Boats and a Sphinx

Below is an excavated model of pharaoh's 'Solar' boat. Like the full size boats it is constructed of cedar wood (you may have heard of the 'Cedars of Lebanon'). These boats, small and large, are remnants of that long ago forest remembered only in legend.

This is not an exact replica of the full size boat that was found in the 1950's, but it gives you an idea of the shape. This model is about 6 feet long. As you can see this from the shape, this is a boat for sailing on a river.

The real boats are about 140 feet long.



When this boat was found, it had been disassembled and put in a stone storage pit. It took years for a team to reassemble it (at first they didn't know it was a boat). There are no metal parts, only wooden planks, wood pegs and rope. The boat is held together by weaving the rope through holes in the wood planks and tightening it. When the boat is put into the water, the wood swells, the rope shrinks and there are no leaks. There is evidence that this boat was actually used on the river, as various parts show normal wear. This shot is looking from the middle of boat towards the bow (front). The cabin would have been used by the pharaoh to keep out of the sun and would be filled with cushions, rugs and all the comforts of home or palace.



You can see the gangplank on the left in this shot. The gangplank was one place that showed normal wear on the end that rested on the dock. You also get a better look at the oars and decking.



This is the stern (back) of the boat. Isn't it graceful. Egyptians used double oars to steer their boats instead of a rudder.



This is the bow.



Not in too bad of shape for being 4,500 years old. Unlike the cedar forest, this survived for us to marvel at.



This shot of the under side gives you an idea of the size of the planks. You cannot see, because the thickness of the planks conceals the holes, but the rope is threaded through one plank to another. I have read that originally a single (very long) rope was used to tie the entire hull together.



Here she is and the angle of the sun is all wrong. I don't know why the Sphinx is generally referred to as she when the head is supposed to be the head of a man.



This stela is placed between the paws of the Sphinx and tells the story of Tutmoses IV and the Sphinx. The story goes: As a young man (one prince among many) he was out hunting in the desert. He came upon the head of the Sphinx sticking out of the ground (the entire body was buried in the sand) and sat down to rest in the shade of the head. He fell asleep and had a dream. In his dream the Sphinx told him that if he freed the Sphinx from its prison of sand he would become Pharaoh. Prince Tutmoses immediately set a crew of workers to clear away all the sand from around the Sphinx and the rest, as they say, is history (written of course in stone).



It is easy to see in this picture that the head is one kind of rock and the body is another kind. The head is a hard stone and the body is limestone, much softer. The pretty new stones covering the front legs and paws are another attempt to stop the deterioration. The broken nose has not been found. Some pieces of the broken beard were found and shipped off to the British Museum. The face still has some traces of red paint.



A close up shot of the walls surrounding the Sphinx enclosure. Geologists, that see pictures like this, say this type of stone erosion is due to water (lots of water falling from the sky) not wind. Egyptologists disagree because the last time there was large amounts of rain falling on the giza plateau was 10,000 years ago. That is many more years than the 4,500 years they claim is the age of the Sphinx. Neither discipline will admit they might be wrong so the dispute continues.


More later.
Kate

Inside the Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid is the most gigantic piece of architecture in the world. Consider the size and precision with which it was built. Imagine all the unquestioning resources of an entire country at the command of one man. I think that makes Pharaoh Khufu one of most powerful men that ever lived. Powerful men do not always leave lasting monuments. This man and his family left some pretty amazing ones.

The Great Pyramid has an ancient name, it was called "Khufu's Horizon".

The second pyramid was built by Khufu's son, Khafre and was called "Khafre is Great".



I would like to somehow convey the fascination and power I felt when standing on the ground next to these remarkable monuments. While I waited for our turn inside the pyramid to arrive, I thought about time. I heard a saying once: "Men fear time, Time fears the Pyramids". I have read that these monuments were built to outlast all of mankind. Interesting that the ancient Egyptians believed that there would come a time of the end of mankind. A time that only stone could survive. I wonder what brought them to that conclusion?

The white building on the right is the solar boat museum. Pictures on that later.



A couple of notes about the special access passes our tour group was able to get from the government.

