Hello from Cairo

I had a few extra minutes tonight so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of our first day in Cairo. We had a cute tour guide name Rania take us to Memphis, the first capitol city of Egypt and Saqqara, home of the so-called step pyramid. (It's not really a pyramid, it's a mastaba, if you want to get technical.)
At a museum in Memphis, we saw this big statue of Ramses II.

And then we saw this even bigger one. I guess the guy really liked looking at himself.

We headed to Saqqara next. Built in 2700 BC, this step-pyramid is the oldest all-stone structure in the world.

It's also the home of some very persistent "vendors." We paid five dollars for pictures with these head wraps and donkeys, pictures we didn't even know we wanted.

As for Cairo itself, it's a city of stark contrasts. We passed hundreds of buildings like this, hodge-podge, half-built hovels with laundry hanging from the windows. Apparently you pay fewer taxes if your building isn't finished, so many of the buildings we saw had stairways that led nowhere, wiring dangling out the windows, and top floors with no roofs.

And then not far down the road you find something like this--a luxurious 8-story mall with just about every fancy brand name you could think of.

A pretty interesting day.