The First Day: Memphis and the Pyramids

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Walid, our tour guide,  was superb, intelligent, organized and attentive, but more than that, he had an infectious laugh. He had studied archaelogy and had graduated from a university in Australia, where he met his wife. On the way  to our first stop, a mosque built in the 19th century inside the citadel of Salah ed-Din,(or Saladin, for readers of Sir Walter Scott), we stopped at a cemetery and he pointed out that people actually live there and showed us some of the houses. It seemed as though we were not as far from the times of Ancient Egypt as we had thought. Inside the mosque he gave us a quick lesson in Muslim beliefs and the way that the architecture of the mosque reinforces worship by amplifying the voices of the celebrants. Then it was on to the site of the ancient city  of Memphis. As we drove into the site he told us to look around at the mounds that  are all that is left of the ancient city and pointed out that most of it is still buried beneath the houses of the residents of the area. As we had driven along the highway to the site, we could see to the west the pyramids of Giza and then later the piles of rubble that are all that is left of some of the less well known pyramids. The Step Pyramid, the oldest stone building in the world, was unmistakable and later, when we were on the remains of the wall surrounding this structure, we could see more pyramids to the south, the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, built just before  the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The Great Pyramid is stunning. For four thousand, three hundred years, until the completion of the Eiffel Tower, this was the tallest building in the world. When the bus turned off a street in Giza and drove up a hill, there it was, massive, truly overwhelming. I had to get a picture, and went to the front of the bus and took it while Walid bought us tickets to go inside the Second Pyramid, the pyramid of Chephren, or Khaefre.

The shaft leading into the pyramid of Chephren was drilled through solid bedrock  and then the pyramid was built on top of it. So when we went inside -- not all of us -- we walked down an incline so steep we had to brace ourselves against the metal cross pieces on the wooden walkway to avoid sliding forward. And the metal was shiny and slippery. And when we got down to the actual entrance, which is below the base of the pyramid, we had to crouch over and continue going down-- in the dark -- because the passage is too low to stand up. In front of us and behind us were people going in the same direction, and to our left was another line of people climbing back out, puffing and gasping. "You will die," one women told my wife as she (the woman) came out and we went in. Behind us my wife heard one young woman tell another, pointing at us, "If they can do it so can we." We didn't need to feel ancient just as we started down into a tomb!

Down, down, down, bent over, remembering not to stand up and smash our heads against the ceiling. Finally, at last, we reached a  level passage where we could stand up and walk normally. And then we got to another passage, just as low as the first -- going up. Up. Up. Up. Would we never straighten up again?

When we reached the second level passage, and could straighten up once more, we could see our destination in front of us. A huge room, completely empty and tall, with an empty sarcophagus at the far end with the lid off. We were almost under the very center of the pyramid,and far above us, through tons and tons of granite, was the peak. The ceiling immediately above us was shaped like a tent and made of massive slabs of rock so tightly pressed down by the rock above that you could not see any joints. Plastered  on the wall, in huge black letters, was the name of the man who had opened this passage in modern times -- Belzoni, and the date he stepped inside, 1818. Belzoni was an Italian and a former circus strongman who became interested in ancient sites and found exactly what we saw -- an empty tomb. He was bitterly disappointed.

On the way out, a young Arabic woman was behind me. With more people coming in the other way and the passage cramped and dark, she could not get by and kept saying, 'Oh my god,oh my god,oh my god, why did I do this, why did I do this, oh my god!" Her friend was in front of us shouting encouragement and I kept reassuring her, "We're almost there, we're almost out." I don't think anyone has been so relieved to see the sun again as she was. It was almost as if  she thought she had been buried alive. 

The Great Pyramid was more massive and overwhelming than I had imagined. When I stood beside it I got  a feeling that it somehow wasn't real and it seemed unimaginable that people had actually built it, it seemed more like a miniature mountain and gave me the sort of feeling I get  standing before a bare massive escarpment. it was a little like standing inside the tomb at ancient Mycenae in mainland Greece with its vast rocks only multipied many times. The Great Pyramid seemed primitive, beyond human. The Sphinx is more human and big, yet it didn't give the sense of unreality the pyramids did, and I think this is because the pyramids are abstract mathematical shapes and it is their  enormous abstraction that has such an impact.

When the foundation of a pharoah's pyramid was being laid out, he would go to the site and confirm that the structure was properly aligned with the stars. Khufu would have done this when the Great Pyramid was being built. That night we saw the sound and light show at the pyramids and in the sky above was the constellation Orion. The Egyptians believed that the soul of Osiris, the god of the dead, was in the three stars of the "belt" of the constellation Orion. More theories have been put forward about the Great Pyramid than probably any other structure in the world and a few years ago, one investigator suggested that the position of the three pyramids of Giza were meant to mimic the position of the three stars of the "belt" of Orion. In fact the positioning is surprisingly close, but not exact.

There is a shaft inside the Great Pyramid running from the "king's chamber" and another from the "queen's chamber", both of them aimed at Orion. Since the ancient Egyptians believed that the pharoah ascended to the sky after death, it is speculated that these shafts were meant to facilitate the journey. It was neat, and a little wierd as we sat there that night, to look up at the constellation and then at the Great Pyramid lighted up for the tourist show, and very tempting to imagine Khufu looking down at us from Orion.

And yet, in spite of their views of the afterlife, the ancient Egyptians were realists. A popular song at their banquets, which was inscribed on many of their tombs, gives this advice:

No one has ever come back from below
to tell us their state,
to tell us their needs,
to comfort our hearts ...
Rejoice, then, while you are alive!...
Follow your heart and your happiness.