Journal: 24 January 2011 – and onwards
On the plane home from Egypt Sam was talking about some Arabic news footage she had seen on TV about demonstrations in Cairo over the weekend. Though we didn’t know much about it at that point, it was unusual to have such large demonstrations in Egypt.
What we hadn’t realised that this was all part of a series of protests in the Arab world, partly inspired by the uprising in Tunisia that had occurred a month or so ago. These protests all across the Middle East were to become known as the ‘Arab Spring’.
The day after I returned home, on January 25th, the demonstrations in Cairo began in earnest – organized to coincide with National Police Day. I began to watch the news coverage with horrified fascination as the Cairo story unfolded – they say it was organized mainly through social media and I, for one, was getting much of the current news through facebook and twitter. Tens of thousands of protestors out on Cairo’s streets had never been seen before. Their initial intent was to demonstrate against abuses by the police and to demand the resignation of the Minister of Interior.
I was horrified and saddened by the events of Friday January 28th when the government attempted to put and end to the protests and the terrible loss of life and suffering that ensued. By this time protestors’ demands had expanded to include the restoration of a fair minimum wage, and a fixed term presidency as well as an end to Egyptian emergency law, a ‘temporary law’ that has now been in place for decades.
In the following two weeks, President Mubarak dismissed his government and appointed a new cabinet, but this didn’t satisfy the protestors who were by now like a dog that wouldn’t let go of a bone. It was hard to believe that so much violence was happening in a country so close to my heart. Finally, on 11th February, President Mubarak resigned and handed the country over to the armed forces, who had been seen to be almost in a peace-keeping role, portrayed by the media as a ‘friend of the people’. The new military rulers made many promises that went some way to satisfy protestors demands.
Now, almost eight months later, many of these promises have been broken and little progress seems to have been made in the Egyptian Revolution. I can only hope that the upcoming elections will produce a strong leader who is able to lead the Egyptian people to a better fairer future. Time will tell.
Little is known about this lady, but she is thought to have probably been the daughter of Menkaure and possibly the mother or wife of Userkaf. This monument has always fascinated me and it was good to get a closer look, even though it is not possible to get inside. There are so many tombs in this area but of course none of them are open, so we had to keep dodging the guards who often try to scam tourists into letting them show you something ‘special’. But it was nice to just wander, occasionally finding a carved block or two sticking out above the sand and trying to work out the names of who the tombs would have belonged to. There is enough to see at Giza to easily fill the whole day, if not a week, but because we were also going to Saqqara today, it was time to meet Joyce and together we all trooped down past the Sphinx again and out to a coffee shop where Abdul was waiting for us with the taxi.
It had stopped raining while we were at Giza but it had become very misty, making it hard to see all three pyramids from any one point. However, once we were on the road to Saqqara the sun came out and by the time we reached the site it was a beautiful day again. Although it hadn’t been arranged, once again Mr Faoud the antiquities inspector came around with us – perhaps he just likes our company! Having already spent three days here this week there wasn’t much that Sam and I hadn’t seen, but we started all over again with Joyce, visiting the Step Pyramid complex as well as the Unas Pyramid and mortuary temple. I was beginning to recognise every stone in the Unas Causeway as we once more walked down this spectacular route as far as the tombs at the bottom of the causeway.
My favourite, the double-tomb of Niankh-khnum and Khnumhotep, who held office during mid-Dynasty V, is in my opinion, the most beautiful and touching tomb in the Saqqara necropolis. Discovered in 1964 by Ahmed Moussa, the tomb belongs to two men who both held the titles of ‘Prophet of Re in the Sun-Temple of Niusserre, Overseer of Manicurists of the Great House’ and is unique in its depictions of the two men appearing together throughout the tomb in intimate embrace. Much has been made of these scenes and the relationship between the owners is still unclear – were they brothers, even twins, close friends, or were they gay? The tomb is popularly called the ‘Tomb of the Hairdressers’. This tomb is large, the earliest parts cut into the rock, while three more chambers with courtyards were added later and constructed with blocks of stone. It is a very complex structure, partly built beneath the Unas causeway, and seems to have been altered and enlarged several times during its construction. As well as the beautifully depicted names and titles of the owners, along with their wives and children, there are many beautifully colourful painted scenes including the traditional fishing and fowling, agriculture and the funeral procession and banquet. In several scenes on the walls and pillars here, Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep are shown in a close embrace.
