When Meredith was visiting we took a day trip to Saqqara and the Red Pyramid.  Here are some shots from the car.

Yep, that’s a truck full of eggs.

After driving through agricultural areas and more small towns lining a canal, and going through vast, dense forests of date palms, the lush greenery abruptly ended and all of a sudden we were in the desert.

The step pyramid at Saqqara is the oldest stone pyramid in the world.  Meredith and I really enjoyed the tremendously informative museum at the site.  It pointed out interesting details that I might not have even considered, such as the oldest stone frieze known to man and the oldest stone ceiling.  It was incredible and I enjoyed being able to see things like pottery and jewelry on site, rather than seeing everything from everywhere all together at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It was also a great refresher on some of the basic iconography.

Here are some photos from our visit…

This is the tomb of Inerft.

This is the tomb of Unas Ankh.

And here it is — the oldest stone frieze known to man.  And there’s Meredith, pondering its ancient glory.

Here is a detail of the cobra frieze.

There are many tombs surrounding the step pyramid.  Here is the entrance to one that is below ground level.

This painted relief depicts the slaughtering of a bull.

And these next three photos are from a small, enclosed stone structure that was next to the step pyramid.  It had two holes on the front of it.

Peering inside, you could see that there were statues inside.  Neat!

The entrance to the pyramid entails walking down some steps with the aid of a guide.  The actual entrance is closed.  Looks kind of forbidding…

After visiting Saqqara we went to another nearby pyramid, the Red Pyramid.  On the way, we saw the Bent Pyramid.  You can see how it got its name.

It is closed to the public, so that was as much as we got to see.

This is the Red Pyramid.

The climb to the entrance was pretty exhausting, so we took a break before entering.  Everyone that came out of the pyramid was panting and completely out of breath.  Not a good sign.  But we braved our fear of long, dark, steep, slick, unending tunnels and went in.  It was long, dark, steep, slick, and seemingly unending.  Add the fragrant aroma of what Brandon informed us was bat guano, and you have one challenge for the lungs.  Fortunately there were zero bats inside.  After crawling through a scary passageway, bats are the absolute last thing I would want to see.  The chamber inside was relatively small and dimly lit, but a welcome opportunity to stand up after crouching the whole way down the entry.  After catching our breath, we embarked on the climb back up the tunnel.