The Mastaba of Ti

A Mastaba is a tomb & Ti had been a court official who served three kings...brave man! Being entombed near Kings it was a possibility that some of that royal magnificence would be shared with the near & dear in the afterlife. Today it takes a bit of a drive & then a bit of a walk to get to the tomb. Although Saqqara hadn't had the number of touts that Giza had had yesterday, the few that were there & a bit pushy about trying to offer us their guiding services, mel was able to deal with with practiced ease. At the Mastaba site though, we had trouble finding it & it therefore was a pleasure to give a little baksheesh to a man who is CLEARLY poor & was not pushy, yet who led us n the right direction! The tomb paintings & carvings were AMAZing. You would swear they had just been whipped up yesterday! (Except the colour of course!) There were a lot of agricultural & fishing scenes with quite explicit details of daily life...the birthing of a calf, the wringing of a goose neck, the baking of bread etc etc etc. It also showed the presence of crocodiles & hippos in the nearby Nile waters of the day. For me personally, I loved the animal forms, the lines the artists used to represent these beautiful beasts, & then the relief carving of the stone to give more dimension. We were so very glad we had had the opportunity to come down to this tomb, even though it meant being doubled over down a short tunnel & crawling on hands & knees at another spot!! My biggest disappointment was that, without a flash, my camera didn't pick up everything I wanted to capture & remember for ever!!