The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, just 30 km south of Cairo, is Egypt’s oldest pyramid, built some 200-300 years before the more famous pyramids at Giza.
I visited Cairo in 2015, from where I began my Cairo to Cape Town overland adventure.
Looking at the photos on Google Maps, the site has changed quite a bit.
History of Saqqara
Saqqara was a vast ancient burial ground for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis.
The Step Pyramid of Djoser was built in 2700 B.C. for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser, the first or second king of the 3rd dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt.
‘Step’ refers to the design, with its rectangular base and flat roof. It is Egypt’s oldest pyramid. Much older than the ones at Giza, built some 200-300 years earlier.
Saqqara is located 30km from the centre of the present-day capital, Cairo.
How to get from Cairo to Saqqara using public transport
The advice given in guidebooks back and on advice forums back in 2015 advised you to sign up for a tour or at least take a taxi, as there is no direct transport and getting there under your own steam is quite frankly not worth the aggravation.
Are they joking? What happened to the spirit of adventure?
The guys at the Dahab Hostel told me that the info on wikitravel was BS and that it was pretty easy to get to Saqqara using public transport.
Following their instructions, I rode the metro to Giza, which on a Friday morning was empty.
Then took a small microbus to the Mansoureya Road (a massive overpass on the Cairo ring road).
And then in another microbus down the Saqqara Road.
I was let out on the highway at a spot closest to the Saqqara complex and just walked the last bit.
This is before I travelled with a smartphone. I had studied Google Maps the night before and then did everything instinctively.
Location of the Step Pyramid of Djoser:
You can also ride the metro to Helwan and then take a microbus to Ferry Badrashin, where you must cross the Nile and then take more transport to Saqqara.
Visiting Saqqara in 2015
In 2015, tourism was down. People were suffering. I had the place to myself.
Of course, all the touts hounded me.
“You want a taxi, mister?”
“That’s not a taxi, that’s a donkey.”
“Desert taxi mister. Twenty (Egyptian) pounds. Where you from? England? That’s not even 2 pounds for you, hey mister!!”
I’d walked off.
Hey, mister”.. and so it goes on…
Statue of Pharaoh Djoser at the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, Egypt.
“You wanna go in the tombs? I have keys. A little baksheesh, just 50 pounds”
“No need for baksheesh, I have a ticket”
“Your ticket does not cover these tombs, OK, just 30”
I walked off.
“Mister, just 20 for you”
The Serapeum is an underground burial chamber dedicated to the sacred Apis Bulls, the most important of the cult animals entombed at Saqqara. The Apis, it was believed, was an incarnation of Ptah, the God of Memphis and was the calf of a cow struck by lightning from heaven.
“Hey” called the policeman, “Ticket!”
I showed him my ticket; he studied it, shook my hand and said, “Welcome to Egypt” I was at the SERAPEUM complex, which my ticket did not cover. Guess he couldn’t read English.
I descended the steps into the underground chamber.
“Ticket” I heard behind me. “This is not the SERAPEUM ticket, you need a seperate ticket.”
I’d been rumbled. “How much?”
“Ticket price is 100 Pounds”
I offered a ragged 20 Pound note.
“OK, 50”
“100 is too much, 50 is too much. 20 is good baksheesh for you.”
“Tourism very bad now”
This I knew. I refrained from telling him, that the news of a possible bomb having been the cause of the crash of the Russian airliner the previous week, plus the killing of some Mexican tourists by the Egyptian security forces last month was gonna hurt him even more.
By the time we’d gotten outside, his price had dropped to “20, 10 more”. “You mean 30?” “Yes, 20, 10 more, 5 minutes only.”
If he could drop from 100 to 30 in a matter of minutes, getting in for 20 wouldn’t take too long.
‘Desperate times call for desperate measures’, I heard on a film last week. Indeed.
“Hey, mister”.. Does it ever stop? Nope, not in Egypt.
“You wanna see a statue?”
“Where?”
“Just over here. Come. A little baksheesh. Big statue”, puffing his chest out like a wood pigeon. “A little baksheesh; tourism is very bad now”.
I detoured away. Found a vantage point and surveyed the scene.
Two hours later, I was back in town, swapping one madness for another.
On the highway, a guy on a motorbike stopped for me “no baksheesh, free” and took me 10 km up the road to a spot where I took a microbus to another spot from where I got another microbus to Giza and thus the Metro back to town.
Back in Cairo
Later that evening as I strolled the streets, I repaid the kindness.
A school girl sitting on a blanket, on the sidewalk, with a few packets of tissues before her, hoping for a sale, doing her homework.
I felt sad for her. I come as a visitor and when things get too bad I can always leave.
For what the touts at the pyramids were wanting, for doing little more than wishing you a nice day, I dropped the girl some cash, hoping she could at least, maybe stay at home the next night to do her homework, instead of sitting there in the dirt as Cairo walked around her.
Sunset from the rooftop of the Dahab Hostel in Cairo:
