20250303 Monday, March 3, 2025. The Pyramids and the Sphinx

20250303 Monday, March 3, 2025. The Pyramids and the Sphinx

We pretty much fell asleep as soon as we got back from the market and restaurant last night, but still are popping up awake at about 4am.  This may work to our advantage since we will have to get up at 4am to do the hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings, and tomorrow we check out of the hotel at 6am and have to have our luggage out by 5:15am.  This morning we had time to do our Duolingo lessons while on the hotel’s WiFi before heading down for breakfast at 6:30am.

  
The hotel is on the east bank of the Nile. It is considered preferable to live on the east side of the river where the sun rises every morning as a symbol of rebirth.  Today we travel across the Nile to the West Bank, where the sun disappears every evening.  The ancient Egyptians believed the sun took a trip through the underworld, the same journey human souls have to follow when they die.  Our first stop today was the Djoser Step Pyramid of Saqqara.  This is the first pyramid in Egypt and was erected in the 27th century BC for the burial of the third Egyptian dynasty pharaoh Djoser.  Prior pharaohs were buried further north in Abydos.

Ancient Memphis Necropolis

The step pyramid is actually situated in the middle of a vast necropolis, which served the ancient capital of Memphis.  New tombs are being excavated every day.  We descended into one of these tombs through a narrow and steep passage.  It was angled at nearly 30˚ while the passage was less than 5’ square so it was not possible to stand.  

Descending into the tomb required duck walking down the steep ramp, which was lined with a plywood floor onto which ladder like rungs were situated about every 2 feet.  This was quite strenuous and awkward.  However, once reaching the actual tomb chambers deep underground, the chambers have walls about 8’ high and a cathedral ceiling.  Some of the ceilings are decorated with carved stars that look like starfish.  The walls were carved with heiroglyphs.  There is a large empty stone sarcophagus in the main chamber, and a smaller chamber that probably housed burial goods.  

A nearby excavated tomb was more easily accessible at ground level.  This was like an above ground mausoleum, but had hidden underground burial chambers.  This had walls that were elaborately decorated with carvings in the fine limestone walls.  These were also painted.  

Perhaps the most notable find in the crypt is the false door structure which symbolically represents the door that the spirit of the deceased uses to cross over between the worlds of the living and the dead.  They are usually marked with details of the deceased person’s life and family.  The sculptures on the walls of the chamber with the door depict servants bringing all manner of burial goods to serve the deceased person in their afterlife.  The carvings were elaborate and although the servants assume the fixed postures customary for the depiction of humans at the time (King Tut poses) the animals being delivered showed all manner of active poses that one might expect to see in real living animals being lead into a burial chamber.  There were vivid scenes depicting fish, hippos and crocodiles in the water with men fishing and hunting above.  Another chamber depicts raising and caring for birds including force feeding geese to fatten up their livers (sorry France, but Egypt appears to have invented foie gras).  Interestingly enough, there is also a depiction of hyenas also being force fed.  

The step pyramid was surrounded by a great trench and surrounding wall 34’ high.  Most of the wall has disappeared, most likely recycled into structures all around Cairo, but a corner remains or has been excavated and preserved.  There is an entry which leads into a colonnade featuring the remnants of 40 columns carved to resemble bundles of reeds.  This had at one point been covered by a limestone roof and formed 24 alcoves which likely housed statues at one point.  

The colonnade leads into a vast courtyard in front of the Step Pyramid.  This Step Pyramid has an extensive labyrinth beneath it containing burial sites for an extended family.  Fatma is apparently a highly sought after Egyptologist guide who has taken many Heads of State and celebrities on tours of various sites, including a former US President.  While on a tour of the passages under the Step Pyramid, she and two VIP women guests got lost and it took her the better part of 2 hours to find their way back out.  

At one point in ancient times, this step pyramid had been encased in shiny polished limestone.  Now it is rough stone eroded by thousands of years of sand storms and Mother Nature.  

Our next stop was at a rug school.  Saqqara has long been a center for textile production.  Flax was grown in ancient times and used to create linen.  More recently cotton was grown and used for textiles.  Today they also have wool and silk rugs. The lower level of the factory is set up with looms manned by people of all ages.  There were several that appeared to be manned by families with children as young as 12 years old helping out an older family member or mentor.  Creating the rugs by hand is highly labor intensive.  It made my hands hurt just watching them working for a short period of time.  

