What's Inside the Pyramids? Part 1

The short answer to that question is "Not much!"  The typical content is simply an empty burial chamber.  There is almost nothing in the way of interior decorations with a couple of important exceptions.

But that shouldn't dissuade you from making the trip into the heart of at least one to see for yourself.

I had been inside of three prior to this year and added a fourth during a recent tour of the Dahshur pyramids.

My favorite is the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, just about twenty miles south of our winter home.


This pyramid is almost 350 feet tall.  There is an opening in the north face of the pyramid about a third of the way up, just a bit to the left of where Linda is standing in the picture.  A trail and stairway lead to the opening.

In past years, Egypt's best mounted police stood guard at the foot of the pyramid while helpers stood at the actual opening ready to assist visitors in navigating the narrow passage.
 

The passageway is only about four feet wide and four feet high; it descends over a length of perhaps 300 feet to around ground level.  This is best traveled in reverse, holding on to a railing during the descent phase.


About halfway down, the thought will occur that you have to go back up the same way, bent over.  It is a bit like descending into the Grand Canyon, the hard part comes later and you can't quit part way through.

Once you are at the bottom, you are not "there" yet.  Two chambers, slightly offset, are connected by a small passage and then a tall wooden scaffolding awaits you.


At the top of the scaffold, another small passage takes you to a the third chamber and the probable final resting place of king Sneferu.
   


The construction style of these chambers is apparently known as "corbel vaulting."
 

That final chamber is disappointing as a final destination, if you were expecting something like the tombs in the Luxor area.

Poor Sneferu - this was his third attempt at building himself a pyramid and no one has yet found his grave for certain.

If my description of the route was hard to follow, perhaps a picture would help.  Fortunately, we have this diagram available on Wikipedia.

Now,Linda thinks that I spend way too much time getting pictures ready for the blog.  But notice what R. F. Morgan has done here - prepared a 3D computer model of the pyramid with detailed sketches of those chambers and passages!  Most people would simply capture this image from Wikicommons and move on.  Not I!  Who is R F Morgan and what does this person do for a living?

Robin F. Morgan is a feminist and author who was obviously bitten by the "Egypt Bug" as so many visitors to this country are.  She has drawn 3D models of most of the pyramids and the tombs at Valley of the Kings.  And, the models actually include YouTube video to take you inside.  Here is the link to her Red Pyramid tour. You can easily get to more of her YouTube models from there.


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If the descent and climb into the Red Pyramid sounds like too much effort, there are two smaller pyramids at Saqqara that you might like to tour.


The pyramid of Unas and its ground-level opening would be easy to miss while you are looking to the north toward the giant step-pyramid.


Likewise, the pyramid of Teti could be easily missed while heading to see nearby temple drawings. It is not a pile of dirt you're seeing in this photo. It's a crumbling pyramid.


The descent ramps have modest slopes compared to the larger pyramids.


The final tomb chamber is reached by another of those very low passages.  But the wall of this tomb is inscribed with the famous "Pyramid Texts."  The words "magic" and "spells" are frequently associated with these writings - approach with caution!
 

Here Birdie, Birdie

When at home in Minnesota, we are avid bird watchers. Living, as we do, on a pond, we have seen many birds during the three years we've lived in that location.

We're excited by the different kinds of birds that Egypt has to offer. Photographing birds is not the easiest thing but these are some that we've managed to capture with the camera.
 
Little Green Bee-eater                                                       Rock Dove


 
Cattle Egret (sitting on a camel)                                     Cattle Egret



White Wagtail



Trio of Hoopoes


Pied Kingfisher


 
Egret                                                                               Black-winged Stilt


 
Gray Heron                                                                       Cormorants

What's for Dinner

When in the US we eat salmon 3-4 times a month. It’s something we miss while in Egypt. No longer. During a recent shopping trip we were excited to see that our favorite store, Spinney’s, now stocks frozen salmon. A quick conversion of the price of 211 LE translated to $13.00 for a half pound. That’s nearly the price we pay in Minnesota so it’s considered very expensive here. We’re sure we are the only ones in our building eating salmon tonight and probably the only ones on our street (maybe even the entire neighborhood!).





In Minnesota we typically grill our salmon on a plank. We don’t have a grill here so we cooked it in our cast iron pan. It looked appetizing as the fragrance filled our apartment with anticipation.


To accompany the salmon we prepared a typical Mediterranean salad consisting of cucumber, tomato, green pepper, onion, cilantro, cumin, olive oil and vinegar.


Potatoes and squash rounded out the tasty meal.

The Karnak and Luxor Temples - Part 2

Wikipedia has two separate articles about the Karnak temple complex we were visiting in a previous post: Karnak and Precinct of Amun-re.  The Karnak article references a marvelous aerial photograph from 1914 by the Austrian photographer Theodor Kofler.  (There is an article about Kofler and  his aerial photohgraphy of Egypt available at this link   -   highly recommended)  This is a portion of the picture showing the broken tip of Hatshepsut's second obelisk:

That tip has been moved into the plaza near the Sacred Lake and we caught up to it there.


That also gave us a chance to take a look at an obelisk from the very tip top.


The Sacred Lake plaza also has a large granite scarab mounted on a pillar.  Reports are that if you walk around the pillar/scarab seven times, good luck will come your way.


An ancient Egyptian calendar can be found "hanging on the wall" at the edge of the plaza. Rashid explained briefly how it worked.


From the Sacred Lake, the route out of the Karnak temple passes a "boneyard" of chunks and hunks that appear to be waiting for matching pieces of their jigsaw puzzles.



A very large wall with inscriptions also presents itself on the way out.  This appears to feature Thutmose smiting his Syrian enemies - a very popular theme throughout the temple complex.


Next our van took us from Karnak back to the Luxor temple near our boat dock.  Just in case you were wondering if the tourist traffic had returned to Egypt, this picture of the parking lot at the Luxor temple gives some indication.


In ancient times, the Karnak and Luxor temples were joined by a mile and a half long avenue of sphinxes.  Much of the avenue has been restored in recent years.





Unlike Karnak which bears evidence of many Egyptian Kings, Luxor is almost exclusively a Ramses II monument.  Another modern visitor center with a detailed model greets the tourists.


Ramses II placed a tall obelisk in front of the pylon at the entrance.  This was one of a matched pair - the other was spirited off to Paris by the French archeologists and can now be found in Place de Concorde.




There is a sign with a good description of the interior court and photos of the gradual excavation of the site.


The interior court plaza seemed like a great photo opportunity for our group.


Of course, this is also a good opportunity here for a photo of Ramses II


There are a number of hieroglyphic drawings on various parts of the temple walls.