February 25th - the sands of Saqqara!

We had a wonderful today today. 

We started with a very pleasant breakfast in the 139 Restaurant overlooking the ornamental pool. 

The view of the pyramids is stunning!

We were collected at 9am and taken straight to Saqqara ticket office where we picked up an Inspector to accompany us. We had no need of tickets, as we were being shown some places not open to the public. 

The off limits site is south of the Unas Causeway. The Director is Prof Ola el Aguizy of the Egyptian University and she has been excavating there for over ten years. I met here at a lecture in London last year and she invited me to visit the site. I was allowed a couple of overview phots, but that's all. That's because nothing is published yet and so it's against protocol.  

We saw some amazing temple tombs and the carvings were as though they had been done recently. I'm afraid my word for today was 'amazing' as I couldn't stop saying it!  

We spent the morning on site and actually saw a burial shaft being cleared. It was done in the old way, with the rubber trugs being lowered on rope then filled with sand and brought up to the surface, so it was as though time had stood still for centuries! 

When looking down the ancient shaft there were footholds for getting in and out of it. As we were watching this process of removing many loads of sand, something was brought out which absolutely stunned us there were two pieces of a coffin, brightly coloured and with hieroglyphs painted on them!

Prof Ola was delighted but disappointed that, yet again, there was no name. This seems to be the way with most things discovered!

Around the site were a number of stone sarcophagi brought up out of burial shafts during previous excavations. 

We were taken to the dig house where we were shown the items in the store room. There were stelae, cornices, and carved blocks. 

There was also a ceramic type of coffin being restored. There is so much work to be done here, but,as with many digs, not enough funding. It's such a shame as this site is so rich in history. 

We said our farewells and then went with the Inspector to view some tombs. 

I finally got to see the tomb of Maya, the wet nurse to Tutankhamun. It exceeded my expectation as I never realised it was so large. 

We then went to Meryneith an18th dynasty tomb and that was really well restored. Again, the art work and hieroglyphs were just brilliant. 

The strings are to provide the idea of the missing columns. Ptahemwia was next. 

We moved on to the Unas Causeway, one of my favourite places. 

It was now time to return to the hotel, our day was done!

We fought our way through the crazy Cairo traffic, passing rubbish strewn canals and roads. They look absolutely awful and nothing seems to change with the passing years. 

Having said that, there are nice sights too, like this flower stall at the side of the road. 

The VW mini buses drive around the roads with their rear engine cover open to cool it down. Goodness knows what would happen if it came into contact with someone, sticking out like that!

We got back to the hotel for around 2pm. I had some ouch then actually went out by the pool and listened to an audio book. I was so tired that I feel asleep but I woke in time for the 5pm tour. 

The hotel offers a free tour of the Montgomery and Churchill Suites in the Palace. This is where they both stayed during WW ll and many vitaldecisions were made. 

This is the Churchill Suite. 

His view from his terrace!

The Montgomery Suite. 

And his view from his terrace!

We finished the tour in the lecture room, where Zahi Hawass was about to give a talk to a tour group. There was a table laid out with his books for sale. They were basically coffee table books, but one I couldn't believe - it was US$1,500!!!! Of course it was a limited, signed edition, so that's all right then!

Later, as we walked out for dinner, I noticed that the pyramids were lit differently. We asked in the restaurant and were told that a famous singer was singing at the pyramids tonight and they were being lit that way just until midnight. There was a magnificent reflection in the pool and it looked brilliant!

So, this is our last night at the Mena House, we're leaving in the morning for a tour of the old city then off to the airport for our flight to Luxor and the Winter Palace Pavillon.