Upstairs, of course they had a large show room and hoped to get some of us to purchase rugs.  We don’t know if anyone did buy today, but we met a couple from Virginia who had purchased rugs in Turkey.  When they were delivered to their doorstep, it wasn’t the UPS or FedEx guy dropping it off.  It was the man they bought the rugs from in Turkey, and he had a whole truck of rugs.  They ended up buying two more rugs off his truck when he made his delivery.  But now they have no more floor space and have been giving rugs away to their children.  They did have nice bathrooms we could use for free and cold sodas.  

Next we stopped at a restaurant for lunch.  The Steigenberger Pyramids looked like a hotel with a large lunch buffet that could accommodate our 3 buses full of hungry passengers.  

The food was filling but generally bland and uninspiring.  They did have an extensive dessert table, but like the main buffet, it looked better than it tasted.  But we all left with full bellies and the place was clean, comfortable and also had free bathrooms for us to use.  

Our bus then drove past the front of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, which is a huge complex in front of the Great Pyramids of Giza.  While the inside of the museum is completed and partially open to the public, there is still a lot of infrastructure being built to capitalize on the world wide lure of the Pyramids for Egypt’s tourism industry.  They will be completing an express route from the museum to the base of the pyramids, as well as a subway connection to the airport.  

We stopped at the base of the Great Pyramid built by Khufu.  It is the largest and oldest of the great pyramids of the Giza site.  Oddly, there was a huge billowing black cloud of smoke billowing from a tree close by.  There was apparently some sort of fire that eventually got put out as we were at the site.  The smoke turned from nasty black to grey and white as they got that under control.  

It’s hard to imagine the scale of the great pyramids from pictures, but when you’re standing at the base looking up at it, it makes your head spin.  The sides are remarkably steep and it is hard to imagine how spectacular it was in its heyday when it was covered entirely with polished white limestone and topped with a gold covered cap stone.  Today, there are a few remaining limestone covering blocks around parts of the base, but most has been recycled over the millennia into other structures.  
There is more of the smooth limestone cap on the second largest pyramid.  Apparently, it got to be too dangerous and difficult to steal any more of it than what is already gone.  The third largest pyramid on site was supposed to be covered with granite, but was never finished.  There are granite blocks all around the base that had been intended for that project.  

The sizes of the pyramids got smaller as time went largely due to a declining economy and prosperity possibly related to an earlier climate change cycle.  Then as grave robbers found it too tempting to rob these pyramids, later pharaohs began to hid their burial sites in the Valley of the Kings, placing temples of worship in more public locations remote from the actual burial sites.  

We did not go into the Khufu pyramid, nor any of the others. Although our guides said they would accommodate anyone who wished to do so, they would have to pay the additional entrance fee and were forewarned that the descent into the great pyramid is much longer, steeper and difficult than the first tomb we entered and that there is nothing inside but an undecorated burial chamber with a plain undecorated stone sarcophagus.  And it would take at least a half hour to fight through the crowd descending and climbing back out of the narrow and steep passage.  Viking had wisely subjected us all to that first tomb, and there were no takers for entering the Khufu pyramid.  We did encounter some pretty aggressive local “Photographers” who insisted on helping tourists take pictures at the base of the pyramid, but who also insist on getting paid for their services. 

When you are standing at the base of the Khufu pyramid, it completely fills your field of view.  To get a better perspective, we drove a ways away to a hilltop where we could take a short camel ride and take pictures.  Viking had included the camel ride for those wishing to do it, but it was no more than about 15 minutes on camel back, several hundred yards and a chance for the camel handlers to take your iPhone and snap pictures, and then insist on a tip for the photography.  These camel guys were even more aggressive than those at the base of the pyramid.  

Our last stop was the Great Sphinx, which although it is a massive sculpture, it is not nearly as big as you might imagine it to be.  It is nothing like Mount Rushmore, for example.  But it may be more how the public can only view it from above, and are not allowed to wander around its base.  But we everyone can say they have seen the Sphinx’s tail without actually having been there.  It’s a little sad that the Great Sphinx’s beard is sitting in the British Museum virtually ignored, when it really belongs back on the Sphinx’s face.  Fatma has been pointing out things many niches where famous statues or carvings used to be, but which now reside in the museums or private collections in other countries around the world.

Dinner was provided by Viking at the hotel’s restaurant where we have been having breakfast, and it was also a buffet. This did include several local cuisine items like the Rokak phyllo dough with minced beef and Kofta kebabs.  They did have duck, turkey and chicken and fish options.  They also had quite a selection of desserts like we had at lunch.  Overall, the cuisine is bland but filling.  

We got our bags repacked except for all our charging equipment, AC adapters and toothbrush bag, which will go into the suitcase first thing in the morning.