As a tour group, we had private access to the Great Pyramid from 11:00am to 1:00pm. No other tourists were allowed in during this time. Our tour leader had also arranged to have the lights turned out from 12:30pm to 12:45pm. We had 15 minutes of total darkness while we sat in the Kings chamber. The acoustics are great by the way.

We also had special passes for private access to the Sphinx for one hour. No one else was allowed in the Sphinx enclosure during our reserved time. It helps when the people in charge have all the right connections. Like anywhere, in Egypt it is about who you know.

Here is Jessamy getting ready to enter the pyramid. She will be climbing down into the subterranean chamber (commonly called 'The Pit'), deep below ground level. She is wearing a headlight as the lighting is poor in the Pit. It is a very tough climb as it is very long and there is no ventilation, so I am not going with her. I will go only to the Queen's chamber and the King's chamber. The passage to the Queen's chamber has to be climbed bent over as it is only about three feet high. About half the climb to the King's chamber is done bent over. Once you reach the Grand Gallery you can stand up.



Here is Jessamy in 'The Pit'. The chamber is unfinished and not well lit.



Jessamy in the Queen's chamber. All our tour members that made the climb into the Pit met up with the rest of us at the Queen's chamber. Those of us that did not go to the Pit were sitting and meditating. The tired climbers took the opportunity to stretch out and get some fresh air. Unlike the Pit, the Queen and King's chambers have ventilation shafts for plenty of fresh air. Actually I think Jessamy was meditating not napping.



This is a shot of the Grand Gallery on the way into the King's chamber. There were lights strung along the way so it was not totally dark, just dim. The climb is fairly steep so the handrails really helped. The ceiling is a corbelled ceiling. That means that each layer of stone for the ceiling sticks out into the room a few inches. This means that the ceiling is very tall and slowly gets very narrow. It can support a great deal of weight though (that is important inside of a stone pyramid).



That small opening in the corner of the room below is the entrance to the King's chamber. I am sure that the king would have approved of everyone having to enter his burial chamber on hands and knees.

As you can see there are no decorations of any kind on the walls, floor or ceiling. The acoustics were great. They were great in the Queen's chamber too.



This is a shot of what is left of the red granite sarcophagus in the King's chamber. It is really very smooth, inside and out. The lid had been missing since antiquity. I was able to climb inside and laid on my back with eyes shut for a while. Jessamy took pictures but I don't have them yet. The sides are about waist high on me (about 2 1/2 feet) and the inside was about 1 foot longer than my 5 foot height. It was fairly narrow, I think a man's shoulders would stretch from side to side. Not much room for fancy coffins and such. Khufu must have been of small stature. The stone is smooth and very pretty with all that red in it.

While we were taking turns inside the sarcophagus some us sang and chanted. Did I mention that the acoustics are great?



Below is a shot looking back at the entrance to the Kings chamber as I was leaving. I had originally thought that being inside would be oppressive (all those many tons of stone piled over your head). I was wrong. I didn't feel that way at all. Maybe part of it was the mystic, part excitement, (My God!! This is me really inside the Kings chamber of the Great Pyramid!!!) But part of what I felt was neither of those, it was a feeling of being centered and grounded. My experience with pyramids is limited and maybe that is the nature of a pyramid.



I am out of steam for now. Next is the Sphinx, solar boats and run-away horses. I did mention the horses didn't I?

Until later,
kate

The BIG Pyramid(s), Outside Adventures

The most famous of Egypt's pyramids are located on the Giza plateau (south west of Cairo). This is a shot of the Giza plateau. Remember I mentioned the guards (with rifles), here are two in the foreground and one in the background on a camel. Egypt has learned that not all tourists are to be trusted.



As Cairo grows, it spreads out onto the desert and encroaches on the ground around the pyramids. No where else in the world can you stare at the one remaining wonder of the ancient world while you are munching on KFC nuggets. I decided to skip that experience.



This is NOT the great pyramid. The easiest way to tell is that this one goes all the way to the pointed top (called the apex). This is the second pyramid, built by Khafre (son of Khufu who built the great pyramid). It is nearly as large as his father's pyramid and still has some of the limestone casing stones at the top.

