palm stems leads into the Great South Court, where one can see a frieze of cobras on part of the restored wall.
It was in this Great South Court that the Heb-Sed (Jubilee) Festival was held every seven years when the pharaoh ran the course to renew his vitality, one of many rituals of this important festival. North of the Heb-Sed Court are the House of the North and the House of the South, symbolizing the unity of the country. The column capitals are decorated with the papyrus of the north and the lotus of the south.
A stone structure right in front of the pyramid, the Serdab contains a wooden box with two holes drilled into it. When one looks through there, one has the eerie surprise of coming face to face with Djoser himself, for inside is a near life-size, painted statue of the long-dead king. (This is actually a copy, since the original is in Cairos Egyptian Museum.)
Though I didnt get this far, directly north of the funerary complex of Djoser, is the Mastaba of Ti (discovered in 1865), which currently is the most detailed private tomb found at Saqqara and one of the main sources of knowledge about life in Old Kingdom Egypt. Ti & his wife appear throughout the tomb in reliefs alongside scenes of daily life—men and women working on the land, preparing food, fishing, building boats, dancing, trading, etc.—accompanied by talkative hieroglyphic. (Hurry up the herdsmans coming! and Dont make so much noise! among others.)
In this huge necropolis are many other tombs and pyramids, but many are closed to the public, including the Pyramid of Unas. But I want to mention it because of its importance. Built only 300 years after the Step Pyramid, its interior marked the beginning of a significant development in funerary practices. For the first time, the royal burial chamber was decorated. Its ceiling was adorned with stars and its while alabaster-lined walls inscribed with beautiful blue hieroglyphs. These inscriptions, now known as the Pyramid Texts, comprise 283 ‘spells chosen by Unas to protect his soul.
Another site that is closed here, but I think worth mentioning is the Serapeum, the burial chamber of the sacred Apis bulls. It houses 25 giant sarcophagi, weighing up to 70 tons each. These bulls were seen as the incarnation of Ptah, god of Memphis, and were attended by the priests. (These bulls were thought to have been born to a cow, who was struck by lightning from heaven. Once divinely impregnated, the cow could never again give birth, and her calf was worshipped as a a god.) When one died, it was mummified on one of the large travertine slabs we viewed at Memphis, and then a huge ceremony followed as it was moved from Memphis and placed in a huge, stone sarcophagus at Saqqara. The first Apis burial took place between 1390-1352 BC, and the practice continued until 30 BC.
Our time was soon up at Saqqara, and we were bused back to our hotel in Giza. We agreed to meet Jessie and Ryan shortly thereafter for lunch, and the four of us walked to Felfela, the restaurant we were looking for the evening wed visited the Mena House. We had wonderful, Egyptian dishes, which we shared with each other. I wish I had asked for a menu because I cant remember the name of a single dish, and I enjoyed them all. I am pleased, though, that Jessie took a photo of what a Coca Cola bottle looks like in Egypt!
I cant wait to tell you in Part 13 of our last night in Egypt, when, for a time, I thought my husband and our two new friends might never speak to me again …
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