Sweden, awwwwwww!

We had a meeting with the global account managers and one of our country President for the respective account i'm currently working with, early February. The aim was to strategise how we're gonna handle an upcoming biggie with a customer. It was a good experiance for me, to see how meetings with CEO's and CTO's are handled, in a technical & comercial point of view. A small shrimp, in a big frying pan!
Me and Ehab, my team-ie from cairo (Above). Sweden is AWSOME and i must say that is an understatement. No doubt the weather was cold like crazy, i fell in love with the country within a few days being there. There is so much calm and peace everywhere. It was my first time touching snow, was so funny! Let the picture do the talking now!!

Giza sound & light show

I'm back, finally!. I found some little time to edit some of the images i took during the Giza sound and light show that happens almost daily after 6pm at the Giza pyramids @ 60 Egyption pounds. It's really amazing how these ancient monuments transform into something so lively when you shine some colourfull light on it, togather with some music and story telling. In order to capture these pictures, i needed to use slow shutter and i didnt have a long stand. I had a mini tripod which i mounted on top of my school bag (placed on my lap) and tried to shoot as steady as possible.
My hands were shivering, freezing cold. So you get one of those overexposed images like above.

Khufu & Khafre's pyramids with light shining on them. Finally, one with blue shades below!

Pyramids of Giza Demistified!

In the afternoon of our Pyramids tour day, we did the Giza. This is the pyramids i see everyday when i go to work. It's magnificant, just in the fringe of cairo. It's amazing to suddenly see a pyramid and vast dessert sitting side by side a city.

The largest of the pyramids at Giza is that of King Khufu (The one above), or Cheops (2589-2566 BC). To the right of the pyramid is a modern structure protecting a solar-boat (Building in white colour), one of several wooden boats that were buried next to each pyramid in pits. The boats were either the boats on which the king’s body reached the pyramid, or they were there in case the king needed them in his journey through the next world. On of these boats were salvaged from the "boat toomb" and is in a boat museum, picture given below.

This is the chalengging track going into the pyramid of Khafre (Picture not by me). Inside this insame track is Khafre's burial chamber (Sarchofagus). We were not allowed to go into Khufu's chamber, closed for now i guess.

Before going further, one should first look at the entire Giza area and see the layout. Based on that you can match the pictures, which i will label a,b,c,d.

a. Pyramid of Khufub.
b. Pyramid of Khafre.
c. Pyramid of Menkaured.
d. Khufu Satellite Pyramidse.
g.Khafre Pyramid Templeh.
h.Khafre Causewayi.
i. The Great Sphynxj.
k.Khafre Valley Templel.
l.Pyramid Khentkawesm.
m.Khafre Satellite Pyramidn.
n.Khafre quarry markso.
o.Menkaure Satellite Pyramidsp.

The following picture is the pyramid of khafre. The pyramid of Khafre still retains the original limestone cover which once covered the pyramid making them into towers of gleaming white on which the sun-god Ra must have reflected his glory. Also, as you can notice, me and my fellow tour mates, Diana and Hennah on our faithfull camels, Mosses, banana & whiskas friskas.

The following picture is yet another of both the biggest and 2nd biggest pyramids in the world (Khufu's & Khafre's pyramids). FYI, there are 9 pyramids in Giza.

The picture below is the pyramids of Menkaure with 3 sattelite pyramids of Menkaure, i cant seem to recollect what the Sat. Pyramids are, if i'm not i mistaken its for the queens.

This is the ancient boat used to carry the King Khafre on the nile river to the toomb here on the pyramids! The found it in the burial chamber below (picture linked to external site). Dug it up and put it back togather to form the above boat. Amazing to know this pieces of wood lasted 1000 over years.

The following picture i think is labelled as 's' in the above picture, which is the central mastaba field. Mastaba is pretty much like graveyard, and if i'm not mistaken this was for either the nobles or the craftsman that built the pyramids.

So, if you have been following the plan, we will be reaching the valley temple of khafre next, where the king's body will be prepared for mummification. Beofre that, more picture of us on the camel and our camel guide on the phone :) . What an irony, pyramids, dessert, camels PLUS MOBILE PHONES! Thanks to vodaphone, and their network supplier ERICSSON :D.

