The Pyramids of Egypt

And Camels!

Today was Friday, the holy day of the week for Muslims, so the traffic was much more manageable. The same part of the route that took us over an hour last night we handled easily in 20 minutes.

Instead of turning into the downtown area though, we kept driving right up the Nile for about 10 or 20 miles, past the island where it is claimed that the Pharaoh’s daughter discovered Moses in the bulrushes. It was one of the first Bible stories I learned.

In the story, Moses is placed in a reed basket because the Pharaoh has ordered all newborn male Jews to be killed to reduce their numbers. His older sister Miriam is watching him when he is discovered by the Pharaoh’s daughter. Miriam then asks the Egyptian princess if she would like an Israelite woman to nurse the baby. In this way Moses’ mother is reunited with her son, who eventually is taken into the royal household.

There’s quite a debate about the truth of the story, and if it is true, which pharaoh ruled at the time. At least a dozen different pharaoh’s have been suggested. All of them ruled in what is called the New Kingdom, from 1650-1069 BCE, a wide range of 600 years.

In his Guide to the Bible, Isaac Asimov argues the ruler was Merneptah, who ruled from 1213-1203 BCE. But let’s get one thing clear right off the bat. The pyramids were not built by the Israelites. The Pyramids were built in the Old Kingdom, at least 1000 years before the New Kingdom when the Israelites were in Egypt.

The first pyramid was that of Dohser (aka Zoser). It was a step pyramid, located at Saqqara, built by the Pharoah’s architect Imhotep c.2650 BCE. It was the world’s first stone monument. By the time of Moses, Imhotep was considered a god. A fitting tribute to the first physician and perhaps greatest architect of all time.

From the step pyramid of Dohser it took less than 100 years for the design and construction of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, the largest of all, completed c.2570 BCE.

I must have taken 100 pictures of this Ancient Wonder of the World, but none of them comes close to capturing its size, scope and dignity.

If the stones that made up this monument were lined up they would make a wall 3 meters high that could surround the country of France. It is 147 meters height, with 2,300,000 blocks weighing 6,000,000 tons.

Nor were the pyramids built by slaves. Instead, all of the evidence shows that the pyramids were built by the farmers, the beer brewers, and the bakers of Egypt. Yes bread and beer were the main food for the men, women and children of the time, made from the wheat they grew from the rich land of the Nile.

There were 150,000 workers who built the Great Pyramid. They worked 8 hours a day, 8 days a week. (The weeks back then were 10 days long, so they had 2 days off). They worked 8 months out of the year, while the Nile was in flood, working as farmers the other 4 months to grow the wheat and rye required for their staples of beer and bread.

It took 20 years to build. Sadly we don’t have the records of construction. They were destroyed when the Library of Alexandria burned while Alexandria was under attack from Julius Caesar in 48 BCE.

But we know from Herodotus that the top, now missing, was made of solid gold.

Also missing is the smooth casing, some of which is still at the top of the Pyramid of Kahfre, son of Khufu.

Khufu’s grandson Menkaure also built a pyramid. Our guide told us that these three pyramids represent the stars in Orion’s Belt. Whether they do or not, there is no question but that these ancient monuments still have something to say.

5500 years ago our species, Homo sapiens, came together and created something spectacular.

Man

We were here

We cut the rock in quarries

Slid the blocks to rafts on the Nile

Carried by flood and canal drifting down the river

Unloaded, pushed, pulled, lifted into place one on top of the other

We designed and built this Monument, men and women and children together.

Yes we had some fun too!

The camel rides were really cool. Once we got rolling these guys are smooth (they are all males, not sure why). The camels were well cared for and only work 9-4!

We hope Yeti doesn’t get jealous!

There are still Christmas decorations everywhere including Christmas trees. The Egyptian Coptic Christians will celebrate Christmas on January 7th, and the trees will stay up for the entire month.

We have an early morning wake up call and an early flight south to Luxor, then a tour of Karnak before we board the boat.

We’ve met a lot of really nice folks so far and are looking forward to relaxing on the ship.

Time to wrap this up, the Brilliant Wife has turned out the lights!

Thanks so much for traveling along~! See you tomorrow!