Today we visited Dahshur and, Saqqara, two necropolis’s of the old kingdom. Dahshur houses some of the oldest pyramids of Egypt, which were commission in the fourth dynasty by pharaoh Sneferu around the year 2600 BCE. Dahshur is an extremely important site because it shows the trials and errors of ancient Egyptian’s transitioning from step sided pyramids to smooth sided pyramids.

Saqqara is the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis. Here is located the step pyramid complex of king Djoser, built more than 4700 years ago and consider the oldest stone structure on earth.

The original height of the pyramid of Teti is believed to be 172 feet. However, the preservation above ground is poor and now it mostly resembles a small hill. We were able to get inside to see the burial chamber and marvelous pyramid texts. These texts are dated back to 2300 BC E.

Lunch was at a restaurant near Saqqara.

We then visited a place to learn how papyrus is made. It makes really strong paper. Here is the process.

The finished weave is then pressed to make the final product.