Today was a big day and the theme was pyramids.  Our first stop was Dashur, which is located about 40 minutes south of Giza and like Saqqara, served as a necropolis for the capital city of Memphis.  A UNESECO World Heritage site (sense a theme?) it hosts the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, two of the best preserved pyramids, built around in  2600BC.  As I mentioned previously the Step Pyramid at Saqqara was the first effort in pyramid building.  The Bent Pyramid was the second and gained that name when, during the construction, the builders learned several important structural lessons regarding the weight, foundation and slope angle; it was a first draft of the concept.  The bent shape of the pyramid comes from the change in slope on the top of the pyramid to 43 degrees from the 54 degree slope that forms the base.  From those lessons the Red Pyramid was successfully constructed.  The cumulative knowledge from the completion of both pyramids fed into the design and construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza (more on that later).

The Bent Pyramid. You can see where the name came from… pyramid first draft.

Dashur, which sits on the desert,  hosted other pyramids in the past but most have been cannibalized over the years for other buildings. Only the partial remains of the Black Pyramid are evident still today.  Multiple tombs, extending into the Middle Period, have also been uncovered in Dashur. Like Saqqara the area is barren- the pyramids appear to suddenly spring from the very sands of the desert.  Given that when built, there were no other tall structures in existance anywhere, I can only imagine the impact such imposing buildings would have made on local inhabitants and visitors; I felt ant-like as I approached them.

It is possible to climb into the Bent and Red pyramids to visit the burial chambers so of course that is what I did.  We were lucky in that we got to Dashur fairly early in the morning before the crowds and were able to tackle the Bent Pyramid, by far the most challenging, without having to negotiate a lot of two way traffic in the narrow shafts.  The stairs, or perhaps shallow ladder is a better description as the slope was 27 degrees off of vertical, were steep and the shaft was narrow.  We descended backwards, similar to climbing down a ladder, and had to duck our heads from time to time where the shaft narrowed, requiring a crouched over position.  After an interminable time, during which we traversed about 70m, we reached the bottom chamber. From there it was necessary to crawl through a rough rock-hewn tunnel to an adjacent chamber, before climbing another 6m(ish) wooden staircase to the burial chamber. The interior stones were all intact, including the ceiling. It was beyond awesome to be standing in the interior of a pyramid.  (There are more interior areas, but those were not open to the public.). As we were exiting, more visitors were descending the steep staircase so it was a bit tricky to navigate two-way traffic in the narrow passageway— cannot image what that is like in the height of tourist season!

Looking down from the entrance into the shaft leading to the burial chamber of the Bent Pyramid. It was steep and narrow.

The Red Pyramid had a similar transit, but not as challenging.  The initial shaft was a bit wider so there was less risk of hitting my head on the rock and it was not necessary to crawl from one interior chamber to the next.  However, the ventilation in the Red Pyramid was not as good as the Bent Pyramid and I could definitely tell CO2 would be a problem with a large crowd.  Also  the overpowering smell of ammonia from the resident bat population was a bit suffocating.  It was hard for me to imagine what it must have been like for the archeologists to initially explore these pyramids before the infrastructure (lights, well constructed staircases, steps and handrails, ventilation) was added.  It would have been dark, with tight passages that lead to unknown destinations, working in musyt, stuffy air.  What an adventure!

Bent Pyramid burial chamber deep in the pyramid.

The way to the burial chamber in the Red Pyramid– similar to the Bent Pyramid you had to crawl to the center and then climb steps to get to the burial chamber. Easy now with all of the infrastructure….

After exploring Dashur we headed to Giza, our final stop before leaving Cairo, and the site that lies closest to our hotel, the Mena House.  The Giza plateau is famous and the location of  several pyramids built by the descendants of Sneferu, who was responsible for the Bent and Red Pyramids.  The three pyramids of Khufu, Kharfre and Menkaure (son, grandson, and great-grandson, respectively of Sneferu) dominate the Giza plateau.  Most people know the pyramid of Khufu as the Great Pyramid of Egypt.  It stands 146.5m high and was built from 2.3 million stones with a total weight of 5.75 million tons.  The numbers don’t mean anything until you are standing in front of it, with your neck bent back searching for the top of the immense structure.  Huge does not even begin to describe it!  It is possible to go into the Great Pyramid and climb to the inner burial chamber and, of course, I went, now an old pro at navigating tight, steep stairs with people moving in both directions.  The burial chamber still had the outer sarcophagus in it, unlike the other two pyramids, which were empty.

Giza is much more than the three large pyramids. Remains of the two accompanying temples- the funeral temple and the valley temple- along with the causeway road that connected them — also were uncovered.  The famous sphinx of Egypt stands next to the funeral temple for the Great Pryamid and it was beyond awesome to stand in front of the sphinx with the three pyramids lurking in the background.  Like many things, pictures do not do the experience of being there justice.

It is hard to really feel the impact of how large the Great Pyramid is unless you are standing in front of it. HUGE!!!!

Gaza was busy with tourists from all over wandering through the site.  The Egyptian government opened a new visitors center about a year ago, creating a very efficient operations.  Electric “hop on/hop off” buses shuttle visitors from the entrance to the various sites of interest, including a panoramic look-out and a few cafes where you can eat lunch with a spectacular view.  For those more adventurous or active, you can hire horses or camels to transport you to the site, or walk (respectively).  Like Saqqara and Dashur, sand stretched in every direction, broken only by exposed limestone rock.  The presence of an exhaustive source of limestone is what drove the selection of the Giza plateau for the site of the pryamids— the building material was readily available.  Adjacent to the pyramids are queens’ tombs, remnants of workers’ villages and tombs for members of the royal households.

Another view of the steep shafts that access the interior of the pyramids. This is a view inside the Great Pyramid as I am climbing up.

Interior passageway inside the Great Pyramid. Other tunnels were closed to the public (bummer!).

As I walked around, I was trying to picture the scene 100 years ago when archeologists were re-discovering tombs and digging through the pyramids, when it was possible to walk from Mena House to the plateau (that entrance is now closed), when it was possible to actually climb the three pyramids (which was shut down about 15 years ago)— it was difficult to imagine.  But as I watched people racing horses through the sand from site to site and lines of camels transporting tourists around the base of the Great Pyramid, I felt a bit of the wild energy of discovery that must have permeated the area during that time. Giza should be near the top of any list as a “do not miss” when visiting Egypt!!!