9 a.m. Sunday: I've seen the Great Pyramid of Khufu a thousand times in movies and on TV, but never before in person. It's incredible—more than 137 meters of massive stone blocks piled high. It's the only remaining of the ancient world's Seven Wonders. Khufu ruled from around 2589 to 2566 B.C. and had this tomb built around 2550 B.C. It's still one of the largest buildings ever erected. I get goosebumps standing outside looking up at it, then wonder how I'm ever going to climb the long stairways inside. Entering the pyramid is truly like stepping back in time 4,500 years. Not much has changed since then; there's certainly no gift shop or soda machine to greet visitors. There's not much in here, actually—no carvings or paintings. Just a narrow, ascending corridor. We have to hunch over to climb up the makeshift stairs. Next comes a claustrophobia-inducing tunnel. We bend waaay over—nearly 90 degrees—and continue upward. I wish I were shorter. I need another shower.
We reach the erroneously named queen's chamber (its function still isn't known). We leave the small and unadorned room and head up to the king's chamber, where Khufu's sarcophagus still rests. To get there we have to climb up the famous Grand Gallery, a loooong staircase , and scramble through another tunnel.
Inside, the sarcophagus, robbed and emptied in ancient times, lends the barren room a spectral air. Whatever treasures were buried with Khufu were stolen long ago.
After a while, legs shaking and completely soaked with sweat, I retrace my steps. It's disorienting to emerge from the dark pyramid into the harsh sunlight. Haze hangs over the modern skyline of Cairo just a short ways away. Giza is really just a suburb of the city, which sprawls closer and closer to the past every day.
The Sphinx
A camel! I am sitting astride a camel, about to ride from the Great Pyramid down to the Sphinx. But after he stands up although I think he'll come around. So I changed the camel for a horse. Much better. Khafre (who also built the second pyramid at Giza) had the enormous Sphinx built in his image around 2500 B.C. Visitors from all over the world are here, clamoring for the best angle for photos. People have been coming here for more than 4,000 years to pay homage to Khafre in one way or another.
From the Sphinx it's a short way south to the recently discovered workers' village, where the people who built the Pyramids and the Sphinx lived and died. (ofcourse I study the forbidden history but we will still tell the Egyptian story).
Looking around now, it's hard to imagine the workers here. A soccer field covers part of the area, and backfilled sand covers much that's been excavated, at least until the next archaeological field season gets under way this winter.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
The Valley of the Kings
7:30 a.m. Tuesday:
With an early start to try and beat some of the heat, we head off for the Valley of the Kings, on the west side of the Nile outside Luxor.
It's a beautiful drive—green waves of crops (sugarcane, mostly) and palm trees line the road, and farmers are at work in their fields. Houses here are still built of mud brick, just as in ancient times.
The West Bank is one of the most virgin archaeological sites in the world. Almost all the New Kingdom (circa 1539 to 1078 B.C.) pharaohs built their burial places in the Valley of the Kings, cutting concealed tombs in the rock. Pyramids, they had learned, were too visible—and accessible—to thieves. Still, robbers looted most of the tombs here, stealing the treasures buried with each king. The first tomb we enter is KV 5, built for the sons of Ramses II. Rediscovered in 1989, it's still being studied. The job will take a while—there are at least 110 chambers here. After KV 5 the famous tomb of Tutankhamun seems very small. It was hastily prepared for the king, who died around age 20 after a brief reign (circa 1333 to 1323 B.C.). Tut would have been just a footnote in Egyptian history had it not been for the 1922 find of his intact tomb, undiscovered by robbers and still stuffed with treasures. Nothing is left here now except Tut's mummy and coffin. (The rest is in the Egyptian Museum.) Only a few tourists are allowed in at a time, and everyone stays quiet, peering over at the coffin and wall paintings that detail funerary rituals. Next we head back out into the sun and then down again, this time into the tomb of Seti I (circa 1290 to 1279 B.C.), father of Ramses II—one of the valley's deepest, most decorated tombs. Every surface is covered with paintings, drawings, and hieroglyphs, even the ceiling. Vivid reds, yellows, and blues—they look like they were just painted yesterday.
With an early start to try and beat some of the heat, we head off for the Valley of the Kings, on the west side of the Nile outside Luxor.
It's a beautiful drive—green waves of crops (sugarcane, mostly) and palm trees line the road, and farmers are at work in their fields. Houses here are still built of mud brick, just as in ancient times.
