Egypt: Day Six, Part One

Today is the Great Pyramid.  And we get to visit it before it opens to the public.  There will be only the 38 of us and no one else.

There are, in fact, three pyramids.  The one most people talk about is the Great Pyramid of Cheops, who is called Khufu here.  It’s the oldest and largest, and in fact was the tallest man-made structure in the world for almost 4,000 years.  Originally 481 feet tall, it has lost 26 feet somehow.  Some people think that’s because there was once a cap on it which is now missing.  This pyramid has three chambers, the deepest cut into the bedrock and the others above it.  The Tura limestone used for its casing (the cover layer) came from quarries across the river.  It was transported across the Nile during the flood season (June through September) by boat when the waters reached all the way up to the Temple of Khafre near the Sphinx, making it far easier to transport from there.  Which is a very good thing, as each block weighed in at up to 88 tons.  And there were no wheels or pulleys back then, just brute force.
       The second pyramid is the Pyramid of Khafre, son of Khufu.  It’s less tall than his father’s (471 feet), which was respectful on his part.  However, it’s built on higher ground, so it surpasses the father’s in altitude, if not in height.  There are still casing stones on the top third, but the pyramidion and part of the apex are missing.  Originally the bottom course of casing was pink granite but the rest was cased in Tura limestone, which is a finer quality than the stone blocks underneath.  The first two levels inside are cut into bedrock.
       The third and smallest at only 215 feet is the Pyramid of Menkaure, grandson of Khufu.  It’s slightly out of line with the two others.  The bottom was cased in red granite, floated downriver all the way from Aswan far to the south, and the top casing was Tura limestone.  There’s nothing inside this pyramid because the king died suddenly, which is also why there are only six or seven levels of casing laid on its north side.

All this is revealed to us by Dr. Hawass, who is waiting for us at the Sphinx just after daybreak.  When we arrive, he’s already there, leaning against the Sphinx’s paw, in his levis, blue jean jacket and Indiana Jones hat, ever the debonnaire character.  He starts by explaining the meaning of the Sphinx:  the brain of man and the courage of the lion.  Its face is said to be that of Khafre, and indeed it bears (or once bore) the pharaoh’s three attributes:  the cobra, the beard and the headdress.  Between its paws stands a stele relating the dream sequence that legitimizes the pharaoh’s right to reign.  Originally cut out of bedrock, its shape has been restored by blocks of limestone, because the erosion of centuries has not been kind, even if the Sphinx was once buried in the sands up to its neck.  Overall the monument measures 250 feet in length and stands 70 feet tall.

Khafre statue at Cairo Museum

       Dr. Hawass also tells us about his excavation of the nearby Temple of Khafre.  Originally its floor was made of alabaster floated downriver 650 miles from Aswan, and it boasted two rows of six columns each.  Mummies were blessed here before they were moved along the limestone causeway to the mortuary temple.  There they were put in the sarcophagus and installed in the pyramid, which was then sealed.  In this temple stood the striking dolorite sculpture of Khafre with the falcon embracing his head which we saw yesterday in the Cairo Museum.
       The last thing to see here is the Cheops Boat Museum.  There are old sepia-colored photos of what was unearthed in 1954:  five of the pharaoh’s solar barges built to transport him through the afterlife, and one perhaps that carried his mummy across the Nile to the pyramid for burial.  These boats had no nails; they were held together only by rope.  The one restored had been dismantled - all 1,224 pieces of Lebanese cedar - and buried, piled in 13 layers, in a large pit.  The other four boats, all discovered in different places around the pyramid, have been buried again.

Pharaoh Cheops solar barge at Cheops Boat Museum