Apr 16 cont'd - Sakkara & Retail Therapy

Second posting for today.

Our second stop for the day was Sakkara (also spelled Saqqara). Here we visited King Djoser's Step Pyramid. The man responsible for carrying out the construction was Imhotep, King Djoser's Prime Minister. Imhotep is credited as the inventor of building in stone and was a man of many talents—architect, physician, master sculptor, scribe, and astronomer. He may be the first true genius in recorded history, and his impact on Egyptian life and custom was profound. He was later deified as the god of wisdom and medicine.

Djoser and Imhotep decided to build an enormous mastaba of stone, but at some point during construction they built another mastaba on top of the first—and then another on top of the second. They continued this process until they had enlarged the structure into the world’s first pyramid. It was what we now call a “step pyramid,” consisting of six terraces some 200 feet (60 m) high. Then they enclosed the surface in smooth white limestone; they added chapels around the base and a vast courtyard for the king's festivals. The entire complex was enclosed with a wall. The Step Pyramid was considered to be a giant staircase which King Djoser would climb after being resurrected to join the sun god Ra in the sky.

Sakkara is also the site of many tombs of minor royalty and court officials. These are known as “the tombs of the nobles.” The limestone walls of these structures are delicately incised with images showing all kinds of animals, fish, birds, insects, vegetation, and people hunting, herding, and farming. Some of the pictures still retain their original paint after 4,500 years. The quality of these compositions is proof that the ancient Egyptians quickly attained an artistic culture of a very high order. The sophistication and excellence of their artistry and architectural craftsmanship reached their apotheosis in the development of the pyramids.

On our way to lunch, we stopped at the Oriental Carpet School near Sakkara. Here, young Egyptian children, who would otherwise have little hope for their future, are taught a trade. They train them to weave carpets of wool or silk or cotton, and then the carpets are sold in the next door factory, to the tourists who come by the busload, as we did. Carpets here cost a fraction of what we would pay at home.

The first room is a large, airy space with a lot of light, and several carpet looms set up along the walls. The looms are mostly vertical wooden contraptions, strung by hand with hundreds of guide threads. The way the carpets are made is the same way they have been made for thousands of years: each hand-cut and colored length is wrapped around the individual guide thread and deftly knotted. The weaver's fingers dance and fly at an incredible speed. The rug is made by stacking knot after knot against each other, the colors and pattern emerging as more knots are stacked, until there are hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of knots, and the carpet is cut down to lie on the floor or a wall. The fringe usually left on a rug is all that remains visible of the guide threads used to build the rug. At first, a picture is put up on the wall as a template, but as the weavers becomes more experienced, they can work from memory. Densities run from about 200 knots/square inch up to 900 knots/square inch.

At the base of each loom, there is a narrow wooden bench, almost at ground level. It is here the kids sit, weaving these rugs all day. We are told they study, too, and are taught school subjects by the carpet school. The children range from seven or eight to about fifteen, and they are relatively clean, although kind of sinewy thin. The kids sit, often two or three to a bench, all working on the same rug.

We sat through the obligatory short sales promo. The demo man showed the way the silk rug changes color by reversing it. He flipped a smallish rug up in the air, giving it a half-turn on the way as if he was making pizza dough. The rug responded by shimmering in mid-air, and indeed, as it landed, the green is now a different shade. Apparently, the silk gives off a different impression depending on which way the threads are angled, appearing to change color. Supposedly, this chameleon factor is what caused the legends of flying carpets, as the rugs seem to move, shift and shimmer when they are flung into the air.

Doug and I threw all caution to the wind and purchased a 4' x 6' Egyptian cotton rug (200 knots/sq in) that has arrived at our home and now adorns the front hall in our house built in 1908. The salesman tried to sell us a silk carpet, but we found the colours too subdued and without the colour contrast that we liked so much in the one we chose. The factory sold several carpets that day - a good round of retail therapy after absorbing a lot of history and culture for so many days!Read more