Lots of pyramids, but not the big ones

NOV. 6 -- We all made it in one piece and met up with our guide, Rasha, this morning. She's a very beautiful Egyptian woman who has not only an undergrad degree but a graduate degree as well in "tour guiding." Fortunately, she seems extremely knowledgeable about all things Egyptian.

We started out at Saqqara, where the oldest pyramid in the country was built. Called the Step Pyramid, it's just that, with about five or six levels. We couldn't go inside, but we did climb inside Teti's pyramid, with a long three-foot high "staircase" that slopes down to the room that once held her tomb. The ceiling is covered with carved stars to represent a starry sky and the walls are covered with hieroglyphs. That just can't be spelled right. Nearby was a tomb of a scribe for one of the pharoahs, and it was just fascinating; walls covered with stories of everyday life as well as the voyage to the afterworld. Saqqara is also the home of many carpet factories, where children start as young as 9 to become carpet makers. They just watch for three years and then get to take a shot at it.

Dahshour is nearby, home of the red pyramid and the bent pyramid (a mistake), which can only be viewed from afar. The bent pyramid was constructed incorrectly, so the top began to collapse inward. Thus its odd shape. Ken and Karen went inside the red pyramid -- they bent over to descend through a very long tunnel into the very hot and humid tomb itself.

Then off to Memphis, an ancient capital that now houses a museum with all kinds of Ramses memorabilia, including a giant, and I mean giant, statue of him lying on its side. It was constructed of one piece of limestone, which kind of boggles the mind because it's so huge.

When we arrived last night, we were met by Ramadan (that's really his name) and set out on the new "Ring Road" that circles Cairo, a city of 25 million. The Ring Road was built to circle Cairo, but because the city is expanding so rapidly (a baby is born every 10 seconds!), much of the road wound up being elevated. The road doesn't quite contain the city. Cairo was quite lively for the middle of the night -- lots of traffic, men fishing in the Nile, buses loaded to overflowing (they leave a door open, I guess to keep it somewhat cool). There's a good deal of new construction, but it's a little hard to know if a building is completed. In order to avoid taxes, they just never finish them off. If a building has windows, it's open for business.

New cars whiz by donkeys loaded down with dead palm fronds, herds of sheep wander along the road (they're headed for slaughter in a couple of weeks in celebration of some holiday) and we saw a few camels and water buffalo as well. The valley along the Nile is covered with acres and acres of date-bearing palm trees, cabbages and corn grow on local farms, and debris is everywhere. It's a pretty good mix of old and new, clean and dirty, broken and working. The smog is indescribable. Although the pyramids are basically across the street and can be seen from our balcony, they're only visible through a terrible haze.