| Submitted by: Gopal VenkatUnited States |
| Submission Date: 04 February 2005 |
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This happens to this day, even after the temple was moved from its earlier place. A work of sheer genius on the part of the ancient architects. The heat at this place was unbearable. It must have been around 45 degrees C. It took a while for my eyes to get adjusted to the extremely bright light being reflected off the sand around the temple.
The adjacent temple of Nefertari, contains no such wonders whatsoever. It has Six 15 Metre statues at the entrance (4 of which are of Ramses and 2 are of Nefertari). Ramses, just did not get tired of his face !!!
We boarded the flight back to CAIRO via ASWAN. At ASWAN, the folks who did not accompany us on the excursion joined us. We reached CAIRO around 4 PM. We checked into the same hotel. I was given another twin-bed room. (They were trying their best)
Cairo - May 2, 1995
Cairo pretty much resembles Bombay. The Shanty towns, crowding, Pollution and above all non-observance of any rules related to traffic management.
After breakfast, we boarded a bus to tour the ruins at Memphis. This place is about 40-50 Minutes by bus from Downtown Cairo. It contains a couple of Statues of Ramses, an alabaster Sphinx all set amidst a small garden.
From Memphis, we proceeded to Saqqara, the site of the Step Pyramid. The Step Pyramid is the oldest and the first of the Pyramidal Structures from which all other Pyramids evolved. This Pyramid was commissioned by King Djoser and the structure was conceived by his Physician / Minister Imhotep, who was apparently a jack-of-all-trades. The Idea is for the King to Climb all the Six Steps of the Pyramid before he meets god in his afterlife (the afterlife concept similar to Hindu Culture). Pretty logical place to start your acquaintance with Pyramidal Concepts.
From Memphis, we proceeded to Giza, the place of THE Pyramids. Three Pyramids and the Sphinx are located here. The Pyramids were built by Khafre, his son Khufu and Khufu's son Menkaure. The biggest and tallest Pyramid of all (the Great Pyramid, as it is referred to) is the Pyramid of Khufu. The Pyramid of Khafre appears taller because it is built on slightly higher ground. Menkaure's pyramid is the smallest. Each of the Pharaoh has three smaller pyramids next to his pyramid. These were for his principal wives. Khufu also had a boat buried next to him which could be used by the king in his afterlife to sail down the Nile to meet the Sun God. Overall it is pretty awesome. We were given tickets to go into the Second Pyramid (Khafre). The passageway to the Innermost part of the Pyramid (where the sarcophagus is kept) is only about 1 metre high and about 1.5 metres wide. One has to Duck Walk all the way (about 60 metres). The air is pretty thin and stale inside. A lot of people opted out. Needless to say, I went in. All of the treasures and the Mummies have been moved from the tombs / Pyramids to the Egyptian Museum in CAIRO to better preserve & protect them.
After the Pyramids, we went to see the Sphinx. As the entire complex closes at 5 PM and we were close to it, I was not let in to see the Sphinx up close.
The Next Day (May 3, 1995), we were off to see the Egyptian Museum and the treasures hidden therein. During breakfast, one of young Australian couples informed me that they were unhappy about the short time we spent at the pyramids the previous day. They had arranged a private Taxi to take them to the pyramids once again today (May 3 , 1995). The Taxi was supposed to pick them up after our tour of the Egyptian Museum. Since the afternoon was to be spent in Old Cairo seeing the Various Mosques and since the cab could carry 2 more people, I jumped at the opportunity to see the pyramids again without the tour guide's constant badgering about time delays. Moreover, my share of the Cab expenses was to be around L.E. 20 (20 Egyptian Pounds - around 6 dollars) for half-a-day !!!
Reached the Egyptian Museum. The place is filled with stuff from various ages / pharaoh / tombs and so on. Saw the treasures from King Tut's tomb. They were awesome. When you consider the amount of Gold and other treasures that were buried along with King Tut, who was a boy king (did not achieve much and died young) your mind staggers at the mere thought of the volume of treasures that may have been buried with the likes of great kings like Seti or Ramses !!! The Volume of treasures contained in the Museum is priceless. But most of the halls and artifacts are not lit well. There is either very less light or extremely harsh light. For some of the artifacts, I was unable to take pictures as there was a reflection from some light bulb or another falling on the glass case. (Which is not the way works of art - my pictures - are done) But when you are a developing Country like Egypt your priorities are more to feeding and providing shelter for your masses than to spiff up a museum for a bunch of tourists to appreciate. Overall the museum was good. But since I had committed to the cab ride to the pyramids, I was unable to spend more time there.
