"Men fear time, time fears the Pyramids"

Saturday, March 21, 2015
Asyut, Asyut, Egypt
We had most of Thursday to ourselves so we opted to do a day trip to Dahsur and Sakkara. Dahsur has the oldest pyramids (about 2600 BC) and also the first pyramid known as the "bent" pyramid. No, it is not leaning over or sinking into the ground. It's bent because it was the first attempt at a pyramid and they got the angles wrong. The angles were altered partway through construction as it wasn't acute enough. They changed the angle to complete it then essentially decided to start again. The next pyramid was the first pyramid that they got right. It was quite incredible to see. It still has much of its outer limestone shell which gives it quite a smooth look. The limestone is almost all gone on the pyramids at Giza.
We went into the pyramid (known as the red pyramid) . We had to go down a fairly steep long narrow passageway to get to one of the antechambers. The passage was about a hundred metres long which was quite scary. A guy from our group, James, was ahead of us and started going down but came out as it was really claustrophobic. We then were told that it's much better to go down backwards which we did. We also had to walk in crouched position to get through a couple of other passageways to get to rooms. Not quite sure how Mike managed it in his neck brace and sling, but he was quite determined! The antechambers are quite small but the roof of each chamber was quite extraordinary...the blocks were so perfectly even. The rooms had a very strong ammonia like smell, were stuffy and airless. Amazing to stand there and think about the amount of rock sitting above our heads.
Dahsur is well preserved and one of the reasons for this is because it's in the middle of a military area. The benefits of this means that there are very very few tourists (we were practically alone out there except for a man with a Kalashnikov!) . There are no souvenir sellers hassling you and it's in the desert....as it would have been when it was built. The pyramids of Giza are practically right on the edge of the city so many views have the city in the background.
We then went to Sakkara. There are step pyramids here which predate the triangular pyramids. Essentially these were tombs that had a structure built above them called a mastaba. Then another smaller structure would be built on top of that, then another on top of that and so on and so on, resulting in a step pyramid. We went inside and saw some beautifully coloured work on the walls telling various stories. We also saw a door to the next life...if anyone has seen Stargate, this is what it was based on. This is where we also got to see hieroglyphics on the inside of a tomb. Incredible really. So old and still so clear. The step pyramids and the traditional pyramids have truly stood the test of time.
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