It’s hard to describe yesterday. I awoke to a smoky Giza, with a giant red sun rising above the still palms. Bob Brier took us out to Saqqara, the ancient Necropolis. It’s a vast burial site for Kings and nobles. And it’s incredibly eerie, mysterious and wonderful. Thousands of elaborate tombs lay beside the Djoser’s Step Pyramid (perhaps the oldest stone building in the world). We were granted rare access into the Pyramid of Unas, whose breathtaking Pyramid Texts and Spells became the book of the dead. Perhaps the most surprising thing at Saqqara is the serapeum, a huge underground tomb that housed more than sixty mummified Apis bulls in their own burial chamber. The chambers are the size of a muni tunnel and go on and on as far as the eye can see. After leaving the Serapeum, we explored the Bent & Red Pyramids and then joined famed Egyptologist Salima Ikram at her home for dinner. She’s surveying the Kharga Oasis in the Western Desert. Off to Luxor tonight.