only 7000 years?
There sure is a lot of history here. I went yesterday with a guide to Saqqara and Dahshur, two pyramid sites a bit farther south. I hired a guide to join me who was a trained archaologist. Here is a summary of some things I learned:
THe period of Egyptian history with which we concerned ourselves stretched from 3200 BC to 2161 BC, about 1000 years. This period comprises what the guide called the Archaic period and the Old Kingdom.
During the Archaic period there were two dynasties, the 1st and 2nd, ruled by 7 and 8 different kings respectively. Apparently, generally dynasties lasted about 120-130 years on average throughout Egyptian history, with various exceptions. During the Archaic period, there were no pyramids built. Instead, they built what are called mastabas, a flat-topped tomb that looks like the base of a pyramid only. That's how they did things until 2680 BC when the Old Kingdom period begins.
The Old Kingdom contains 4 dynasties, which are the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. During the 3rd dynasty, a guy named Imhotep came up with the bright idea of putting several smaller steps on top of a mastaba, thus inventing the first stepped pyramid and paving the way towards the pyramids we all recognize. So there is a chance it may have not been aliens after all. Unfortunately for Imhotep, he didn't live to see his designs perfected. During the 4th dynasty, some early attempts were made to build flat-sided pyramids resulting in a bunch of weird angles including something called "the bent pyramid" at Dahshur, which rises up at a 55 degree angle and then cuts in at a shallower angle of 43 degrees since they detected some cracks and thought the thing might collapse. Later during the 4th dynasty the Red Pyramid at Dahshur was built also under the rulership of Senefru, which if I remember correctly was indeed the first flat-sided pyramid paving the way for the famous pyramids at Giza, including the most famous one which was built by Khufu, the son of Senefru.
So to sum up, I saw some mastabas, the first stepped pyramid, a few early attempts at flat-sided pyramids, and then the first flat-sided pyramids. All of this stuff is within maybe an hour's drive of Cairo. A lot of tourist groups include Saqqara, the site of the stepped pyramids, but most ignore Dahshur, and really at both sites I was pretty much on my own. There were a few other cabs or cars with people there, but no buses or anything whereas at Giza, there were parking lots filled with buses, although still probably far fewer than there are during the high season.
Oh yes, in Dahshur and at the "pile of sand" pyramid at Saqqara, it is possible to climb down a long shaft into the tomb itself which is pretty much empty but still kind of amazing and terrifying. I'm not really claustrophobic, but even I felt it a little climbing down what I counted to be 140 steps which aren't really steps, but metal bars on an angled floor to help you from sliding down to your doom. Mind you this is hunched over to about half of your normal height. It is at least a little scary, and it must've been even moreso if you were the guy discovering it and heading down there with a lantern or something.
So there's the condensed Egyptian history lesson.
Some other interesting things that happened:
Went to the Citadel, a giant fortress in Cairo comprised of palaces and mosques mostly. It's barely a few hundred years old, but still a very significant structure that somewhat dominates the skyline of Cairo. Lots of interesting architecture mostly and embarrassing tourist behavior. I ran into a few nice travelers there from Brazil and London respectively, we ended up spending the next few hours together exploring the Islamic Quarter of Cairo until the wife of the pair decided it was time to shop for rugs. We did manage to pass through some very local markets en route which reminded me a lot of open-air markets in China. Lots of vegetables, spices, and animals in cages. I've seen that a lot, but I had never seen rabbits before in a food market. Mmmm, rabbit burger.
I met up with a few Couchsurfers a few nights ago. One of them is the Egyptian alter-ego of Antonio from Deathalizer. They even kind of look similar and have similar mannerisms, are both guitar players with similar musical taste, and many other things. It was kind of eerie. He and his friend Chalid took me first for the iftar break-fast meal at a crowded restaurant called Gad where I'd wanted to eat previously but was too intimidated cause of a giant crowd of post-fasting people who seemed to be rioting in the restaurant when I first arrived. Going together was better. We sat there for an hour and a half before we ate though, because it is a popular place to break the fast apparently so you have to sit there and save your table. You order whenever and then by the time 6:30pm hits, the food is on all the tables and people dig in. There were a few hundred hungry muslims there, and one white dude. After dinner they took me over to Khan al Khailily, a busy market in the Islamic Quarter which was also packed at night. We walked through a few beautiful mosques and former mosques as well as generally old and ancient streets. I received slightly less attention though 2 people said to me separately "How can I take your money?"
I relocated from downtown to Zamalek, a neighborhood popular with foreigners and ex-pats on an island in the middle of Cairo's stretch of the Nile. It's much quieter and more relaxed than downtown, and I'm glad I decided to move to experience another part of the city for a few days. Things here are a bit more expensive, but after 5 days downtown I was beginning to go a little nuts. This is my last day here and I was thinking of visiting the medieval Coptic Christian neighborhood to see a few things there before heading to Alexandria tomorrow. I think I'm ready to get out of Cairo and see what else is going on in Egypt.
