September 3, 1999 - Pyramids at Giza &
Saqqara, Egypt
We were so excited to finally see the pyramids!
Yes, we had only been in Egypt 3 days by the time we got here, but still. We had scheduled
a guide through a recommendation in our guidebook, and took off early in the morning.
We started off at Saqqara, home to the very
first pyramid, the Step Pyramid designed by the architect and master scholar Imhotep. We
looked around but couldn't go in. We even rode camels around the area to the back of the
pyramid. Yes, pretty cheesy, but fun since we'd passed up the chance in Morocco and
Turkey. Dave almost fell off his camel; the natural inclination is to lean forward when
they rise, but you need to lean backwards. It was great being up high and moving side to
side with the step of such a creature. We were there early enough in the day that there
weren't too many tourists around, and we got to enjoy the relative calm of being in the
desert.
Our next stop was Memphis to see the King,
Ramses, that is. Memphis was one of the first big hubs in ancient Egypt, but today there
isn't much left. A couple of tomb engravings and round tables that people aren't sure were
used for sacrifices or the base of a column. The biggest attraction was a huge statue of
Ramses II laying down in the middle of a small building. We could walk around it, but
couldn't get too close. It's twin is right near the train station in Cairo, in the open,
absorbing the dirt and fumes that are a part of the craziest section of town.
Finally we arrived at Giza. Driving up to the
pyramids was amazing. They were huge! We wished we could still climb them from the
outside, but they had been closed off to the public for about 5 years. We first stopped at
Cheops, the largest of the three. We were able to climb a few steps up before the tourist
police began to whistle at us to get down. The individual blocks, or cubits, used were
each huge too. We would have liked to have gone inside, but they weren't letting any more
people in that day.
Next we drove around to an area just behind the
pyramids for a great panoramic view of all three. It was amazing how close they were to
Cairo. Most of the photos show them surrounded by desert, but that is not the case. We
then went to the smallest of the three, Mycerinus, and walked around the side to the
burial chamber where there were no people. Our guide initially convinced us not to go
inside, as there wasn't much there, but we wandered around until some of the buses cleared
out and then went in. We should say crouched down and crawled in. There was a cattle
ladder we had to climb down to the first level, then down some more to the inner chamber.
As we'd been told, there wasn't much there, but it was still nice to be able to see how
deep they housed these tombs. It was extremely hot going in and out, but the chamber area
was relatively cool.
As we learned a few months ago, no tour is
complete without a trip to some local stores. We saw a carpet shop with children making
carpets (and were emphatically told that they go to school in the morning, and only make
carpets a few hours a day), and then a papyrus shop. It was neat to see how they cut,
drained, wove, and pressed the stems of papyrus plant into indestructible paper. Our guide
mentioned taking us to a perfume oil place too, but didn't since we obviously weren't
buying anything.
Last, but not least, we drove around to see the
Sphinx. They had done a lot of reconstruction on him, and were almost complete--the
British still have his nose, though. Some think that the head is that of Cheops, but
others think it simply represents wisdom and thought on the body of a fierce lion to
protect the pyramids from evil.
With all popular attractions, the challenge was
to see and feel the magnificence of the pyramids and sphinx amidst all the people, touts,
and beggars. Our guide helped with the second one, and we were usually able to ignore or
sneak away from the others. This seventh wonder of the ancient world is still just that.