Imagine, all the pyramids on the plateau, encased in smooth, highly polished white limestone and the apex covered in electrum (a mixture of gold and silver) catching the first rays of Ra (ancient name of the sun god) as he rose over the Nile in the east. No wonder the men who caused such as these to be built were worshipped as gods.



THIS is the Great Pyramid. Khufu (the Greeks called him Cheops, they didn't speak Egyptian) was the grandson of Djoser who built the step pyramid at Saqqara. Remember that the step pyramid was the first large stone structure ever built anywhere. To go from that beginning to this in 100 years staggers me.

The long white building on the right, at the base of the pyramid, is a museum built for a solar boat found buried at the base of the pyramid. Pictures on that later. Just a note about sand and rocks. Please notice that the ground upon which these very heavy stone monuments sit is not sand but stone. Stone solid and deep enough to carry the weight of about 2,300,000 stone blocks that average about 2.3 tons each (there are some blocks in the kings chamber that weight about 50 - 80 tons). These builders chose carefully when they decided to build here. They wanted these building to outlast humans. So far, so good.


A close up of some of the stones in the Great Pyramid.





Looking up the side of the Great Pyramid, the blocks get smaller as you get closer to the top.




One short Oregonian standing at the foot of the second pyramid (note the casing stones at the top). No one is allowed to climb on any of the pyramids. Guards with rifles are a strong deterrent.




Jessamy and I at the foot of the Great Pyramid. The white stones are modern. CORRECTION!! These white stones are NOT modern, they are the original white limestone casing stones. They are still white because they have spent most the past 4,500 years covered in sand.




A couple of guards hanging out. If they see you take their picture you have to pay them a couple of Egyptian pounds per picture. You can see that I was sneaky and they are both looking away. All the guards in uniform are with the Antiquity/Tourist Police. There are other police and security people around but they are plain clothes. You can still tell who they are because they are wearing coats or suits to hide their very large automatic pistols.



OK, here are the camels. Jessamy said, "Mom, you have to ride a camel, it will be fun." "Mom you will enjoy it." "You can't leave Egypt without riding a camel." Lots of people go to Egypt and never climb on a camel. Unfortunately, I was not one of them. I told myself, "Self, you can do this; no camel is going to get the best of you." "You have been on the back of many horses, one unwilling cow and a couple of donkeys; how hard can it be?"



Look at this face. Would you buy a used car from this camel? Would you trust your 60 year old bones with this face? Really, look at this animal. It looks like it was assembled by a committee. I know why they put all the colorful rugs and blankets on his back. They are trying to distract you from the fact that this is the most obnoxious excuse for transportation ever devised.



Camels are big. They are tall even when sitting down. There is no graceful way for me to get up onto a camel. I was told, this is your camel, climb on. You notice that there are no stirrups (the camel saddle being invented before stirrups and not changed since). For persons with short legs this poses a challenge. I managed to throw my body across the camel and pull myself across the blankets by holding onto the little (very little) wooden posts sticking up from the saddle. By wiggling around and thrashing with my legs I managed to get one leg over the saddle and hang onto to the front pegs. Just as I was getting a good grip, the camel straightened his hind legs and the camel boy says to hang on. The problem was of course that I was falling forward over the neck of the beast, the boy finally takes a look at me and starts to scream for me to lean back as far as I can. So I lean back as far as I can just as the camel raises his front legs. Now instead of falling head first over the front end, I am now in danger of falling back over heels off the tail end. This was not a good beginning.

The camel boy is shaking his head and muttering in Arabic. Sometimes it is good to only understand English. At least I am up on the camel. Now it is time to get my picture taken. Neither the camel nor I am thrilled with this photo opportunity (no I don't have a copy of the picture). Next we get led away and tied to two other occupied camels and start our ride through the desert. We were the last to join this little trio and beast is crabby about having camels in front of him so he starts to crowd against one camel so he can smash my left leg against his bony body. That doesn't work as well as he likes (I managed to swing my leg up out of the way and pointing straight out front) so he decides that it is a better idea to try to shove my foot up the back end of said camel who objects. I am busy trying to get parts of my anatomy out of harms way when the camel boy finally strolls back, smacks beast with a rope, shouts appropriate Arabic words and beast settles down to behaving like a good little trail camel for unsuspecting tourists. Meanwhile Jessamy is out in front having a grand ole time bopping around the desert and loving her very well behaved camel. I am busy thinking that I still have to get off beast in one piece. Disembarking from beast was almost anti-climatic.



