THE PYRAMIDS

Day 2 - 2/4 Pyramids 

This morning was the first meeting of the group to get an orientation as to how the trip will progress. 

Our tour director / Egyptologist is named Hassan Hassan, very personable and I feel has a love for his country and a passion for sharing his knowledge.  

Today we will explore and visit the many pyramids of Egypt. There are 129 pyramids in Egypt and there is a progression as to how the pyramids were came to be. Our first stop will be at Saqqara to see the Step Pyramid. 

Intended to hold his mummified body, Pharaoh Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara began as a traditional, flat-roofed mastaba. But by the end of his 19-year reign, in 2611 B.C., it had risen to six stepped layers and stood 204 fee high. It was the largest building of its time.

Extensive use of stone—here and there carved to resemble wood, reeds, or other softer materials—made the tomb more durable than its mud-brick forebears. Such pioneering techniques led many ancient historians to credit the chief architect, Imhotep, with inventing stone architecture. These are some of the first buildings of stone ever created, well before the Greeks.  

The Step Pyramid complex was enclosed by a 30-foot wall and included courtyards, temples, and chapels covering nearly 40 acres, the size of a large town in the third millennium B.C.

As in earlier mastaba tombs, the Step Pyramid's burial chambers are underground, hidden in a maze of tunnels, probably to discourage grave robbers. The tomb was nevertheless plundered, and all that remains of Djoser, the third king of Egypt's 3rd dynasty, is his mummified left foot.

Our next stop is the Mastaba of Kagemni. Kagemni was a vizier from the early part of the reign of King Titi of the Sixth Dynasity. Kagemni's wife Nebtynubkhet Sesheshet was a King's Daughter and likely the daughter of  Titi. So if one can not be king it helps to marry his daughter. 

The tomb consists of a hall right after the entrance, followed by a pillared hall and then a suite of rooms to the north of the pillared hall. The entrance hall contains scenes of daily life, including a scene with dancers. 

The pillared hall shows scenes of Vizier Kagemni on a boat which is accompanied by a small papyrus skiff carrying three men. There are scenes of fishing and scenes of the wildlife including crocodiles, dragonflies and frogs. Other scenes in the pillared hall show cattle, including a man carrying a calf and a cow being milked.

The rooms off the pillared hall show Kagemni in a carrying chair with attendants. This scene includes several of his titles. Other scenes in this room show birds including a scene where geese are being force fed, as well as another scene shows hyenas being force fed.

Next to Kagemni’s Mastaba is the Pyramid of Titi (sometimes spelled Teti). The Pyramid of Teti is a smooth-sided pyramid situated in the pyramid  field at Saqqara.  The preservation above ground is very poor, and it now resembles a small hill. Below ground the chambers and corridors are very well preserved.

Access to the burial chambers are located inside the adjoining chapel against the north face of the pyramid. The entrance hallway leads to a long descent of eighteen hundred and twenty-three metres. 

The horizontal passage leads to rooms consisting of a funeral serdab, an antechamber, and a burial chamber. All three are aligned along an east–west axis. The only peculiarity of the serdab is the size of the block ensuring its coverage, measuring 6.72 meters long with a weight of forty tons. The antechamber and burial chamber are covered with huge vaulted rafters. They are connected by a passage where access was closed by a double door. The walls of these rooms are covered with inscriptions commonly called Pyramid Texts. The pyramid of Teti is the second royal monument to contain the complex theological corpus to assist and support the rebirth of the king.

The burial chamber contains an unfinished sarcophagus, a fragment of a lid and a canopic container that is nothing more than a simple hole in the ground. And for the first time, a royal sarcophagus contains inscriptions, here slightly etched on the hollow interior of the vessel.  The ceiling was adorned with images of stars.  Sorry no were photos allowed inside the pyramid. 

From this pyramid site we could look south and see the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid of Snefru. These are significant as they show the progression of pyramid building leading to the great pyramids. 

From Saqqara we made the obligatory carpet store stop, here they are schools where children learn to do the weaving. 

On to Giza, with lunch at the Giza Hotel.  I had pictured in my mind the Great Pyramids of Giza to be in the middle of nowhere, but the entrance to the complex is in a city. 

This complex of ancient monuments includes the three pyramid  complexes known as the Great Pyramids, the massive Great Sphinx, several cemeteries, a workers' village and an industrial complex.

Hollywood has perpetuated the myth the pyramids were built by slaves, no, not the case. The Nile floods every year and during this period there was nothing for the farmers and others to do. So it was during this time much work was done on the pyramids. There was also a great pride among those building the pyramids in being able to say they were involved in the construction. 

Today was a weekend day and the crowds were heavy here at Giza yet it is an impressive site.   Yes, to this day the construction process for these structures is unknown, just amazing there are not writings of how they were built. 

We first stopped at the base of The Great Pyramid of Cheops or Khufu. Yes, they are big beyond words. This was a good opportunity for us to get a feeling for the enormity of these structures. 

From the base we went to an overlook, where a better perspective of the are could be obtained. We also got a camel ride, which was fun and interesting. 

On to the Sphinx - The most famous Sphinx is the Great Sphinx of Giza. It is one of the largest and oldest statues in the world. Archeologists believe that it was carved around 2500 BC and that the head is meant to be the likeness of the Pharaoh Khafre. The Great Sphinx faces the sunrise and guards the pyramid tombs of Giza. How big is it? The Great Sphinx is huge! It is 241 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 66 feet high. The eyes on the face are 6 feet tall, the ears over three feet tall, and the nose would have been nearly 5 feet long before it was knocked off. It is carved out of the bedrock in a trench at the Giza site. 

We did get some photos, sadly the light was bad, and a morning visit would make for much better light. 

The day has come to an end and we drive back to the hotel to clean up and have dinner. 

For my birder friends, I noted egrets, herons, hooded crow, a king fisher,  grebes and a unidentified sparrow. Photo ops for these and other street photography did not present itself. 

All in all a great day. 

He told me it was an Egyptian Cadillac 

Bent Pyramid on the left, see how it bends near the top, and Snefru's (father of Khufu)  Red Pyramid.