A day with Pyramids and Sphinx

Egypt was in my bucket list for some time.  Because of reasons like money, leave, finding someone, I have been postponing the visit for many years. But this year I decided to visit somehow. The best was to go during the New year season which is in April which was supposed to be the best season to visit Egypt.

History of Egypt dates to the prehistoric time.  But the Pharonic Egypt which has gained the attention of many all over the world dates to about 5000 years ago. So, a traveler to Egypt never miss to visit the pyramids.  Most famous Pyramid is the Pyramids of Giza.

Located in the outskirts of Cairo, in an area known as the Giza Plateau they stand gigantic, fascinating to the eyes of the onlookers.

The great pyramid of Khufu is the largest single building ever constructed. It is made up of 2.3 million stone blocks and each block weighs between 2 and 15 tons. According to archeologist around 20000 workers were involved in the building. Today it stands at a height of 137m.

The pyramid had two entrances, we took a new one the original was blocked. There are shafts inside pyramids which are the passage ways to travel.  The inside layout is as follows (Taken from Web).

The Pyramid of Kafre appears taller than Khufu due to an optical illusion because it stands at a higher part in the plateau. It has a steeper angle and the only pyramid whose limestone cap remains. It measures about 216m on each side and each block weighs about 2.5 tons.

The southern part has the Pyramid of Menkaure and each side of this measures about 109m and it is 66m in height. Beside it are three small pyramids, built for the three wives of Khufu and a series of flat top pyramids built for his children.

We had a take a ticket to go inside the pyramid of Khufu. It was a novel experience and a dream coming true. The first part of it was dark but we could move standing, then we moved through a very narrow, rectangular tunnel like space and climb some steps up the burial chamber which was our last point. During the way we had to almost crawl at some places. It was indeed a dream coming through, to have the opportunity to get into a pyramid that was once, many many years ago have been trodden by people belonging to a great civilization.

The word pyramid comes from the Greek word ‘pyramis’ meaning wheat cake. This is an icon of the cut of the sun of Re which increased in importance during the 4th Dynasty. It was a status symbol and an expression of power and kingship. It is clear from the pyramidal texts sun and stars were important to ancient Egypt.

After the visit to the pyramids, we went to see the solar boat museum. As we had to pay extra money to take photos inside, we skipped that and only went and observed the artifacts that were displayed. This houses a 43m long vessel excavated in 1964. This was supposed to be used as a part of the pharaoh’s funerary procession and then buried with him to provide transport in the afterlife. The boat is made of cedar wood and to our surprise this was reconstructed over a 14 year period. It was huge but precisely reconstructed. These boats were found inside pits.

The Great Sphinx

Our next stop was to see the Great Sphinx. This was few kilometers away from the pyramids of Giza and in fact you can see the pyramids at a distance. This was built in about 2530 by Pharaoh Kafre. It is carved from limestone and has the head of a man and the body of a lion. It is approximately 73m long and 20m high. This is probably the head of king Khafre. He is wearing a pleated nemes (Headdress).  Lion is also regarded as a solar symbol by the ancients.  Seeing in right front of your eyes, taking a photo beside it was in deed something that anyone travelling to Egypt look forward to.

We never forgot to take as much photos as possible to capture these iconic moments that one day we will talk about. Our guide Meena was very capable of getting good shots asking us to stand exactly where that would result in some nice pics.

As we landed very late the previous night, we started the journey around 9 in the morning. We didn't even have the time to change the dollars we had to local curreny which is Egyptian pounds. So Meena had to pocket out from his own with the prmise that we would give him back the amount in the evening.

This was indeed a good start for what was to expect in the coming days. From Giza we headed towards Sakkara which was our next destination for the day…I will catch up with the write up.