Monuments great and small

Before going to Giza to see the pyramids, we toured a few famous sites in the Cairo vicinity.   We saw the step pyramid at Saqqara, a giant statue of Ramses II, and of course the great pyramids.  And in between, we got to spend some time in the countryside and visit a school for teaching people how to make carpets. The country side and city are the Egyptian equivalent of red and blue states. The cities contain the educated people and the country side the poor and poorly educated.

 

The people in the country side tend to invest in children, houses for their children to live near them or more farm land.  You see a lot of uncompleted houses in the country.  That is because the farmers build a little when they have some extra money.  They do not have to pay taxes until it is declared finished and some houses never get finished.  We visited a school for weavers, but all of the students were in their early teens.  It is not suppose to be child labor, but it sure looks like it. But the rugs were beautiful and we were told the children make a good wage wile learning a trade.  they can leave at any time they wish to start their own studio.

 

More pictures of the country  side

 

Each monument that we visited today is considered to be the first, most beautiful, or best example of something.  Saqqara had a step pyramid which was the first pyramid developed in Egypt as well as the first stone building completed by anybody.  Memphis had a statue of Ramses II which is considered to be the best in all of Egypt.  And Giza has the pyramids, Sphinx, and the most determined peddlers in all of Egypt.  But it was all pretty incredible to me.

 

Pictures of Monuments