As it happened, the original itinerary for today was simply to get from Luxor to Cairo and then attend the lightshow in the evening. However departure from Luxor was to have been much later in the day. Due to seat availability, we’d had to take an earlier than normal flight. Consequently, the visits to Memphis and the step pyramid, scheduled for tomorrow, were moved to today.
We arrived in Cairo by about 8:30 and boarded the bus for Memphis. We took a ring road around Cairo to Memphis but for a very long time, traffic was at a virtual standstill. It eventually turned out that a water main break had flooded the road, totally crippling traffic. Ugh!
Ian had said there was little to see in Memphis and 15 minutes would do it. The huge Ramses statue and alabaster sphinx were both worth seeing but 15 or 20 minutes did the trick. Second stop was the step pyramid of Zoser. This was the first pyramid and, though smaller than those that would follow, it was nonetheless impressive.
Last stop was a carpet school where kids are taught the craft of making carpets as well as receiving a normal education education. We bought a small silk carpet and spent a long time talking to “Hany” while waiting for Marilyn to buy a huge carpet.
