Egypt Without a Guide: The First Pyramids at Saqqara and Dahshur

After my days in Giza, it was time to travel even further back in history. I wanted to visit the very first pyramids built in ancient Egypt, and my destination was Saqqara. To get there, I had to make one of my usual exceptions and take a taxi. The journey took about thirty minutes.

Nassimah Lodge

I am not one of those travel bloggers who are sponsored left, right, and centre, so I pay for all my own accommodation. For that reason, I normally avoid making recommendations. However, this time I will make an exception.

In Saqqara, I found this eco-friendly oasis just a short walk from the entrance to the Saqqara Necropolis.

I stayed here for three nights, and the guesthouse was wonderfully secluded, surrounded by a beautiful garden, a swimming pool, and a sun terrace. Most importantly, the owner, Nadia, did the cooking herself, and the food was absolutely fantastic. It is not the easiest place to find, but I can recommend it without hesitation.

The Saqqara Necropolis

This was the real reason I had come to the area.

In my opinion, Saqqara is every bit as important as the pyramids of Giza, yet it is often overlooked by the larger tour companies. Once again, staying nearby made it easy to arrive early in the morning.

Here you will find the oldest complete stone monument in history: the Pyramid of Djoser, better known as the Step Pyramid.

The site is enormous, and most visitors never explore all of it. With enough time, however, it is entirely possible to walk through much of the complex. There are many pyramids scattered across the necropolis, but I will focus on only two of them here.

The first is, of course, the Step Pyramid itself.

I never manage to remember all the names, dynasties, and dates associated with the various pyramids. If you are interested in those details, you can easily find them elsewhere. Personally, I prefer to absorb the atmosphere and appreciate the sheer scale of what I am seeing.

At Giza, visitors can enter only one pyramid. I knew there was little to see inside and that queues were often long, so I skipped it.

The Pyramid of Djoser was a completely different experience.

There were no queues, and a modern corridor provides easy access into the centre of the pyramid. There, you can look down into an astonishingly deep shaft leading towards the burial chamber below. Standing at the edge, you can almost feel the pull of the abyss.

Just beside the Step Pyramid stands the Pyramid of Unas.

From the outside, it looks little more than a collapsed pile of stones. Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Inside, you will find some of the most remarkable decoration imaginable. Do not let the exterior fool you—this was one of the highlights of the entire site.

There was far more to see throughout Saqqara than I could possibly cover here, but perhaps my greatest surprise was the Serapeum of Saqqara.

This was an ancient burial site for sacred Apis bulls. A whole religious cult developed around these animals, and they received elaborate ceremonial burials. Deep underground, long corridors stretch into the darkness, lined with enormous stone sarcophagi, some of them covered in inscriptions.

I had never even heard of the Serapeum before arriving in Saqqara, yet it became one of the biggest surprises of the trip.

The entire area is fascinating.

Once again, it is mostly desert and stone.

Yet somehow it never becomes boring.

Dahshur

Not far from Saqqara lies another pyramid field: Dahshur.

The distances are too great to walk comfortably, so this time it made sense to hire a driver for the day. Nadia kindly helped me arrange one.

Although the pyramids here are less famous than those at Giza, many people have seen photographs of the Bent Pyramid.

As I understand it, the architects may have been a little too ambitious in the beginning. Partway through construction, they realised that the original angle would make the pyramid too tall and too heavy, so they reduced the slope. The result is the unusual shape we see today.

Since I had enjoyed exploring the interiors of the pyramids at Saqqara, I decided to descend into this one as well.

And guess how much I regretted it.

A long corridor slopes steeply downward into the pyramid. The ceiling is extremely low, forcing you to decide whether to walk forwards or backwards. The air is hot and stale. Although I do not consider myself particularly old, I found the whole experience rather miserable.

At the bottom, a staircase leads up to a small chamber that was discovered relatively recently.

There was absolutely nothing there.

From the entrance of the Bent Pyramid, you can see both the Black Pyramid and the Red Pyramid in the distance, each named after the colour of the stone used in its construction. The Black Pyramid is currently closed because of structural concerns.

The Red Pyramid, which stands nearby, is also open to visitors. By then, however, I had had enough of squeezing through narrow tunnels and descending endless passages, so I gave it a miss.

Still, it stands in a magnificent setting, isolated and commanding the surrounding desert.

Memphis

Most people probably know the name from the city in the United States.

The original Memphis, however, was Egypt’s first capital, a thriving political and religious centre during the Old Kingdom.

I asked my driver to stop there on the way back.

To be completely honest, modern Memphis is not a particularly charming place. Most visitors come for Mit Rahina, the museum that houses the enormous reclining statue of Ramesses II.

For me, this marked the end of my time among the ancient monuments on the outskirts of Cairo.

The next stage of the journey would take me back into the heart of the modern city.