Remind me to tell you about getting ripped-off in Egypt next time.
THe period of Egyptian history with which we concerned ourselves stretched from 3200 BC to 2161 BC, about 1000 years. This period comprises what the guide called the Archaic period and the Old Kingdom.
During the Archaic period there were two dynasties, the 1st and 2nd, ruled by 7 and 8 different kings respectively. Apparently, generally dynasties lasted about 120-130 years on average throughout Egyptian history, with various exceptions. During the Archaic period, there were no pyramids built. Instead, they built what are called mastabas, a flat-topped tomb that looks like the base of a pyramid only. That's how they did things until 2680 BC when the Old Kingdom period begins.
The Old Kingdom contains 4 dynasties, which are the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. During the 3rd dynasty, a guy named Imhotep came up with the bright idea of putting several smaller steps on top of a mastaba, thus inventing the first stepped pyramid and paving the way towards the pyramids we all recognize. So there is a chance it may have not been aliens after all. Unfortunately for Imhotep, he didn't live to see his designs perfected. During the 4th dynasty, some early attempts were made to build flat-sided pyramids resulting in a bunch of weird angles including something called "the bent pyramid" at Dahshur, which rises up at a 55 degree angle and then cuts in at a shallower angle of 43 degrees since they detected some cracks and thought the thing might collapse. Later during the 4th dynasty the Red Pyramid at Dahshur was built also under the rulership of Senefru, which if I remember correctly was indeed the first flat-sided pyramid paving the way for the famous pyramids at Giza, including the most famous one which was built by Khufu, the son of Senefru.
So to sum up, I saw some mastabas, the first stepped pyramid, a few early attempts at flat-sided pyramids, and then the first flat-sided pyramids. All of this stuff is within maybe an hour's drive of Cairo. A lot of tourist groups include Saqqara, the site of the stepped pyramids, but most ignore Dahshur, and really at both sites I was pretty much on my own. There were a few other cabs or cars with people there, but no buses or anything whereas at Giza, there were parking lots filled with buses, although still probably far fewer than there are during the high season.
Oh yes, in Dahshur and at the "pile of sand" pyramid at Saqqara, it is possible to climb down a long shaft into the tomb itself which is pretty much empty but still kind of amazing and terrifying. I'm not really claustrophobic, but even I felt it a little climbing down what I counted to be 140 steps which aren't really steps, but metal bars on an angled floor to help you from sliding down to your doom. Mind you this is hunched over to about half of your normal height. It is at least a little scary, and it must've been even moreso if you were the guy discovering it and heading down there with a lantern or something.
So there's the condensed Egyptian history lesson.
Some other interesting things that happened:
Went to the Citadel, a giant fortress in Cairo comprised of palaces and mosques mostly. It's barely a few hundred years old, but still a very significant structure that somewhat dominates the skyline of Cairo. Lots of interesting architecture mostly and embarrassing tourist behavior. I ran into a few nice travelers there from Brazil and London respectively, we ended up spending the next few hours together exploring the Islamic Quarter of Cairo until the wife of the pair decided it was time to shop for rugs. We did manage to pass through some very local markets en route which reminded me a lot of open-air markets in China. Lots of vegetables, spices, and animals in cages. I've seen that a lot, but I had never seen rabbits before in a food market. Mmmm, rabbit burger.
I met up with a few Couchsurfers a few nights ago. One of them is the Egyptian alter-ego of Antonio from Deathalizer. They even kind of look similar and have similar mannerisms, are both guitar players with similar musical taste, and many other things. It was kind of eerie. He and his friend Chalid took me first for the iftar break-fast meal at a crowded restaurant called Gad where I'd wanted to eat previously but was too intimidated cause of a giant crowd of post-fasting people who seemed to be rioting in the restaurant when I first arrived. Going together was better. We sat there for an hour and a half before we ate though, because it is a popular place to break the fast apparently so you have to sit there and save your table. You order whenever and then by the time 6:30pm hits, the food is on all the tables and people dig in. There were a few hundred hungry muslims there, and one white dude. After dinner they took me over to Khan al Khailily, a busy market in the Islamic Quarter which was also packed at night. We walked through a few beautiful mosques and former mosques as well as generally old and ancient streets. I received slightly less attention though 2 people said to me separately "How can I take your money?"
I relocated from downtown to Zamalek, a neighborhood popular with foreigners and ex-pats on an island in the middle of Cairo's stretch of the Nile. It's much quieter and more relaxed than downtown, and I'm glad I decided to move to experience another part of the city for a few days. Things here are a bit more expensive, but after 5 days downtown I was beginning to go a little nuts. This is my last day here and I was thinking of visiting the medieval Coptic Christian neighborhood to see a few things there before heading to Alexandria tomorrow. I think I'm ready to get out of Cairo and see what else is going on in Egypt.
Remind me to tell you about getting ripped-off in Egypt next time.
posted by Dan at 10:57 PM
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