Travel journal #1

I’m in Cairo :) Went to a few places, saw a few cow and goat slaughterings on the street (lol no joke).

What’s more relevant though, the weather is quite cool. There has been a white mist over the city the past few days, which is something I’ve written about a few times in the game as well. Sometimes even the pyramids cannot be seen from it. Looks very cool. Unfortunately, photos don’t really give it back but I tried to make a quick painting of it:

In Giza, literally nothing else remains of the old necropolis, only a few scattered stones and mastabas here and there. Even that branch of the Nile doesn’t flow there anymore. Although I’ve heard that they recently discovered some huge underground channels and caves under the Giza plateau, and they are hoping to discover some new things in the near future.

The Saqqara necropolis, the one near Memphis is a lot more interesting. It makes up a huge area, full of tombs from the Old Kingdom all the way to the New Kingdom, and new discoveries are made here every day. Here is what remains of the original entrance today:

Based on this, it’s safe to say that the Giza necropolis looked pretty much the same as well, surrounded by these massive walls and gates. The difference is though that the Giza plateau has a different structure—much better for giant stone blocks, hence the 4-6 tonnes blocks of the great pyramids. The rock bed of the Saqqara plateau is much more layered, and so only smaller blocks could be cut from it, which you can see on the photo above. These stones then were covered with a layer of plaster and polished into a near-mirror finish. The pyramids were covered in a whiter type of limestone, but they also used to be super smooth and shiny.

Otherwise, the weather is not too hot. 36 degrees (Celsius), with a nice wind. I feel very sympathetic to MC, trying to walk all day in the sun and chasing the shadows of the palms. The game takes place around this time of the year as well :)

Here are some more drawings I did today. Unfortunately, it’s not date season yet but it’s super interesting to see them grow. Those green hanging things under the crown of the palms are the date clusters. (Plus our old buddy Ramses, the guy I named Sesi after)

And the extra silly picture! I hope you can guess who is who 😂