Saqqara is about fifteen miles south
of Cairo and is an area strewn with
pyramids, temples, and other monuments. The highlight of a visit to Saqqara
is the Step Pyramid of Zoser, the first attempt ever at building a pyramid.
Also of note are the Pyramid and Causeway of Unas, the site of funerary
hieroglyphs known as Pyramid Texts, the Serapeum, where sacred Apis bulls were
entombed, and which provides an eerie walk through barely lit galleries to see
macabre sarcophagi, and the Mastaba of Ti, perhaps the grandest and most
detailed private tomb at Saqqara and one of the main sources of knowledge about
life in Old Kingdom Egypt.
Dahshur
Dahshur is about twelve and a half miles south of Saqqara.
It was originally the site of eleven pyramids, but two—the Red Pyramid and the
Bent Pyramid—remain intact. The Bent Pyramid is so called because of its change
of angle from 56 degrees to 43 degrees in the middle of building, after the
structure showed signs of stress. The Red Pyramid, built using the lessons
learned from the Bent Pyramid, is so called because of the red limestone inner
casing. Both pyramids were built by Pharaoh Sneferu, father of Khufu and
founder of the 4th dynasty.