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Egypt
September 2003
A three week journey around Egypt. I wrote a full account of the trip, to record both the memories I want to keep and the historic facts I want to remember.

Part 2: The Pyramids
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The Pyramids
On our second day in Egypt we visited the pyramids at Dahshur, Saqqara and Gizeh. For me this was going to be the highlight of the trip, and the pyramids themselves certainly fulfilled my expectations, but because of bad planning, wrong priorities and a lack of interest the group took too little time which was disappointing. I returned to Gizeh with Salma two weeks later though, which mostly made up for that.

I'll present the locations in historic order. The three sites together tell most of the history of the pyramids, and I'm gonna use my pictures to tell that history.

First of all, it is important to know that the great stone pyramids were all built during the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC), when Egyptian culture was still relatively young, and that the greatest pyramids were in fact built first. The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BC) also built pyramids, but these were made of mudbrick and only piles of rubble remain of them. The pharaohs of the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BC) didn't build pyramids anymore but dug their tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

Saqqara
1st Dynasty Tombs
Saqqara was already a burial site during the 1st dynasty (3050-2890 BC), when Upper and Lower Egypt (i.e. northern and southern Egypt) had just been unified but that unity was still fragile. To symbolise their rule over both countries, the pharaohs of that age all built two tombs, one in Lower Egypt and one in Upper Egypt. The main burial site in Upper Egypt was Abydos, which I'd visit later, while Saqqara was the main necropolis of Lower Egypt.
Djoser's Step Pyramid
At Saqqara, pharaoh Djoser, who ruled from 2668 - 2649 BC, built the first ever pyramid, or rather his High Priest and architect Imhotep did. This pyramid was also the world's first ever building made of natural stone, so it's of incredible significance.

Earlier pharaohs had been buried in one-level rectangular buildings with a flat roof and inward-sloping walls, built of brick and faced with limestone slabs. These buildings are now called mastaba's (an Arab word).
Snefru's Pyramids at Dahshur
Snefru was the first pharaoh of the 4th dynasty (2613-2498 BC), which would build all the great pyramids. During his reign from 2613 to 2589 BC three big pyramids were built, making him the only pharaoh to have built more than one.
The Pyramid at Meydum
The first of these three pyramids was built at Meydum and was possibly started by Snefru's father Huni, the last pharaoh of the 3rd dynasty who ruled from 2637 to 2613 BC. This pyramid was constructed as another step pyramid, but the steps were then packed with stone and the structure was encased in limestone, making it the first true pyramid (i.e. with smooth sides). It was 95m high.
The Bent Pyramid
Snefru's second pyramid is unique for several reasons. It was the first that was conceived as a true pyramid (rather than a step pyramid) from the start. However, about halfway the construction the builders decreased the angle of the pyramid from 53 to 43 degrees to make it more stable, giving it its curious shape and its modern name of Bent Pyramid. It is well possible that this decision was made because the outer layer of the previous pyramid at Meydum was already starting to collapse while this new pyramid was being built, but that is just speculation. The pyramid is 105m high.

What also makes the Bent Pyramid unique is that it is the only one that still has most of its outer casing. All pyramids originally had such an outer casing of stone panels to give them a smooth appearance, but all other pyramids lost most of it because the stones either fell off or got robbed to be used in new buildings. Much of old Cairo got built with the outer stones of the great pyramids of Gizeh, for example.
The Red Pyramid
Snefru's builders learned from their mistakes, because their third pyramid was problem-free and became the first true pyramid both inside and outside. This time they used an angle of 43 degrees from the start, making this the flattest of the great pyramids. The Red Pyramid is also 105m high and got its name from its reddish limestone casing, which is now gone.
The pyramid was recently opened to the public so I went inside. From the entrance in the north face a very narrow corridor of 70m long descends into the pyramid, ending in three rooms. Snefru probably found his final resting place here, having finally built a perfect pyramid.


Gizeh
In the afternoon we went to the Gizeh plateau. The reason we had been in such a hurry at Dahshur that we couldn't go to the Bent Pyramid was that we had to be in Gizeh at noon to buy tickets to go inside the Great Pyramid, but we didn't do that, so we'd hurried for nothing there as far as I was concerned.

