Sakkara and the Egyptian Museum

At one time, there were two kingdoms along the Nile where Egypt has now been established for over 5000 years.  

Rather illogically, Upper Egypt was in the south, and Lower Egypt was in the north, because "Upper" and "Lower" refer to the downward slope of the Nile River flowing north to the Mediterranean Sea.

By conquering Lower Egypt through military conquest, King Narmer of Upper Egypt became the first Pharaoh of a united Egypt in about 3100 BC.

This united Egypt was a strip of fertile land along the Nile River flowing into the Mediterranean Sea,  flanked to the east and west by miles of desert sand.  From the south, cataracts in the river and more vast Sahara desert further protected Egypt from encroachment by would-be invaders in an era before the wheel.

The location meant that for more than a thousand years, Egyptians were relatively isolated from invasion by foreign powers, giving security to develop an advanced civilization.

Annually, the Nile rises, flooding the riverbanks to deposit fertile black soil.

As such, almost all Egyptians have lived off the agricultural bounty made possible by the Nile, while most of the desert has remained sparsely populated.

Narmer oversaw development of irrigation canals to bring water to grow crops a mile or two further out from the river on each side, widening the fertile strip of fertile soil to make previously barren dry dirt into lush farmland.  This development expanded Egypt's production dramatically.

Egyptians could now grow more crops than they could consume, and surplus is always a key to prosperity.  For several millennia, with water and alluvial deposits combined with plentiful sunshine, Egypt would be a major breadbasket for the world.

Trade would not be the only generator of prosperity for Egypt.

Specialization of labor meant that human capital could be trained to become soldiers to make up a standing army of thousands.

This army could then invade other countries and bring back the spoils of victory.

Egypt became rich under Narmer, and with wealth, it was possible to pursue more frivolous activities than just scratching out meager livings and dodging death by starvation or some other privation. 

With obvious pride, Pharaoh Narmer's deeds of conquering enemies were recorded in a large slate palette.  The Narmer Palette is almost two feet tall and shaped like a shield.  

According to Professor Bob Brier in Great Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, Narmer's Palette is the world's oldest surviving written history, making everything before it pre-historic.  It's not exactly a detailed story, for the most part simply showing Narmer as a larger than life character who smote his enemies.  The general understanding is that Narmer's height relative to his enemies and supporters is tribute to his vaunted status.

By the way, the word palette is the same word we understand as an artist's palette, but back in ancient Egypt, it was a makeup palette.  Apparently Narmer wore black makeup around his eyes in the same way that football players sometimes blacken the area below eyes to decrease sun glare.  Perhaps it also is an indication that prosperity brought by Narmer's victories increased vanity of Egyptians. 

We saw Narmer's Palette at the Egyptian Museum during our Viator Tour to Sakkara (Saqqara) and the Egyptian Museum on our first full day in Egypt.

Narmer started a tradition of Pharaohs leading their armies into military victories and garnering great wealth for Egypt.

While Pharaohs were considered gods, they nonetheless all died like humans, and Narmer was succeeded by another Pharaoh, and then another...

About three hundred years later, Djoser (Zoser) became Pharaoh.

Between he and his vizier Imhotep, the idea arose to make an aggrandized grave for Pharaoh Djoser.

In the dry heat of the Sahara, burying a body in the sand resulted in a natural mummification.  As Professor Brier noted, a dried strawberry in your cereal is essentially a mummified piece of fruit, with moisture removed eventually replaced when you cover it with milk in your bowl.

Ancient Egyptians royals prepared for the next life by mummifying the body, which they called the Khat which housed the constituent elements considered to make up a human soul.

The Ren was the true name given at birth, known to God and different from the nicknames by which known by the world.

As long as the Ren survived, there was the possibility of the soul to keep surviving.  

Ba was personality, or basically all those unique traits and quirks that make us who we are.  Ka was the vital essence, the spark differentiating life from death.

Ach was basically an amalgam of Ba and Ka, making the immortal self.  I would think Ren must be a part of that.

Ib was the heart, which Egyptians considered to contain emotion, thought, intention, wisdom, intelligence and memory.  They considered Ib to be the seat of the soul, and so received its own mummification after being removed with other organs as part of mummifying the cadaver.

Shuyet was the literal shadow following us through life on earth, which Egyptians considered somehow part of the soul, believed somehow related to death.

Sahu was the judge, which was said to haunt the body about others wronged in death.

Sekhem was the soul's life energy, residing not in the body but in the stars and surroundings.

Egyptians believed in resurrection of the soul in the afterlife, not reincarnation.

Before the pyramids, Egyptians covered graves with stones.  A mastaba upgrades that with slanting mudbrick walls on the sides covered by a slab which gave the appearance of a bench.

Djoser and Imhotep upgraded the materials of mastabas to stone brick walls instead of mud. Imhotep is usually credited as Djoser's architect, as presumably Djoser was busy winning wars.  

Imhotep had the bright idea of stacking one mastaba on top of another, gradually decreasing in size of the mastabas as a stone structure grew to six stories, creating the world's first pyramid.  

A large standing army not engaged in conquering new lands could be martialed into building major public works projects, an asset that Pharaohs would exploit for thousands of years.

