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Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Dahshur Pyramids

My favorite pyramids can be found about sixteen miles south of our place.  Take the Sakkara road south from the Ring Road about ten miles along the canal and you will reach the well marked exit to the Sakkara Pyramids.  Continue about another four or five miles and you will reach the not-very-well-marked exit to the Dahshur Pyramids.  It's a pleasant drive through some agricultural areas with lots of date palms and interspersed cabbage plots.

Your driver might have to ask for directions.  You'll turn right at this corner, and if you were at the right spot, you will notice this colorful "flat iron" building in the village before you go very far.
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It won't be very far before you reach this branch of the Tourism Antiqte Police.  It will cost you thirty pounds apiece for your admission tickets.
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Shortly after the admission gate, you will see the Red Pyramid emerge from behind the sand.
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The Bent Pyramid can also be seen in the distance.  They photograph well together.
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These are my favorites because they are relatively unvisited.  As we pulled up we were one of only three cars at the site.  After a fairly mild climb up the stairs to the entrance, you can descend the 150 steps into the core of the pyramid.  This trek is best made by backing down with your face toward the stairway.
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At the bottom, there are two ante-chambers to pass through before climbing a scaffolding to enter the burial chamber.
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Of course, the chambers are empty - and a bit smelly - like you might expect for the home of some animals that have been living here for a long time.  But this is the best "inside the pyramid" experience you are going to have unless you take up archeology.



1 comment:

ashraffarouk said...

http://egydaytour.blogspot.com
Just in front of Fayoum in the Nile Valley, south of Cairo, situated alone on the edge of the Western Desert above the lush fields Meidum is a tower-like structure some sixty-five feet high, which was once a pyramid which we believe was built by the 4th Dynasty King, SnefruEgyptologists. Some believe that the early stages of construction were made by Huni, his predecessor, and that Sneferu was only responsible for the completion of the pyramid. However, the name of Huni was not found in the pyramid, and various written documents suggest that the residential city and nearby belonged to the reign of Sneferu. In addition, many of the tombs nearby also belong to the family of Sneferu.In May ways Meidum is the most mysterious of all the great pyramids. When Snefru ascended the throne around 2575 BC, the complex of Djoser at Saqqara was the only major royal pyramid is completed. But Sneferu became the largest manufacturer of the pyramid of Egyptian history by completing not one, but three of them.The first inhabitants of this century called Meidum Pyramid el-Haram al-kaddab, which means “false pyramid” and because of its shape, it has attracted attention since the Middle Ages of travelers. The early fifteenth century, the famous Arab historian Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi thought it looked like a huge mountain tiered five years. However, it eroded so badly that when Frederik Ludwig Norden visited in the eighteenth century, the pyramid seemed to have only three levels. But it was not time and eroded, but human beings.