We were out of our rooms by 7:00, in time for a horrendous breakfast at the Santana, and a 7:30 bus departure. It was a Sunday, which is actually Monday in the Egyptian week, so we worked our way through traffic to the pyramids to get there by opening time, 8:30. Mohammed introduced us to our bus driver, Mustafa, and a slightly random "security guard" in a suit, that the government had decided to provide us, much to Mohammed's apparent dissatisfaction...
We arrived at the pyramids and had to carry ALL our bags through security, just to put them back on the bus on the other side. Mohamed paid the 80EGP entrance and we elected to pay an extra 200EGP, about R400 each to go inside the great pyramid. It took me a lot of courage to buy that ticket, as I had read the inside was very claustrophobic...
We walked to the amazing Great Pyramid of Khufu, also known as Cheops by the Greeks, and marveled at its height and size, it used to be 137m high but is now 126m, as the 11m tip has broken off. Nothing can prepare one for this sight, it is awe inspiring to look at something built by humans which is almost 5000 years old, still intact, and to imagine the amount of effort that must have gone into building it. Closer to the pyramid, we saw the enormous sandstone blocks used to build it, 2.5 million of them in total, averaging 2.3 tonnes each!
Mohammed told us some of the history, that Khufu commissioned the pyramid as his tomb, following the architectural examples set by previous dynasties, and the great architect, Imhotep. To ensure it lasted forever, they took sandstone all the way from Aswan, and transported the enormous blocks all the way up the Nile. The sandstone right beneath our feet in Giza was not sufficiently strong for the pharaoh. The workforce for Khufu's pyramid was apparently local farmers who were unable to farm in the times the Nile didn't flood. Khufu supposedly solved the "unemployment problem" by putting these people to work on his tomb. It took 20 years and somewhere between 4000 and 100000 labourers (estimates vary wildly!).
We climbed some steps up the pyramid to the entrance to it, and found ourselves in a narrow corridor. This became narrower and steeper, until it was about 1m wide, 1.3m high and headed at least at a 30 degree angle. We all had to bend right down to stop hitting our heads, even me. Other folks were coming down the one way route which made it tricky. We then entered a cavern, where we continued climbing a steep but slightly less narrow slope. Finally we reached the tomb chamber, where a large square stone sarcophagus stood. The entire route felt very warm compared to the cold winter morning outside, and the room had a strange smell and eery feel to it. It was about 4m by 3m, with a very high ceiling. Mohammed had explained that there were further chambers above it, the top one with a v shaped ceiling to distribute the weight. It was awesome to be inside the worlds largest pyramid!
Outside again we took photos and fought off touts, camel riders and souvenir sellers. Mohammed allowed a few of them to come to the bus and gave us the option to buy anything we liked, quite a few did buy and it felt much less aggressive and intimidating. Next we drove to the panorama, where we took awesome photos overlooking all 3 pyramids, and got a group pic with out new friends: Sara, Liz, Julie, Emma, Carolle, Kim, Julian, Yen, Yao, Mo, Bert, Hubert and Steve. We saw the second pyramid which is only 1m shorter than the great one, and belonged to Khufu's son, Khafre. It's tip is still intact and shows what the exterior of the pyramids originally would have looked like. The third pyramid is quite a bit smaller and belongs to Khafre's son.
Some of the the travelers in our group wanted to ride camels (120EGP) so Mohammed organized it and we walked with them back down towards the second pyramid. The poor camels didn't look in such good condition, some of them with little hair, and one belching continually, his weird pink tongue lolling and practically inflating... We rejoined the bus and then walked around the second pyramid while some people checked out the solar boat museum. Apparently 5 huge boats were found buried near the pyramids, supposedly to carry the pharaoh to the sun god. Since two were on display in the Egyptian museum, we didn't bother with the boat museum (50EGP).
Lastly, we drove down to the Sphinx, which was on considerably lower ground than the rest of the pyramid complex. We walked through the temple first, which was used for embalming the pharaoh after death, there is another temple used for making offerings to the gods on his behalf. At the other end of the causeway from the temple, we came face to face with the Sphinx with its lion body and human head, supposedly representing pharaoh Khafre. The Sphinx was carved out of a single block of rock, and the head is out of proportion with the huge body. Parts of the body are very eroded and other parts have been restored. The face has been badly damaged, this was done by an angry Muslim khalif, who didn't appreciate his people still worshipping and fearing the Sphinx. To prove to them that the Sphinx had no power, he removed its nose (represents dignity) and beard (represents royalty).