In Gizeh we first checked out the Great Pyramid, but then drove straight to a hill for a panoramic view, skipping the other two pyramids entirely. I first thought we'd do them later, but Eva said we were in a hurry because we had to be back in the hotel at 4pm to make arrangements for the desert trip. At that point I burst out with anger. I was especially pissed off because the guide (still the propaganda guy from the day before) had specifically told me we'd stop at all three pyramids when I had asked him, and I had therefore taken only two pictures so far; at the Great Pyramid the sun was in the wrong direction.

During the rest of the trip whenever we'd waste hours of our time looking for a restaurant or something, I'd always think "but for Gizeh we only had two hours...". Two weeks later, on the one but last day of my trip, I came back to Gizeh with Salma though and that time I could take my time for it, walk around on foot and take pictures to my heart's content. Most photos here are from that second visit; I include them here so all my pyramid pictures are together.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu
Khufu was the son and successor of Snefru (see above) and ruled from 2589 to 2566 BC. He's generally known by his Greek name Cheops which annoys me, just like it annoys me that many famous Greeks are known by their Roman name (e.g. Hercules instead of Herakles). Why not just call everyone by their proper names?

Khufu's pyramid came to be called the Great Pyramid, and was named one of the seven wonders of the world by the ancient Greeks, because it was the biggest pyramid ever built. It remained the tallest building in the world until the 19th century, 43 centuries after it was built! It just boggles the mind, especially if you consider that it was built less than 100 years after Djoser's step pyramid, which had been the first pyramid and in fact the first ever building made of natural stone!

The Great Pyramid was originally 146m high, but after losing its casing and some upper stones it is now just 137m. The basis measures 230m by 230m, the angle of its sides is 52 degrees. It contains 2.3 million blocks of stone that weigh 2.5 ton on average. It was by far the oldest of the seven wonders of the world, and is now the only surviving one (check this timeline).
Inside the Great Pyramid
Since the pyramids were robbed empty long ago, many people don't think it's worth to go inside. Personally I'm more interested in the pyramids themselves (must be the architect in me) than in objects or decorations, so I love to go in just to feel the mass and see the structure from the inside.

Only 300 people are allowed to enter the Great Pyramid every day. When the ticket office opens in the morning and at 1pm, the first 150 people can buy a ticket and the rest are out of luck. On my first visit with the group we were too late, on my second visit with Salma I made sure I was in time. In the end it wasn't that hard to get a ticket; not that many people bother since it is quite expensive (it costs twice as much as the entrance to the entire Gizeh plateau).

As it turned out it's forbidden to take pictures inside; the guards at the entrance even check your bag and make you hand in your camera before entering. So I opened my bag and looked disappointed as I got out my camera and gave it to them, but on the inside I was laughing because they didn't notice the other camera bulging in my thigh pocket.

Inside we had to descend a little and then climb all the way to Khufu's burial place (the King`s Chamber on the diagram) in the heart of the pyramid, first through a narrow passageway and then through the Grand Gallery, which is mightily impressive. Where the two meet we could look into the corridor towards the Queen's chamber, but it was blocked.

The King's Chamber is roofed by huge granite blocks that weigh over 50 tons. All that was found inside is a granite coffer (which probably held Khufu's mummy) which still stands there as it's too big to carry out. The oldest example of in-built furniture, as my guide dryly noted.

The other visitors were mostly Egyptians, but noone seemed to be a guard so I made pictures. I was afraid a guard would see the flash and take my camera but nothing happened; the other visitors looked jealous though :)

More pictures of the inside of the Great Pyramid can be found at this page about its restauration. The pictures of the Grand Gallery don't do it justice though.

The Pyramid of Khafre
Next to Khufu's pyramid stands the pyramid of his son Khafre (Chephren in Greek), who ruled from 2558 to 2532 BC. This pyramid is 136m high, but seems higher than the Great Pyramid because it is built on higher ground (it's a mistery why Khufu didn't put his pyramid on this spot).

Khafre`s pyramid still has the upper part of its outer casing, which looks great and gives a good idea of how bright and smooth the pyramids once were. All the other outer stones of the Gizeh pyramids were broken off and used to build the mosques and palaces of old Cairo.
 

