The evolution of the pyramids
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
196
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Saqqara,
Egypt
Friday, June 13, 2008
"Why? Why not go to Saqqara and Giza Pyramids?"
"Because I don't want to. I want to go to Dashur."
And so, for our third day in Egypt, we engaged in the inexplicable escapade of a tour of Dashur and Saqqara. Because there's really nothing to Memphis but a museum we opted to skip this ancient Egyptian captial in favor of some pyramid action. I thought we'd go to Saqqara first, but our driver (who had just about the coolest shoes ever) said we should go to Dashur first and Saqqara on the way back. I guess the only reason to do it the other way is for chronology, since Saqqara does take a bit longer and does make a good stop on the way back to Cairo.
Would you like some background?
Long long ago, before Upper (that would be southern) and Lower (northern...very confusing) Egypt were joined together under one pharoh, the capital of Lower Egypt was located at Memphis, about 24 km south of Cairo
in the pyramid
. We're talking 4000 years and more ago. During this time, pharohs and nobles built above ground tombs to their glory, but in out of the way places so they'd be harder to plunder/desecrate. The first tombs were trapezoidal mastabas, which you can still see in some places, but they're sort of rare since stone monuments didn't start until the time of Imhotep (if the name is familiar it's because you've seen The Mummy, possibly too many times). Then Imhotep, being the brilliant Renaissance man that he was, began to build a step pyramid for the pharoh Zoser (aka Djoser and a number of other spellings). The Step Pyramid of Zoser, the first attempt at a pyramid, designed and overseen (along with its outbuildings and temples) by Imhotep, was the result of these plans, and is presently the oldest stone monument in the world. It is located at Saqqara, just across the river from the old capital at Memphis. As time progressed pyramids remained popular, and became truer in their shape. You may recognize the Bent Pyramid, which I have been known to call the "flunkie pyramid," as another of these attempts. Apparently the builders began to construct the walls at a 54 degree angle and realized halfway through that 1) it would be really, really tall and 2) it would collapse. They then revised their building to a 45 degree angle, completing the pyramid satisfactorily, even if it did look a bit odd. Unfortunately for them, the pharoh decided that he wouldn't feel safe putting his remains in that pyramid, and the builders were ordered to start again. The result was the Red Pyramid, the first true pyramid in ancient Egypt. Both of these are located 10 km south of Saqqara at Dashur.
Travis and I arrived at Dashur around 10 a.m
Travis in the pyramid
. and it was already piping hot. The Egyptian desert is not a friendly place, and you shouldn't consider going into it without as much water as you can carry. For Travis and I this is 3 liters each (an amount recommended as the daily quota for desert expeditions in Namibia), which we finished within four hours. This is probably why summer is not Egypt's high season. Although there was a tourist van when we arrived, this crowd was on its way out of the Red Pyramid, and so we were for the most part alone in our exploration of this pyramid. The very excellent thing about the Red Pyramid is that it's cheap to get into as a site, and this price includes going into the pyramid itself. Thus, unlike the pyramids at Giza, you do not have to pay to get into the site and then pay twice as much as that to climb into one of the great pyramids. Due to our budget and general stubbornness about paying ridiculous amounts of money to climb into a crowded hole, we looked forward to Dashur as our pyramid spelunking opportunity.
To enter the pyramid you climb halfway up it before beginning the somewhat frightening path deep into its bowels. The whole way down (and it was quite a long way, considering you're going all the way back to ground level at a 45 degree angle) we were bent double. It was immensely uncomfortable and a ramp isn't the greatest for your footing in any case. Finally we made it into what I suppose was an antechamber. The air was stale, but we could stand quite comfortably, as the ceiling rose some ten meters above us to a point. The way pyramids were built, in case you didn't (and wanted to) know, was first with the construction of the tomb proper. The tomb was not made of sandstone, as was the outer shell of the pyramid, but with granite or some similar stone material
inner chamber
. Once this was complete the true pyramid would be built around the tomb and then covered with limestone, which was then shaved down to make a smooth finish. Inside the tomb there was absolutely nothing to see. Unlike the famed tombs in the Valley of the Kings, these above ground tombs were not covered in paintings and instructions for getting to the underworld. Pyramids did have riches in them, but as you may have guessed, these were not left for us to see, if they were even available to the archaeologists who first explored these tombs. We climbed up a staircase into what I supposed to have been the burial chamber. It had the same ceiling as the other room, but the ground was roughly hewn and we stood on a sort of balcony looking into it. All in all the insides of pyramids are not terribly exciting. Many say that the best thing about the experience is knowing that you're crawling into something so ancient, and this includes spelunking the pyramids at Giza.