The Cabbie arrived promptly at noon and informed us that he had managed to pick up a fourth passenger (an American) who was also interested in seeing the Pyramids. We did not mind that. His name was Bruce and he lives in Buffalo, NY. The ride to the pyramids took us about 30 minutes. The previous day when we visited the place was swarming with people. Today there was practically no one. Which leads one to conclude that all the tour operators join into a massive Oligopolistic Cabal. It was a good thing that there was no one around. We could see the stuff at our own pace, take pictures without umpteen tourist heads in it and so on.
We spent some time at the Sphinx first, since I had not been able to see it up close the previous day. It is an awesome structure. The Sphinxes come with various heads. The sphinxes at Karnak and Luxor are Ram headed, while the one at GIZA is human headed. The Sphinx was supposed to guard the burial places of the Kings. (i.e.; the Pyramids) There is an enormous path made up of huge rock slabs that lines the path from the Sphinx to the Pyramid of Khafre. It seems like a cobblestone path only with much larger rock slabs. When you look at the Pyramids up close, you are completely awed by the mammoth size of each of these rocks that were used to build the structure. I have taken many photographs of them. When you look at the whole pyramid, they look made up of tiny bricks. Only when you are up close you realize that each of those "TINY" bricks is about 2 metres square and weighs around 2 tons !!! So much for perspective.
We went inside the great pyramid (Khufu's Pyramid). Unlike Khafre's pyramid, the passageway is about 2 metres high but the width is about the same. My thigh muscles were worn out after crawling through Khafre's Pyramid the previous day. Nevertheless, I ventured into this one as well. In khafre's pyramid you walk DOWN about 30-40 metres, reach a small clearing and climb up around 50-60 metres. In this Pyramid (Khufu) you have a steep climb of about 40-50 metres, followed by a small clearing and then by an even steeper climb of about 60 metres. Although the overall distance to the centre of the pyramid (where the sarcophagus - coffin - is kept) is only about 100 metres from the entrance, by the time I reached the end of the 100 metre climb, I was ragged and was gasping for breath badly. I am not sure oldies like you can even think about it.
We walked around the Pyramid and went to the adjacent Solar boat Museum. If you remember, I mentioned earlier that a boat was buried along with the Pharaoh to enable him to sail on the Nile and meet the Sun God. (That's the reason it is called the Solar Boat) This building inside the Pyramid had the entire excavated boat displayed. Since they did not have any fancy welding techniques 5000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians used ropes to tie the various pieces of Wood together and thence form the boat. The Museum had pieces of the 5000 Year old rope. 40 % of the Original Wood was on the Boat. The rest has been replaced by newer stuff. Some of the Oars were intact. These Oars were about 10 metres. The reason slaves were buried was probably because they were required to attend to the king even in afterlife. (They would probably row the boat with these 10 metres Oars to meet the Sun God on the Nile)
Took a leisurely walk around the Pyramids, Stopping to just get a whiff of air without the pollution of the Hordes of Tourists usually clamoring there. In all we spent about 5 hrs. there.
The Next Day (May 4, 1995) was supposed to be a free day for the entire group to do as we please. Since I missed seeing Old Cairo the previous day, I teamed up with my new American friend (Bruce) and hired the same Cabbie to take us around Old Cairo, the Khan-el-Khalili market. For taking us around for the entire day from 8 AM to around 6 PM he was charging each of us L.E. 30 (about 9 dollars)
We visited the Citadel containing the very colourful Mohammed Ali Mosque, visited some old Churches, Synagogues (Bruce is Jewish) and finally went to the Khan-el-Khalili market. You get all sorts of hand crafted items here. Bargaining is the rule here. Bought some perfumes and returned to the Hotel.
I left the Hotel early (around 3 AM) next morning (May 5, 1995) to take the 5 AM flight to Amsterdam. Reached Amsterdam around 8 AM. Since I had around 7 hours to kill before boarding my flight to New York, I went once again into the City. Visited Van Gogh Museum, Saw Rembrandt's House and generally walked around the City. It is a Good place. I need to spend at least a couple of days in the Netherlands.
Reached New York on Friday (May 5, 1995) evening.
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