Pyramids were always part of a larger complex that included a mortuary temple built against the pyramid, a causeway descending from the mortuary temple into the valley, and a valley temple at the end of the causeway (cfr. scale model on the right). Khafre's pyramid complex was considered to be perfect and a model for all future pyramid complexes by his successors.
The Sphinx
The famous Sphinx stands next to Khafre`s valley temple and was probably his work. The lion body and the 10m high human face were carved out of a rock, while the paws were made of stone blocks. The Sphinx is 20m high and 45m long. The face is much damaged; the nose was shot off by the Turks (and not by Napoleon), while the beard fell off and was carried away to the British Museum.

Visiting the Sphinx was a bit of a disappointment. You can't walk around it or even go near it, you can only see it from a terrace on its right side; therefore I couldn't make good pictures of it. Here are better pictures from a photographer who did get to walk around the Sphinx.
The Pyramid of Menkaure
The third pyramid at Gizeh, that of Khafre`s son Menkaure (Mykerinos in Greek) who ruled from 2532 to 2504 BC, is markedly smaller than the other two, probably because more attention was given to the accompanying temples than to the pyramid itself. At 70m high, it has only 1/10th of the mass of Khufu`s Great Pyramid.

Menkaure tried to give his pyramid a granite casing, but that never got finished and only the lower part of it remains. The north wall of the pyramid has a huge breach, caused by a French officer who cannoned the pyramid to find an entrance. The actual entrance, through which the pyramid can now be visited, wasn't found until much later.
General views
Here are some more pics made at Gizeh.
The Gizeh pyramids are not only popular with tourists and archaeologists. Religious freaks and other stupid people have always been trying to see hidden meanings in the orientation and dimensions of the pyramids in general and the Great Pyramid in particular; so much so that the word 'pyramidiots' was invented for them. This case of pyramidiocy is particularly funny; it explains the Great Pyramid as a stone version of the Bible, which was written over a 1000 years after the pyramids were built.



Last night in Cairo
After visiting the pyramids we went back to the hotel. This was still just the evening of our 2nd day in Egypt, and the next morning we would begin our desert trip. Danny and I went out to do some shopping for that trip, and to search for a new battery for his camera.
After a while we got to talk to a young Egyptian called Said who turned out to know all about our group since he'd already talked to Eva (the group leader). He said he knew where we could buy batteries for cameras, so we followed him. He took us to a shop which turned out not to have this kind of battery, but conveniently the perfume shop of his older brother was right next door so he took us there to wait for him while he ran around looking for a battery. This is one of many ways in which Egyptians skillfully lure you into their shop :)

We immediately made clear we were not gonna buy perfume, but the older brother made us sit in a couch, brought us drinks and started rubbing all kinds of perfume on us anyway. He also showed a picture of himself with Mohammed Ali (the boxer, not the 19th century Egyptian leader of course) that he was obviously very proud of. Said came back half an hour later without a battery so we left, without buying perfume, which obviously disappointed both him and his brother.

Now Danny and I had been thinking it would be nice to have some weed to smoke during the evenings in the desert, so we asked Said, who had followed us out, if he knew where we could buy that. This was the beginning of a memorable adventure that would last all evening.

At first Said got angry, asking in a very indignified manner if we thought he looked like a drugs dealer. When we calmed him down he told us weed is strictly forbidden in Egypt, that you end up in jail for at least six months if caught selling it and that the Egyptian police typically tricks dealers by pretending to be tourists, and tricks tourists by pretending to be dealers. A bit later, Said turned out to have friends who could help us after all. It didn't take two minutes before he spotted such a friend on the street.

We told this friend we wanted to buy just a few gram, but he'd never heard of grams and would only sell us an unknown quantity for 160 pounds (23 euro). We'd have to give him the money in advance and then wait in his bar for 45 minutes. We didn't have that much time,we didn't want to spend that much and we certainly didn't want to pay before seeing what we'd get, so after long argueing we said no and walked away, back to the hotel.
We went out for dinner with the group, first walking around in circles for well over an hour looking for a particular restaurant that turned out to be nothing special, which made me grumble about how we'd had no time to see all the pyramids at Gizeh just a few hours before.
After dinner Danny and I went off on our own again. We'd decided to buy the weed after all, so we went looking for Said's friend. We didn't find him on the street where we'd met him before, so we went back to the perfume shop of Said's brother. Said wasn't there, and the brother got indignified when we asked where we could find this weed-selling friend of Said, so we left.