I'm skipping the valley temple pics, borin :). Now for the dessert, here's Mr Sphynx. I never really got a good shot at it, due to the crowd around the platform.

The below picture was taken from inside Pizza hut, which is right opposite Sphynx, again, what an irony of old meet new. as you can see from this picture, there is a platform beside the Sphynx which is actual "h" in the above picture, khafre causeway, to take the mummified body from the valley temple to the toomb beneath the pyramid.

Finally, a sunset picture. This was taken outside the Giza complex, infront of pizza hut. You see the Sphynx, cuaseway, Khafre's pyramid and Khufu's on the back.

COMING SOON: SOUND AND LIGHT SHOW @ GIZA

King Djoser's Step Pyramid

This area is centered around the step pyramid complex of Netjerykhet Djoser. The step pyramid is the first pyramid in Egypt and the first large stone structure in the world. The area is very large and contains many very ancient and important sites. In the west we have the beautiful mastabas of Ti and Ptah-hotep. Nearby is also is the Serapeum, the bull catacombs. Near the northeast corner of the Djoser's complex is the 5th dynasty pyramid of Userkaf. On the southwest of the Djoser complex is the very important 5th dynasty pyramid of Unas. It is here that are found the oldest religious texts in the world. Around the causeway of Unas are some quite beautiful mastabas including that of Niankh-Khum and Khum-hotep (the twins) and Irukaptah (the butchers' tomb). See the map for details. I have numbered certain areas to match the pictures taken. The above picture is from angle number 3.

Also near the causeway are the boat pits of Unas. 400 hundred meters to the southwest is the 3rd dynasty unfinished pyramid of Horus Sekhemkhet and further west into the desert in the large rectangle which the locals call Gisr-el Mudir. Just south of the causeway into the desert are the New Kingdom Tombs of Horemheb and Maya. South into the desert near the entrance is the 4th century Monastery of St. Jeremy. And near the ticket office is the newly reconstructed valley temple of Unas.

The following picture is of the entrance to the ancient kingdom, which is No 1 in the above map.

The following picture below is from direction no 2, which is pretty much the court complex where King Djoser meets witht he nobles and confirms his position as King. He will tell everyone "I AM THE KING, IS THERE ANYONE THER TO CHALENGGE ME?" and everyone probably said NO :D hehehehehe..then he proceeds to change his cloths further behind this complex, gets clensed byt he nobel priest before proceeding with the royal ceremonies!

Another bigger view of the side of the kingdom.
The following picture is taken from direction no 4 from the map.

Finally this is the outside view of the entrance tot his kingdom. If you look at the map, picture no 1 is the inner part of entrance. The below picture is the outer part of the entrance.

The enclosure wall with a palace face motif, reconstructed, here viewed from the southeast is some 10.5m tall (20 cubits). It is 1645m long (545m N to S and 277m E to W). There are 14 gates 13 of which are false, there being one true entrance to the complex. The recesses in the stone enclosure were hand carved after the masonry was laid, an enormous task. There were 1680 recesses, each panel is more than 9m tall. The wall is built of fine Tura white limestone.

Part 2:Memphis & Sakkara demistified!

The above picture is actually of a pyramid Teti. This pyramid is almost gone, but the chamber and toomb beneath it is still in tact. The passage is a narrow 1 meter by 1meter chamber that is almost 45degrees inclining downwards. It was quite an experiance going down and looking at the chamber. If you suffer from shortness of breath, tight space phobia or are just plane huge, dont try any of the chambers in any pyramids! Here's a map of the area. Above is Teti's pyramid.
To the north of the pyramid of Teti is the mastaba's (toombs/burial chamberf) of of Mereruka,
Kagemni, Ankmahor. The mastaba is usually the base of a pyramid, it houses the burial chamber and toomb. A pyramid is usually built on top of it. We could only visit Mereruka's mastaba. He probably didnt idolize pyramids then, hence doesnt have his own pyramid!

Right Side view of the Tomb of kagemni:
It is the largest tomb in Sakkara, it was built for Mereruka and his family and today considered as the largest tomb in the southern Sakkara, it consists of 32 rooms.The tomb was discovered at 1893, it is located 20 meters to the north of the pyramid of king Titi. The tom goes back to the time of 6 dynasties (2240 BC).

