Dahshur

Our cab zipped along the canals (chock full of discarded water bottles and other trash) on our way to Dahshur. In the chronology of pharaohs, the pyramids at Dahshur come before Giza. The road itself was a mess of cars and wagons and trucks and donkeys and vagrants and farmers. It looked like brand new asphalt, but every so often, there would be a huge pothole or a chunk would be missing or there would be a speed bump/pavement buckling of sorts. Intentional to keep the speed down? Shoddy construction? Hot weather climate? Who knows.

The farms along the road were lush and green. There's a lot of irrigation necessary, but they do manage to grow a surprising amount of food here.

Dahshur was several miles south of Giza. In fact, when we told the cab driver we wanted to go to Dahshur, he raised the taxi rate by about 100 LE (US$20).

The most obvious structure at Dahshur was the Red Pyramid. It's also called the North Pyramid.

This is the oldest true pyramid in Egypt. It was built by pharaoh Sneferu somewhere around 2600 B.C. He was Khufu's dad and founder of the 4th Dynasty (Old Kingdom).

The best part about this pyramid is that it is free to enter once you've paid to get into Dahshur. All you have to do is climb the precarious outer rocks, descend several hundred feet into a steep tiny shaft, worm your way through a couple little tunnels, ascend a rickety old staircase...only to stare at an empty pit. Did I mention it is dark and stinks like ammonia? Oh, and then you get to do the reverse to escape.

I make it sound awful, but it was actually an unforgettable experience. I savored every moment.

TRAVELERS TIP:
If you are not physically fit, do not attempt this climb.
If you are scared of enclosed places, do not attempt this climb.
If you are afraid of the dark, do not attempt this climb.
If you do not like strong smells, do not attempt this climb.

Ma did not accompany me. She waited in the cab. As you can see, crowds and touts were not a problem at Dahshur.

Photos were not allowed inside the pyramid, but since a French tour group was just leaving the site, and the German tour group had not yet arrived, I was all alone inside this thing. I couldn't help but snap a couple photos.

You start out by climbing the outside of the pyramid. The footing is very rough and steep, and the few handrails don't do much good, especially when everybody else seems to be going in the opposite direction.

Then you're at the entrance. A grizzled old guy rips the stub off your ticket, and you are motioned to enter the mouth of what seems like an endless shaft. The opening is perhaps three feet by three feet. It doesn't go straight down, but the angle is pretty steep. The flooring is a wood plank with metal slats/bars affixed at about two-foot intervals. That's so that you have something to stop your feet from sliding down the chute (and so that you can make the climb back out). There are occasional light boxes on the floor. If the bulb is working, you get a few feet of light out of it. Luckily, I had a head lamp in my purse, and I quickly put it on before I lost the daylight. You keep descending for several hundred feet. It felt like forever. The further you go, the stronger the smell becomes. There's a flexible white plastic pipe about 5" in diameter (looks like my old dryer vent) that runs along the wall. I presume it carries fresh air into the bowels of the pyramid.

Finally, you reach a flat part and you crawl into a room, perhaps 10 feet by 20 feet with a really high ceiling (perhaps 20 feet). The sides of the ceiling are very steep, like stair steps. At the other end of the room is another short tunnel.

After you crawl through that tunnel, you reach a second room. It's slightly bigger and even taller than the last one. They've erected a set of stairs here to take you to the pharaoh's resting place. There's nothing much in here. The walls are unadorned. I don't know if that's because these aren't the original walls, or if they really were blank like this.

By the way, I count one light bulb. Thank goodness for my miner's light!

If you expected something spectacular at the end of your journey, you are about to be disappointed. There's nothing but an empty pit. The floor isn't even. There are no carvings or anything. I can't believe the pharaoh went to all this trouble to build a pyramid, and then he doesn't expend any effort to make this room magnificent. I guess if all anyone ever sees is the outside, why bother with the inside?

The pit room had the same corbel ceiling that the other rooms had.

Well, not much sense hanging out in here. It's hot, dark, and stinky, and I hear some Germans coming down. Time to make my way to the surface...

By this point my legs felt like jelly, and I was covered in sweat. We took the cab behind the Red Pyramid to the end of the road. In the distance, you could see the Bent Pyramid. This was an earlier Sneferu creation. The architects of his day were only just learning how to build pyramids, and they made some mistakes. If you look closely, you'll see that the bottom half is built at a very steep angle (54 degrees). But the structure became unstable, so they had to reduce it (to 43 degrees). By the time they finished the Bent Pyramid, they knew what they were doing, and they did a magnificent job on the Red Pyramid.

It is one of the few pyramids to retain most of its smooth outer limestone casing.

Here's the southern side of the North Pyramid (Red Pyramid). You can see how the sands blow up on its base. I assume they have to clear this sand occasionally.

There's a barely visible third pyramid at Dahshur. It's called the Black Pyramid. You can barely make it out in this picture. (It's the black dot w-a-a-a-y back there.) It was built by Middle Kingdom pharaoh Amenemhat III about eight hundred years after the Red and Bent Pyramids. So, why did the Red and Bent Pyramids survive, and this one didn't? Two reasons: the limestone casing on the Black Pyramid was almost completely pilfered about a thousand years ago, and it was made of mud-brick underneath (instead of stone). You see? Quality materials really do make a difference.

Did I mention it's about 98 degrees today? Let's get back in the air-conditioned cab...