We headed to a small alley with a few bars that we had passed with the group before. It was full of Egyptians drinking and smoking waterpipes, and looked like a good place to start looking for weed. We just hung around in the alley waiting for an Egyptian to approach us, and soon enough two young guys came to us and asked what we were looking for. Once again we got an indignified response, so we said "okay no problem" and just kept hanging around.

A bit later the same two guys plus a third came to us again, and this time they said that perhaps they knew someone who knew someone etc, but that it was all very risky. We stood there discussing in the middle of the alley for half an hour, with young Egyptians joining in on the discussion and leaving again, until someone remarked we were kind of in the middle of attention and should disperse.

The guys started making calls with a mobile and found a dealer for us soon enough, but we'd have to meet him in another place. We got the dealer's name (Loy) and mobile number and said we'd call him later to arrange it, not sure yet if we'd do that though it sounded like fun.

Just as we left the alley, our group came marching in there, accompanied by Said. They were gonna try smoking waterpipes. Said said he wanted to talk to us and asked us to wait, but we left him with the group. About two streets further he came running after us. We told him we'd been looking for his friend but had found someone else meanwhile, after which he started complaining that we were careless to deal with people on the street and should only trust him, forgetting that we'd met him on the street too.

Then Said told us we'd put him in major troubles by asking his brother about his friend the dealer. His brother now thought Said was involved with drug dealers (which he was) and was very angry with him. This was no small thing; this older brother ran the family business and obviously had as much authority over Said as a father. Said asked us to go back to the shop with him and tell his brother it was all a misunderstanding, and in return he'd help us get our weed. We agreed, feeling a bit guilty about having told on Said to his bro.

In no time Said had found another friend on the street who could sell us weed. This guy was totally cool; he seemed to belong in a Tarantino movie: dark skin, long black oily hair, a little beard and a permanent wry smile on his lips. He had "drug dealer" written all over him really, what a delightful cliché figure. He didn't speak a word of English so Said had to translate.

Once again the quantity was a problem; he'd never heard of grams, we could only buy packs of a thumb large. After lengthy negotiating we agreed to give him 40 pounds in advance and to meet him about 45 minutes later in a bar where we'd get his stuff and pay another 80 pounds. I insisted Said would stay with us all the time so his friend wouldn't just run off with our 40 pounds.

We didn't trust this whole affair one bit, and we knew we stood a good chance of getting ripped off, but we were having so much fun making this deal with these weird people that we didn't really care anymore; this whole experience was well worth the 120 pounds by itself :)

The dealer went off to get his stuff and we now accompanied Said back to his brother's perfume shop. Once there Said got out his brother who indeed looked very upset, and I gave a little speech about how he had misunderstood us before; Said had nothing to do with selling weed, someone who knew Said had approached us after Said left, that's all. The brother listened intently, bought the story and was obviously very relieved. He grabbed his little brother and seemed to apologise for having suspected him.

Said was much cheered up now and took us to the bar where we were to meet the dealer. We got a table outside, ordered some drinks and had a nice time. After a while the dealer appeared and joined us at our table. We were going to do this unconspicuously. After some drinking and chatting, the dealer told me to open my bag under the table, and dropped two packs in it. A bit later I reached inside the bag and felt what was inside the packs without looking. I felt branches, leaves and seeds so it seemed right. A while later I dropped 80 pounds on the table which the dealer later took. It was all so much like a cliché drugs deal, hilarious really.

The dealer then asked if we also wanted to buy pills. We said no again and again but he kept bringing it up every 5 minutes. In the end he tried to talk to us directly instead of letting Said translate. He made funny faces and gestures to show how great an effect his pills have, which contrasted hilariously with his tough look. We'd have loved to make a picture of this guy, but that wasn't possible of course.

A while later another friend of Said joined us at our table. I talked with him, he was an Ethiopian now living in Egypt; first time I met someone from Ethiopia. When we'd all finished our drinks we said goodbye to Said, the dealer and the Ethiopian and left.

Back in the hotel we checked the weed. It looked real except that the seeds were hard instead of soft. We rolled a joint with it but it had little effect. The next day we smoked it almost pure, with the same result, so we were either ripped off or Egyptians smoke really bad weed :)
Either way we weren't too sorry, we'd had a blast all evening.



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