The tomb is divided into sections where he and his wife and son are buried. The walls of the tomb are decorated with marvellous daily life scenes illustrating the daily life in Ancient Egypt. It is full of many details of Mereruka with his family and servants.

Left angle of the toomb for mereruka. The below picture is the entrance of the mastaba for Mereruka. The other 2 mastaba's are not open for tourist. You are also not allowed take pictures inside for fear of the camera flash spoiling the nice drawings.

Therevery first few pyramids that were "trials" are also around the sakkara kingdom and we'll see them in the next episode.

Part 1:Memphis & Sakkara demistified!

This is the first of my serious of my travelogues, to share my travel experiences in Egypt. There are various areas of interest in Egypt that a tourist would want to visit and they are scattered around. Typically one would spend 2 days in Cairo, 3 the most. While in Cairo, the typical tours you might get hitched on is the following:

A full day to tour of the ancient city of Memphis and kingdom of sakkara, where you find one of the oldest cities noted to date. Then in Sakkara, you visit the famous step pyramids and the mastaba’s. Not to mention the kingdom of sakkara. The in the afternoon, you’ll probably spend the entire time at the Pyramid’s of giza, which is actually in the vicinity of cairo city itself. You probably end the day with the sound and light show at the pyramids itself. This is exactly what I did on my first tour.

The tour set me back 750LE’s, approx RM 500 for everything, the tour, an Egyptologist guide, food, camel ride, entrance fees etc. It was a little pricy but it was worth every penny. As I was a lone, I told my tour operator to hook me up with a group as it would be odd to go around alone with a guide.

I was lucky enough to be a paired with 2 lovely ladies from Briton, Diana and Hennah. Both are British born Chinese and we seem to be of the same wavelength, so it was fun. Here’s some pictures to start off the part 1 of this travelogue.

For some of the pictures, I haven’t put any explanation yet, cant remember everything lah. We started the morning early, at 6am, left to Memphis and sakkara which is about 30KM away from cairo. We stopped at Memphis site first. There isn’t much of the city left, only artifacts that were found through excavation work and these were collected and placed in this outdoor museum like place!

This is called a cartouche, which is pretty much a rubber stamp of the Kings ID. The hieroglyphics on the cartouche means something and every king in the ancient world had one. It was reported that whena new king took over, he went around statues of previous kings to erase their cartouche, to make the present king look supreme.

Also, Mummies, artifacts and statues are identified using these. The above cartouche if I’m not mistaken belongs to The great King Ramses II.

The picture above and the following one shows a statue which is believed to be of King Tuthunkamen or the famous King Tut that we hear about in NGC. The status does not have any cartouche on it, but they believe it’s of King Tut because of the baby face of the statue. King tut died young, ruled only for a few of his teen years.

The below picture is a typical example of a tomb cover. This one is built using pink granite, which is removed off another far out state called Aswan, the only palce you find pink Granite in Egypt. It is moved to Memphis, through the Nile, which was the heart of the ancient civilization.

This is just the cover, inside it is hollow and it will be slid ontop of another granite piece. Inside that granite piece lies the mummified body. The coffin will then be placed in what’s called the sarcophagus, which in lay man terms is a BIGGER COFFIN made out of solid rock!

Below if a picture of a statue that was in Memphis, I cant remember who’s it was, could be Ramses II. Ramses II ruled for 76 years, had tons of wife’s and even married 2 of his own daughters, what a bloody pervert!

That is the brief end of what we saw in Memphis. There are more pics, but I wont put them all here, not fun lah. Plus there is so much to know about Memphis which I cant recollect, it was just awesome. There is still a huge part of Memphis which is still underground, below a squatters which houses over 500000 families. Who knows what lies under that. The Egyptin government cant seem to move these people out. The more the government waits, the more artifacts that may be stolen by those living above the ancient city.

Around 10 am, we left for Sakkara, which is supposed to be the biggest archeological kingdom every excavated. It also houses the famous step pyramid of King Djooser of the Middle kingdom(I think it’s middle). See part 2 above for details on sakkara!