After a stop at the old resthouse for coffee, Mr Faoud took us over to the area of Teti’s Pyramid. This is one of the few pyramids I really don’t mind going into because the entrance is not too steep and it doesn’t feel like it’s a long way through underground tunnels. It is also one of the few pyramids where you can see decoration, the rows of beautiful hieroglyphs that constitute parts of the Pyramid Texts seen in all later pyramids. Afterwards we went into the mastaba tomb of Mereruka, the largest of the Old Kingdom tombs at Saqqara and one that reflects his very important position during the reign of Teti in Dynasty VI. Mereruka is named as ‘Chief Justice and Vizier, Inspector of Priests and Tenants of the Pyramid of Teti’, ‘Scribe of the Divine Books’. His importance was perhaps increased by his marriage to the King’s eldest daughter, Princess Seshseshet. Mereruka’s tomb, which was first excavated in 1892 by Jaques de Morgan, is famous for its fine reliefs of many aspects of daily life and customs of the Old Kingdom. This is a very elaborate and complex mastaba of 32 chambers which is divided into three separate areas for the burials of Mereruka, his wife Seshseshet and their son Meriteti. The entrance to the complex lies on its southern side, an unusual position for tomb entrances at the time, but faces the entrance to Teti’s pyramid. There are many beautiful scenes throughout the chambers of this tomb, including famous industrial scenes depicting carpenters, sculptors and vase-makers, metal-workers and jewellers. Some of the jewellers are dwarfs, who were traditionally goldsmiths and are shown using blowpipes at a furnace to raise the temperature of the molten metal. There are also full size adults weighing, assessing and recording the precious metals. In the main hall, Mereruka’s funerary rites are traditionally depicted, his coffin transported by boat and accompanied by mourners, priests, clappers and dancers, to the tomb. There are many interesting scenes of cattle-rearing, including the force-feeding of hyenas with pieces of meat – a practice which prevented these hunting animals from eating the wild game they caught. Also in the main pillared hall, is the most startling feature of the tomb, Mereruka’s life-sized statue emerges from a deep niche set into the wall. On the southern side of the complex is the entrance into Seshseshet’s part of the tomb. This is also decorated with standard offering scenes, as well as many depictions of the princess with her small children. Seshseshet also has a false door, this time painted to represent hangings of cloth or matting and the end wall of this chamber depicts an interesting scene of the princess and her son on a lion palanquin. She is carried by female attendants and accompanied by other men and women, pet dogs and a monkey.
We walked up the track to the pyramid of Sahure and here the guard left us to wander on our own. This pyramid, the first to be built here, was constructed for the second king of Dynasty V. It stands on a little hill, far to the north of Saqqara, where Sahure’s predecessors built their monuments. Although the pyramid itself is now in fairly poor condition, the mortuary temple on the eastern side of the pyramid fared better and there are two lovely restored palm columns still surviving in the courtyard. The pink granite columns bear the names and titles of the king and depict the cobra goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet. A large granite architrave which would have supported pillars in the court, is inscribed with the cartouche of Sahure, still with some of its original green paint and can be seen lying on the ground. The mortuary temple was built from granite and basalt, which is probably why it has been preserved so well and many good-quality reliefs have been found here. The causeway too is still well-defined and leads to the valley temple which is now mostly destroyed, but we walked down to have a look anyway.
Next we walked over to the pyramids of Niuserre & Neferirkare a short distance away to the south. Neferirkare’s pyramid was the second to be built at Abusir and is the largest, dwarfing its close neighbour, the pyramid of Niuserre. There is evidence to suggest that Neferirkare’s pyramid was planned as a step pyramid and today four of the original six steps remain. At some point there was a change in design and the steps were filled with loose masonry and then converted to become a ‘true’ pyramid, enlarged and provided with a casing of red granite. We also saw remains of the King’s extensive mortuary temple on the eastern side, where an archive known as the ‘Abusir Papyri’, which documents temple administration and building work, was discovered in the 1890s. Close to Neferirkare’s pyramid, the king constructed a small pyramid for his consort Khentkawes. Once thought to be just a mastaba of an official, the Queen’s monument was only found to be what it is when the Czech expedition took a closer look in the mid 1970s and discovered the small pyramid was more complicated than it looked. The height is now only around metres, though the mortuary temple on the eastern side of the complex was once quite extensive. Khentkawes is named here as ‘King’s Wife’ (of Neferirkare) as well as ‘King’s Mother’ (of Neferefre or Niuserre).
The drive to Abu Ghurob was short, only about 1km away from the Abusir pyramids. It became a custom during Dynasty V for pharaohs to dedicate separate temples to the Heliopolitan sun-god Re, in addition to the construction of their pyramids. At Abu Ghurob there are remains of two sun-temples built by Userkhaf and Niuserre of Dynasty V, although the Abusir Papyri documents the names of six temples here. Only traces of Userkaf’s temple now remain and we spent most of our time looking around the better-preserved sun temple of Niuserre. This temple is on the eastern side of a mound once thought to be a pyramid, but is now known to be a flat-topped pyramid-shaped base of an obelisk. In the courtyard there is a large and beautiful altar, 6m in diameter, which was constructed from five blocks of sparkling white alabaster and is still in its original position. This is carved in deep relief with a circle at its centre and four ‘hotep’ symbols on the sides (the hieroglyphic sign representing ‘offerings’, ‘peace’ or ‘satisfied’). At the north-east corner of the enclosure is a series of ten large alabaster basins (nine still surviving) thought to be used in sacrificial rites, either for water or blood. There were many interesting archaeological bits and pieces at this site. As well as the large stone basins, we saw drainage channels cut into stone and a tall block with the cartouche of Niuserre. Outside the upper temple enclosure walls a boat-shaped pit lined with mudbricks can still be seen on the southern side and which is another reminder of the elements of the pyramid complex. I really loved the atmosphere at this site.
It was almost lunchtime when the taxi dropped us off near the Nile Hilton, as good an excuse as any for going into the hotel. Besides, I knew from previous visits that the museum would still be crowded with tour groups who mostly go there in the mornings. Jane hadn’t been to the Hilton before and we went to look at the posh shops in the hotel arcade, calling in at Nomad, my favourite store that sells Bedouin crafts, then Miss Egypt and the bank to change some money. We also went into the big two-story shopping mall. Many of the stores there were closed or empty, but we stopped in the cafeteria for coffee and some delicious cakes. It was hard to choose as the patisserie had some amazing confectionary that looked almost too good to eat. Back outside Jane went into a couple of stores in front of the hotel where she bought some souvenirs and then we went on to the museum. I wasn’t sure whether photographs would be allowed here now, but to my surprise they were and we didn’t even have to buy a camera ticket.
