Egypt Day 2: The Pyramids

Like in many other cultures, the Egyptians believed in the existence of a soul that does not die. To provide bodies to the souls that escaped upon death, they preserved the dead body in elaborate tombs; more important the person, more elaborate the tomb. Being worshipers of the Sun, they associated the side of the rising Sun, the east of river Nile, with the living and the west side of Nile with the dead. They buried their dead alongwith many of their possessions which were used while they were alive. Pyramids served as tombs for Pharoahs of early Dynasties and are the biggest tourist attractions of Egypt. On day 2 of our itinerary, we visited various pyramids, on the west side of Nile, starting with Dahsur.

During the first few dynasties, a rectangular flat roofed, multi-roomed structure above the ground called Mastaba was built over the tomb in the bedrock. Over time they started building smooth sided Pyramids. During the journey from Mastaba to Pyramid, they probably goofed somewhere, corrected, restarted and these goofed up pyramids are the Meidum and the Bent Pyramid, all attributed to Pharaoh Snefru of IV Dynasty. Pharoah Snefru also made the first pyramid with smooth sides, the Red Pyramid, which was our first stop.

The Bent pyramid and the Red pyramid are at Dahsur, we stopped by the Bent Pyramid just to click some pictures, on our way to the Red Pyramid.

Climbing into the Red pyramid required a 40m climb up the side of the Pyramid to the entrance, followed by a descent by more than 60m through a tunnel into the heart of the pyramid. The entrance tunnel was rather narrow (3ft x 4ft) and low. Both Tanjul and Anshul gave up in the first few meters. I am petite and so could make it to the end of the tunnel. Inside the pyramid are two chambers made of huge granite blocks. The actual “burial chamber” was high up by the side of the second chamber and could be reached by the wooden stairs constructed for tourists. Suspicious of the stability of the stairs I did not climb up. Both lower chambers have very high corbelled roofs (12m). The huge granite blocks making up the walls have very clean straight surfaces and are placed precisely. The only writing on the walls is very old graffiti by visitors. With only one other tourist, I could admire the construction engineering (without being pushed by other tourists :-)). I have added a video taken inside the chambers at the end of this blog.

Next, we visited the Stepped pyramid of Sakkara which probably predates even the Red pyramid. The Stepped pyramid is the oldest stone structure, with the mastabas of decreasing sizes stacked on top of each other to make the pyramid shape. The architect was Imhotep, who has a cult following of his own. Movie lovers might recall the character with the same name in “Mummy”, not based on actual Imhotep.

The Stepped Pyramid was closed for maintenance and upkeep. The pyramid was situated in a large complex structure of funery temples, mastabas and pyramids of nobles of lesser significance, giving us enough to do. A smaller pyramid of the Pharoah Unas ( V dynasty) is one of the most elaborate and best preserved one from inside. The Pyramid of Unas has two chambers which can be approached through a short tunnel from an entrance at the surface. The chambers are made of Granite with elaborate hieroglyphs on the walls and have a pink granite sarcophagus. The walls have well preserved paintings. No other pyramid has hieroglyphs or paintings, so Unas pyramid is special . All the pyramids seem to be rising from the desert sands reinforcing the touristic image of pyramids surrounded by the desert with camels lounging around. The region was not a desert 5500 years ago when these pyramids were constructed (The pyramids were close to the Nile then, the river changed the course later). The conventionally accepted chronology of the pyramid construction is (i) stepped pyramid (ii) Meidum pyramid (iii) Bent Pyramid (iv) Red pyramid followed by the Pyramids of the Giza plateau.

Onward to the great Pyramids of Giza. The sky was overcast and by the time we got to Giza, it had started raining. There is only one word for the great pyramid: HUGE. It is said to be a tomb made for Pharoah Khafre within 22 years of his reign. Unbelievable! The granite stones, some weighting 50 tonnes, were once covered by highly polished limestone making a smooth surface. The queue of the tourist wanting to enter was very long, so we skipped it. The inner architecture is said to be similar to that of Red pyramid with high corbelled roofs and chambers made with precision cut granite stones and one sarcophagus which is larger than the entrance of the chamber. There are small tunnels which go all the way from the chambers to the out surface of the pyramid. For what purpose, nobody knows. Most parts of the great pyramid remains a mystery, they are still discovering new tunnels inside the great pyramid.

The amount of stone ( quarried from Aswan 500 km away) used to make the pyramids is incredibly huge, as was the effort of making them. There seems to be a difference of opinion between engineers (who say the pyramids could not have been made with the then existing technology: no wheels, no iron tools) and Egyptologists (who continue to say that the Great Pyramid was built in 22 years with hired labour, working during the flooding period of Nile). More questions than answers here !

Our next stop was the Sphinx. The actual Sphinx enclosure was out of bounds and we were taken to a spot outside the enclosure to see the Sphinx. The Sphinx was even more impressive than the pyramids in the sheer scale. Somewhat disproportionate body, a broken nose and a very zen expression. Conventional archaeologists say it was made by Pharoah Khafre 4500 years back. Some geologists disagree and based on weathering of the stones of the enclosure walls, claim that it must be about 9000 years old. Recall the Great Pyramid is supposed to be 5500 years old but cannot be dated scientifically.

Egyptology is like a religion, a lot is based more on faith than logic and science. So the mystery of Giza continues. Irrespective of how and when it was built, it is a wonder of the ancient world still available for all of us to admire.

September 04, 2023 Tags : Ancient , cairo , Dashur , Egypt , Holiday , Nile , Pyramids , Sakkara

Raniwalas

Egypt Day 2: The Pyramids