Djoser's Pyramid was by far the tallest building in Egypt and probably the world, rising to 205 feet tall and towering more than 20 times as high as the tallest mud huts in the area.  

The sides were not flat like flat plane triangles on this "Step Pyramid" of Djoser.  There are six distinct levels, or steps.

Pharaoh Sneferu later taught Egyptians how to build proper pyramids as we tend to expect them, without jagged sides, although as we would see the Pyramids of Giza the next day,  most of the stone facing material that made walls fat was purloined to be repurposed by builders on "new construction over thousands of years.

Under Pharaoh Sneferu, a style of art began that would span the balance of the age of Egyptian Pharaohs --- over 2,500 years!

When you see this artwork, which we would encounter throughout the trip, you are drawn in by the clean lines and geometric proportions, which experts say were made possible by drawing this art on a grid which would be erased when the art was done

Egyptian Motifs were established for the ages.

We saw Narmer's Palette, hieroglyphics, art and more at the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities during our Viator Tour to Sakkara (Saqqara) and the Egyptian Museum.

After touring Djoser's Pyramid directed by our guide Shaimaa, we would head over to the magnificent Egyptian Museum.

Many treasures from the ages of the Pharaohs are on display, but many others have been carted off to England and other far flung areas.  We learned later in the tour that now more Egyptian obelisks in Rome than in Egypt.

Among the exhibits at the Egyptian Museum are the famed treasures of King Tut, including the easily recognizable gold death mask studded with jewels, but photos are forbidden in that room.

King Tut, incidentally, is probably the only Pharaoh whose name is well-known by modern-day Americans.  To a great extent, my parents' generation knew of him because his tomb was discovered with international acclaim 101 years ago, in November of 1922.

For my generation, King Tut is famous probably not so much because his treasures were sent out on a world tour, again to great acclaim, but rather because comedic star Steve Martin took an interest in the subject and wrote a very heavy, archaeologically-savvy song about the Egyptian Boy King. If you haven't heard this modern treasure, it is linked here.

Ironically, the successor to King Tut sought to wipe Tut and his father from history, but that is what made Tut the most famous Pharaoh of all.

Tut's tomb was the only one found in tact, because his successor Ay sought to erase him from history after he likely murdered the boy king.  Ay married Tut's widow to claim the position of Pharaoh.  Ay probably killed Tut's widow once he had the title he craved, because she also disappeared from history, though she might have just faded from view, overshadowed by Ay's preferred wife, but it is all conjecture at this point.

Long story short, King Tut's father Akhenaten was a heretic, deciding to change Egypt from being a polytheistic country worshiping many gods to worshipping only Ra, the sun god.

More unforgivable for a Pharaoh, Akhenaten decided to live his entire life in a new city which he would never leave, which meant he would not lead the army to conquer other lands and bring back booty, one of a Pharaoh's main duties.  It's unknown if this "sacrilege" offended Ay as priest and vizier  or if it came down to a game of thrones for other selfish reasons, but Ay did his best to relegate Pharaoh Akhenaten and his son to obscurity after usurping the throne.

When grave robbers plundered Egyptian tombs over the centuries, they couldn't find Tut's tomb, because he was no longer remembered by history.

Further proof of the thorough erasure of Tut's life comes in the fact that mummies of Pharaohs were retrieved by the Egyptian government to save them from plunder, and Tut was still in his tomb.

While we did not see Tut's mummy, we saw other mummies at the museum, including Yuya and Thuya, a husband and wife.  They were not Pharaohs, but their daughter was Queen Tiye, making them the grandparents of Pharaoh Akhenaten, who was King Tut's father.  

The degree of preservation with proper mummification is amazing, including human hair.

Animals were also mummified, and we saw several of them on exhibit.

Our guide Shaimaa gave us plenty of time to see whatever we wanted in the museum, providing brief descriptions of many highlights as she directed us through.

In fact, Julie would probably say she gave us too much time, but it was awesome.

The prior day, Laszlo and I had surmised we might stay longer and walk back to our hotel, but we felt like we had seen it all and were also ready to leave at the conclusion of our guided tour.  Just as well, because by late afternoon it felt like a pizza oven in Cairo.  Perhaps that explains how the Marriott served Julie and me a personal pizza so quickly to accompany wine in the lobby bar.

I should mention the roads to Saqqara and back were educational in their own way.  We counted one traffic light during our voyage which had our mini-van ably steered through seemingly untenable situation by our driver named Mohammed (like several other drivers we had).  Lanes were suggestions at best, including lanes dividing us from oncoming traffic, which I never became accustomed to experiencing throughout our vacation.

Motorcycles would cut between two buses as they merges and somehow avoid being hit.  Old wooden carts pulled by donkeys would suddenly emerge from sides streets into traffic, often turning to go against traffic on what was essentially a freeway.

Vans would stop in the middle of the road to let out Muslim worshippers going to a mosque on the opposite side of the street from their door.

It was madness --- pure chaos --- and yet we never saw an accident.  Our able driver made heavy downtown traffic in Cairo seem easy by comparison as he drove us back safely to the Marriott.

We were happy to return to our Oasis sanctuary to settle in for another relaxing evening similar to our first one in Cairo.