After our emergence (at which point the ticket taker asked for baksheesh..."Uh, what for?") we walked around the pyramid a bit. It looked rather like...a pyramid. Travis and I both commented that if you looked straight up one of the flat sides of it, it didn't look like a pyramid at all - just a wall. We were followed around the corner by both a guard with a gun and a guard with a camel. This baksheesh we could not escape. I therefore took advantage of limited English and therefore learned that that pyramid over there was made of mud brick and that we were looking at the mastabas of the pharoh's people and that this little hole was for one of the pharoh's kids. Interesting. I avoided a photo with the camel, using as my excuse that I really don't like camels and would rather have nothing to do with them
a little cramped
. This became a prime defense in the rest of our explorations of the Nile Valley. The Bent Pyramid is closed to visitors, but honestly I must say that pyramids don't look nearly as cool when you're right under them, so I was not so sad about this.
We made our way to Saqqara. Before I go into the details of this adventure I must tell you about our experience at the ticket booth. Not only do tours include nothing but transportation in much of Egypt, but also you must pay for your car's parking. There's little to be done about this in the case of Dashur and Saqqara because there is no public transport to these sites. The man at the Saqqara ticket booth was quite jolly and we got our entry tickets without mishap. It was the parking ticket that caused the trouble. LP says that parking costs 5 pounds (a dollar), but at Dashur we found not only the entry fee reduced, but also the parking fee. At Saqqara I made the mistake of asking how much the parking cost in the form of a statement: "Parking is 5 pounds?" To this the jolly ticket man responded something sort of unintelligible, so I thought that when he said, "okay," parking was actually free. Then he said (and this is the tricky part), "You say five pounds, you give me five pounds." I thought this was an odd way of saying the price, but I went with it.
Travis and I entered the museum. It was dedicated to the archaeological finds in the Saqqara necropolis (it consists of more than just the pyramid of Zoser, you see) and to Imhotep and his work. I found interesting the discussion of the architecture of the pyramid and its outbuildings, the tricks used for the building and such
a mountain
. Most interesting, however, was the little mummy born around about 4000 years ago. That's a pretty old mummy. While in the museum Travis looked at all our tickets and discovered that the parking ticket was for 2 pounds and we'd been had. This is why you should learn to read Arabic numerals - everything is in them and they don't look anything like Western numerals, which are so often (apparently wrongly) called Arabic numerals. I got very pouty, and as we left the museum Travis asked me if I was going to call the guy on it or not. I said I was, which I think surprised Travis a bit. I didn't expect to get any money back (honestly 3 pounds is just a bit more than 50 cents), but I wanted to make him feel bad for taking advantage of people who had put their trust in him. I therefore went in with my pathetic pouty face on and asked him, "Why did you do it?"
Of course he spluttered, which is what I meant for him to do. "Why did you take advantage of me?" Just as we arrived another man was leaving the jolly ticket man and he heard me and stayed to watch the drama unroll. This may have played into the jolly ticket man's capitulation to my pouting. I said that the ticket said two pounds and we'd given him five and why did he do that to us? He played dumb, asked again if we had a taxi, and then gave us our change. I said thank you and left, somewhat shocked at the way that had played out. Much better than expected, although I don't know if he really felt bad about what he'd done. I'd go further into a rant about Egyptian money grubbing techniques, but I think here is not the place. Needless to say, you must be careful.
At the top of the hill we went through a large, pillared edifice, where we were followed by a man offering to show us three tombs and dangling his keys in our faces
the red pyramid
. I thought this could be fun and a good use of baksheesh, but I'd misunderstood. He'd said three tombs, but I'd heard one tomb and three pounds. When he said 40 pounds we blew him off, although that was not too easy. In front of Zoser's pyramid we found that tour guides have a massively bad habit of standing in prime photo location and that they, of all people, should really know better. We probably sat for five minutes before the guide left and the area was cleared for us to take a photo of ourselves in front of the pyramid. We've gotten very good at using the tripod and timer to our advantage. Especially since for some reason tourists are spectacularly bad at taking decent photos when you ask them to help you out.
Our explorations led us to the oldest grafitti in the world and some tombs for Zoser's family. We learned this because I can't help tailing English speaking tour groups and learning some tidbits from my eavesdropping. I think that overall we didn't look at too much of the necropolis, but we found our explorations around the tomb of Zoser satisfactory. We climbed up one little hill, avoiding about five donkeys and ten camels in the process, and looked over at three little pyramids. Way off in the distance I could see the Great Pyramids at Giza
the oldest true pyramid
. We'd had a few tantalizing glimpses, and were revved up for tomorrow's explorations. Our day ended when a guard chased after us as we tried to crest a hill to see if we couldn't see that mastaba we'd seen from Dashur. I don't think we were doing anything wrong, and I think he was a little clueless, cause when I said I wanted to see the mastaba he said it was at Dashur, which it assuredly was not, and besides LP says specifically that it is one of the main attractions at Saqqara after the Step Pyramid. Whatever, said we, we're done with baksheesh for the day, so we left the guard to his own devices and went back to our car and back to Cairo. Back in Cairo we got lunch, and I recommend this only because it was very excellent for us. We went to Gad, near the intersection of 26th July and Sherif street and got a plate of felafel, a plate of tomato fuul, and a yogurt salad with cucumber. Gad provides pita for its customers, so with these little things we made ourselves very excellent sandwiches for little money.
Enjoy!
Erin
