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A Camel and the Pyramids
What could be more iconic? A camel in the heat-haze of the desert, a Bedouin tent, tumbled ruins, and pyramids on the horizon!
There are some sights – no matter how many times they have been shown in photos or on film – that you just have to see for yourself.
Sure, there are stock images online that are taken in better weather conditions and from better angles, and the hosts of travel programs get superior entry and access – but none of that can add up to the amazement and wonder that comes from a first-hand experience.
I’ve just returned from my first foray into the Middle East, where the evidence of human civilisation stretches back millennia. A different archaeological wonder lay around every corner as I walked around locations so laden with ancient historical stories that I felt as if I could hear them in the pulsating heat and smell them in the ubiquitous burning incense.
My first day included the short bus ride from my Cairo hotel to Al-Jīzah on the outskirts of the city. Nothing prepares you for that first sighting of the Great Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu, rising some 147 meters (481 feet) from the Giza Plateau as it comes into view out of dusty bus windows. I caught my breath and swallowed hard.
Naturally, as we walked around the pyramids – jockeying for position with tourists from all over the globe and firmly refusing camel rides, postcards, and trinkets – we were told the stories of their construction. I’ll give you the short version: roughly 4,500 years ago (some time between 2575 and 2465 BC), they were built – not by slaves, as I was told in Grade 3 Social Studies, but by skilled under-employed farmers during the agricultural low season. Current thinking is that during the annual Nile floods, the populace could not work the lands, but could transport building materials on the rising flood waters, and could construct the massive pyramids and the funereal complexes that surrounded them. Egypt’s pharaohs were expected to become gods and return to their bodies after death, so everything they might need was interred with them, deep in secret rooms where robbers or enemies would presumably not find them.
Of course, we all know how that worked out.
But, raided though they might have been, the tombs themselves still stand: testaments to incredible design and engineering skills, superb logistic organisation, and wonderful artistic ingenuity. Thanks to the Rosetta Stone, which allowed scholars to decipher the hieroglyphs so intricately carved and painted on the interior walls, we have a rich understanding of the lives of the pharaohs and the processes involved in their embalming.
The largest tomb at Giza is the Pyramid of Khufu or Cheops – often called simply The Great Pyramid of Giza – is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain reasonably intact. The whole Giza site comes under UNESCO-World Heritage protection as Memphis (the first Capital of Ancient Egypt) and its Necropolis.
Join me for a glimpse.
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View from the Marriott Mena House
It’s as if every period of history is represented! Once the site of an old hunting lodge set on 16 hectares of gardens, Mena House in Giza first opened to the public in 1886. Photographs of screen stars, presidents and princesses who have visited sit in a case in the elaborate drawing room of this oId stone palace, and I could well imagine Hercule Poirot sitting under the elaborate gas chandelier, looking out over the manicured lawns and the Great Pyramid.
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Entering Giza
It is barely eight o’clock on an October morning, but the sun is already high, the light is blinding, and the heat bounces off the stones, both old and new.
Exploring the Tomb of Pharaoh Khufu or Cheops
With the Robbers’ Tunnel entrance – excavated by workers employed by the Caliph al Ma’mun, a ninth century Arab governor of Cairo – overhead, visitors clamber over the lower levels of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Take my Portrait!
All over the giant stones, each weighing 2.5 tonnes, …
Check out my Selfie!
… people share pictures of their experience.
Walid Explains
Our guide is passionate about his country’s history and culture, and enthusiastically explains how the pyramids were built.
Rough Stones
The ancient stones were once covered by polished limestone casing stones which would have been smooth and gleaming, shining white in the sun.
Pyramid of Pharaoh Khafre
The limestone capping remains on the top of the smaller Pyramid of Khafre, …
Pyramid of Pharaoh Khafre
… giving us a good idea how glorious they all must have looked.
People in the Street
As well as visitors from all around the world, there are locals, in traditional dress, walking around the site.
Dog at the Pyramid of Khafre
The skinny dogs are dwarfed by the giant stones.
Camel-Back Official
There is a visible security and police presence.
Leading the Animals
Camels and ponies are available for hire.
In Front of the Pyramid of Khafre
Tourism in Egypt is still in decline following the Arab Spring and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, and many touts and guides are struggling to make a living.
Pyramids of Giza
The Pyramid of Khafre and the smaller Pyramid of Menkaure float in the heat haze.
Camel at Giza
Camels wait for riders …
Camels at Giza
… while some get lucky. (iPhone6)
Cairo in the Heat Haze
Behind us, the massed high-rises of Cairo disappear into the smog.
Camel and Khafre
To me, the camels define the scene.
Mastaba of Seshemnefer IV from the Bus
Not all of the tombs are for pharaohs; this one is for Seshemnefer IV, who was Head of the Royal Harem up until about 2340 BC.
Pyramid, Ponies, and Patterns
Perspective is Everything!
Giza is home to the enigmatic sphinx.
Inscrutable
With the body of a lion, the sphinx’s head was thought to be modelled on Pharaoh Kafre, but the monolith – carved from limestone bedrock – is giving up no secrets.
Giza and the Sphinx
If you are not careful with your camera angles, the relatively small (20 m (66 ft) high) sculpture is dwarfed by the massive pyramids behind it.
What an extraordinary introduction to Egyptian mystery and history.
Walking among structures that have stood for so long was simply awe-inspiring.
And it wasn’t even lunch time!
Happy Travels
Pictures: 06October2019
[…] be over a thousand years younger than the magnificent Pyramids of the Old Kingdoms at Giza (see: Stories in Ancient Stone), but even the graffiti defacing them is older than the buildings I grew up […]
[…] the mind-blowing pyramids at Giza (see: Stories in Ancient Stone) to the amazing tombs in the Valley of the Kings (see: The Writing on the Walls, and Take me to the […]