I survived my ride on Beast as you see.



In spite of the camel episode, we are still friends.



Here is Jessamy on her camel (I am sure that this camel's name translates as "Oh, another tourist, I just love tourist's.").



This is the entrance the tourists use to the Great Pyramid. It was made by a caliph in the ninth century looking for treasure (he didn't find any). Next time we will go inside the pyramid, visit the solar boat and visit the Sphinx. All in all it was a busy day.


Until next time.
kate

Saqqara - 4,600 years old

The picture below is of a reconstruction (using many of the actual stones) of the funeral temple of Pharaoh Djoser who built the step pyramid. The step pyramid is the oldest stone monument in the world. It was constructed about 2,600 BCE which makes it 4,600 years old.



When visiting the step pyramid you enter through the funeral temple, this makes it easier for the ticket takers to get out of the sun, and we get to walk on a wooden pathway instead of wade through the sand. (Did I mention the sand? There is lots of sand in Egypt, it is all over the place). The wood roof is a modern addition. Many thanks for the shade. (Did I mention the sun? There is lots of sun in Egypt, even in the winter.)




This is our Egyption guide, Ehab. Ehab has a degree in Egpytology and speaks very good English. He traveled with us the entire tour. Ehab was born and raised in Cairo and is a city boy through and through. Because Ehab has worked in the tour industry for years, he has a remarkable network that enabled him to get us into places most tour groups never get to see.

He also taught us some useful words in arabic (i.e. no in arabic is: la). To make sure you are understood you walk away from the vendor shaking your head saying la la la la la la la la la la, etc. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes he had to rescue me. Sometimes the security guard had to rescue me. (Did I mention the security guard? We also had police vehicles in front and behind our bus when we traveled. More about them later.)

But I digress. Also in this picture is the Step Pyramid. It is in pretty good shape for being 4,600 years old.



Just a nice picture of the step pyramid with the beautiful blue sky (did I mention the sand?).



Yours truly standing in front of the step pyramid. The nice tidy wall behind me is modern. That is as close as anyone is allowed to get. No one is allowed to climb on the pyramid (the guards carry rifles).



A close up of some of the weathered stones in the pyramid. Most of the stones are limestone.



Jessamy is taking a picture of some wild dogs that had made a den in the pyramid rocks and several of the puppies were peeking out at us.



See reference to puppies from above. These dogs are wild but never behaved in a threatening way toward anyone. We would see families, male, female and puppies together. When begging for food they just sit down and stare at you; if you don't give them any food they walk away. They never allowed people to get any closer than 5 or 6 feet. I think the guards fed them because they looked healthier than other dogs we saw elsewhere in the country.




More parts of the funeral temple reassembled.


Until later.
kate

A most unusual musical group

After spending the afternoon at the Alabaster Mosque, we dropped our suitcases off at the hotel, hopped into a taxi and headed off to the pyramids to see the Sound and Light Show. The show was rather boring but the taxi ride there and back more than made up for it.

Headlights appeared to be optional; there are no traffic lights and motorized vehicles share the road with an assortment of pedestrians, bicycles, donkeys, horsedrawn carriages and camels. No one uses signals, they just honk their horn as they pass by. The main object seemed to be to pass whatever is in front of you as fast as possible. I just shut my eyes and braced myself for the crash. Surprize, surprize, no crash. We made it there and back in one piece. I must say that the streets of Cairo were never boring.

This is picture is rather dark. Of course it was night time and I am not an expecially good photographer, but if you look closely you can see the head of the Sphinx in the center. As the narrator told his story the lights would change color and move between the pyramids, sphinx and a slide show on the long wall in the front.



When the show was over we headed back to meet up with our taxi driver when we walked by this rather unusual musical group. If you look closely you will see that this is a bagpipe ensemble.

I just love Egypt!




I wonder if there is a pharaoh tartan?


This band was the most excitement we saw at Giza except for the runaway horses making a break for freedom a couple of days later.

Until next time.
k