Tired from a busy morning, we retired to a cute farmstyle restaurant, where we watched a lady baking pita breads in a wood burning oven, and then tucked into bread, hummus, aubergine, rice, dolmas, barbecued chicken and koftas. The meat came on a still hot mini coal barbecue, which nearly asphyxiated me and Sarah in smoke. But overall the food was yummy and the atmosphere nice, except for musicians playing loudly right next to you until you tipped them!
Then we headed to the Egyptian museum. Mohammed managed to convince our "security guard" to go home to his kids so he was tipped and farewelled. We entered the museum courtyard and checked out a quite impressive pink building with lovely gardens and statues outside it. In the centre of the courtyard was a large pond with papyrus and lotus - the symbols of north and south Egypt.
Mohammed then gave us the tour of the most important items in the museum. We saw a replica of the Rosetta Stone, the only replica in the museum and a very important key in translating the Egyptian language.
Mo also showed and explained statues of various pharaohs, the most important being the tiny statue of Khufu, the only statue they have of him. He also explained how to tell if a statue represents a living or dead person.
He started with the old kingdom (2650-2100BC) and the early dynasties starting with Djoser (Dynasty 3) who built the Step pyramid, followed by Khufu, Khafre and Mencaure.
Mohammed didn't spend much time in the Middle Kingdom, which was a short period in ancient Egypts history, and which was followed by a second intermediate period where a Western Asiatic people, the Hyksos, took over lower Egypt. Mo then explained the New Kingdom (1650-1070BC), the highlight being Queen Hatshepsut who took the throne when her husband died and her step son, Tutmose III, the rightful heir was only 5 years old. She ruled for 21 years and was one of the best rulers Egypt ever had. It was a peaceful time and she grew her kingdom and wealth by trading, not taking by force. She saw herself as a king and was portrayed as such in her statues. It was thought that her step son actually killed her, but when her body was found among the anonymous mummies in the museum, DNA testing matched her, and an autopsy showed she died of natural causes. But very few statues of her remain in tact, this is because her step son did take revenge on her for all the years she kept him in the shadows, by damaging any image of her.
Next we went upstairs to the real highlights, king Tutankhamen's treasures. The stairs on the way up held some of the last remaining ancient papyrus, some 5000 years old, after many were destroyed in the fire of the library of Alexandria. King Tut was a boy king who died very young, thus they were not able to fully complete his tomb, however his tomb was the only one found to be completely in tact, and untouched by grave robbers. A wonderful wealth of artifacts were discovered, most of which are on display in the museum. We were very lucky that the Egyptian government had made a never-before ruling to allow photography in the museum for just over one month, so all the photos we took were not normally allowed to tourists! Mohamed was in heaven. We viewed King Tut's amazing solid gold mask, which would have been placed over his face in the tomb, weighing 11kg, and his sarcophagus which consisted of a solid gold sarcophagus, placed inside a wooden sarcophagus covered in gold, and then another similar larger one. It was all beautiful and incredible to see and photograph. Mo also told us about the curse in Tutankhamen's tomb - all the historians who first went in there died shortly afterwards. Theories suggest that this may have been due to gases trapped for thousands of years, which may have turned toxic, or perhaps even poison placed by those loyal to the pharaoh, warning others to stay away.
After that we had free time and explored and took more pics. We found the solar boats, and the Greco-Roman room, amongst other things. It was interesting to see the merge of both Rgyptian and Greco Roman artistic styles. We met the group back at the coffee shop at the exit and unwittingly paid an exorbitant 25EGP (R50) for a small coffee. Then we left in the bus to pop into a supermarket for water and supplies before heading to the train station in Giza. Mo didn't want to start from the station in Cairo as it was massive and very hard to find your train.
The station was actually quite small, and we arrived too early despite the gridlocked Cairo traffic. We found an open spot and milled around for about an hour before our train arrived. We got a sleeper cabin for two, which was laid out with two seats side by side, and a basin, electric point and a place to store our bags. We were soon served an ok dinner of rice, potatoes, bread and creamy chicken with chocolate cake for dessert. Once we finished our meal, the attendant converted the who thing into two bunk beds, complete with blankets and soft pillows. After reading and writing for a while, we crashed, totally exhausted after a long and exciting day.
No comments:
Post a Comment