The West Bank is one of the most virgin archaeological sites in the world. Almost all the New Kingdom (circa 1539 to 1078 B.C.) pharaohs built their burial places in the Valley of the Kings, cutting concealed tombs in the rock. Pyramids, they had learned, were too visible—and accessible—to thieves. Still, robbers looted most of the tombs here, stealing the treasures buried with each king. The first tomb we enter is KV 5, built for the sons of Ramses II. Rediscovered in 1989, it's still being studied. The job will take a while—there are at least 110 chambers here. After KV 5 the famous tomb of Tutankhamun seems very small. It was hastily prepared for the king, who died around age 20 after a brief reign (circa 1333 to 1323 B.C.). Tut would have been just a footnote in Egyptian history had it not been for the 1922 find of his intact tomb, undiscovered by robbers and still stuffed with treasures. Nothing is left here now except Tut's mummy and coffin. (The rest is in the Egyptian Museum.) Only a few tourists are allowed in at a time, and everyone stays quiet, peering over at the coffin and wall paintings that detail funerary rituals. Next we head back out into the sun and then down again, this time into the tomb of Seti I (circa 1290 to 1279 B.C.), father of Ramses II—one of the valley's deepest, most decorated tombs. Every surface is covered with paintings, drawings, and hieroglyphs, even the ceiling. Vivid reds, yellows, and blues—they look like they were just painted yesterday.
The Temples at Luxor
8 a.m. Monday:
Cairo's Egyptian Museum is now my favorite museum anywhere. It's nearly a hundred years old and feels even older. There's no air conditioning (!) and the lighting is sporadic. Everything inside seems to be brown, the same color as the rest of Cairo. Plans are under way to modernize the museum, but I love it the way it is.
Everywhere you look here there are treasures—sarcophagi, tomb relics, statues, and gold, gold, gold. I'm mortified when, as I see a golden throne of Tut's, gum falls out of my mouth onto the floor. It sticks.
Noon: Flight to Luxor. I sleep the whole way, lulled by the heat. Everyone keeps saying that it will be even hotter in Luxor. Impossible.
2 p.m.: It's hotter in Luxor: 40.5°C. Luxor is the oven and I'm the bread. Don't they ever have clouds here?
3 p.m.: When we arrive at the Great Temple of Amun at Karnak, my jaw drops. It's the most impressive thing I've ever seen. The largest temple complex ever built, it was adorned and rebuilt by generation after generation of pharaohs. Hieroglyphs and painted reliefs cover nearly all the surfaces.
Everything is big here. Huge statues and obelisks are everywhere. And the columns! In the main hall alone, 12 columns stretch nearly 21 meters high, each one wide enough on top to hold 50 people. Flanking the hall are another 122 columns, these each 13 meters tall. The tourists are dwarfed in comparison. It's not hard to imagine how awe-inspiring the temple must have been to the Egyptians who worshipped here.
9 p.m.: Tonight, after dinner on a felucca, a narrow sailboat, it's back to the hotel garden for coffee and entertainment from a belly dancer. I feel like a character from an Agatha Christie novel, traipsing ancient sites by day, cruising the Nile at night, and recording my thoughts all the while.
Cairo's Egyptian Museum is now my favorite museum anywhere. It's nearly a hundred years old and feels even older. There's no air conditioning (!) and the lighting is sporadic. Everything inside seems to be brown, the same color as the rest of Cairo. Plans are under way to modernize the museum, but I love it the way it is.
Everywhere you look here there are treasures—sarcophagi, tomb relics, statues, and gold, gold, gold. I'm mortified when, as I see a golden throne of Tut's, gum falls out of my mouth onto the floor. It sticks.
Noon: Flight to Luxor. I sleep the whole way, lulled by the heat. Everyone keeps saying that it will be even hotter in Luxor. Impossible.
2 p.m.: It's hotter in Luxor: 40.5°C. Luxor is the oven and I'm the bread. Don't they ever have clouds here?
3 p.m.: When we arrive at the Great Temple of Amun at Karnak, my jaw drops. It's the most impressive thing I've ever seen. The largest temple complex ever built, it was adorned and rebuilt by generation after generation of pharaohs. Hieroglyphs and painted reliefs cover nearly all the surfaces.
Everything is big here. Huge statues and obelisks are everywhere. And the columns! In the main hall alone, 12 columns stretch nearly 21 meters high, each one wide enough on top to hold 50 people. Flanking the hall are another 122 columns, these each 13 meters tall. The tourists are dwarfed in comparison. It's not hard to imagine how awe-inspiring the temple must have been to the Egyptians who worshipped here.
9 p.m.: Tonight, after dinner on a felucca, a narrow sailboat, it's back to the hotel garden for coffee and entertainment from a belly dancer. I feel like a character from an Agatha Christie novel, traipsing ancient sites by day, cruising the Nile at night, and recording my thoughts all the while.
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