Pyramids Redux
Mood:
De Ja Vued
Back to the pyramids this morning, with Nigel and Tom and a letter of introduction that should get us a special tour.
Here's a picture of a guy on a bike that we saw on the way to the pyramids. Bummer if he has to stop quickly.
The letter worked. They let us in the main gate without tickets, and we were introduced to one of the inspectors who took us into the largest pyramid on a private tour. After that, he took us around to the Sphinx and the Boat Museum. He was relatively quick about things, so I'm glad I spent the money and took my time a couple of weeks ago on the first visit.
He let us climb up the pyramid to the original entrance. Here's a sideways shot from that level to illustrate how steep the 52-degree sides are and to show their height, even though we're but a small fraction of the way to the top.
Once the tour ended, we met the chief Giza inspector who showed us some inscribed wooden coffin fragments and funerary ceramics and carved stone from an early time period previously unrecorded at the pyramids. Some of that material had come out of the ground earlier in the day. Simply amazing.
We then walked out amongst the shaft tombs and around all the pyramids.
While doing so we poked around a bit and found some very small model dishes that would have been used in the tombs. These are ancient artifacts that were just lying there, essentially. It would seem that someone dug too quickly and missed them. We took some photos and buried them, hoping that no tourists find them, for they would just disappear.
These open shafts and tombs contain loads of garbage and the terrible smell and appearance that comes from people using them as toilets. Given the atrocious facilities that exist (unsignposted) at the site it's not a surprise that people use them this way.
It's amazing that more people don't fall into the shafts and die or suffer serious injury. Or maybe they do, I don't know. In the States such a situation would never be found (because of litigation) so it's a shock to see the apparent disregard for the danger they pose.
We had to beat off the usual hoard of camel- and horse-ride "guides" some of whom have licenses and some of whom don't, with no way to tell the difference. The authorities are building a huge wall around the entire pyramids area in part to control this problem, and that will be a good thing to have completed.
A rain shower came up while we explored around the back of the smaller pyramids. Here are four of them in one frame, with the rain clouds in the background.
Aside:
Poor Tom used up his pair of 16 MB digital camera cards shortly after we started exploring on our own. He started deleting some earlier pictures to take others. This is why I strongly recommed the 1 GB IBM MicroDrive if you have a digital camera.
I shot all six-week's worth of photos on mine (including all of the 20-shot panoramas) and had space for 950 more images upon return home. It's like having infinite film. Nice not to have to worry about saving space or frequently downloading to a computer.
Here's a picture of a guy on a bike that we saw on the way to the pyramids. Bummer if he has to stop quickly.
The letter worked. They let us in the main gate without tickets, and we were introduced to one of the inspectors who took us into the largest pyramid on a private tour. After that, he took us around to the Sphinx and the Boat Museum. He was relatively quick about things, so I'm glad I spent the money and took my time a couple of weeks ago on the first visit.
He let us climb up the pyramid to the original entrance. Here's a sideways shot from that level to illustrate how steep the 52-degree sides are and to show their height, even though we're but a small fraction of the way to the top.
Once the tour ended, we met the chief Giza inspector who showed us some inscribed wooden coffin fragments and funerary ceramics and carved stone from an early time period previously unrecorded at the pyramids. Some of that material had come out of the ground earlier in the day. Simply amazing.
We then walked out amongst the shaft tombs and around all the pyramids.
While doing so we poked around a bit and found some very small model dishes that would have been used in the tombs. These are ancient artifacts that were just lying there, essentially. It would seem that someone dug too quickly and missed them. We took some photos and buried them, hoping that no tourists find them, for they would just disappear.
These open shafts and tombs contain loads of garbage and the terrible smell and appearance that comes from people using them as toilets. Given the atrocious facilities that exist (unsignposted) at the site it's not a surprise that people use them this way.
It's amazing that more people don't fall into the shafts and die or suffer serious injury. Or maybe they do, I don't know. In the States such a situation would never be found (because of litigation) so it's a shock to see the apparent disregard for the danger they pose.
We had to beat off the usual hoard of camel- and horse-ride "guides" some of whom have licenses and some of whom don't, with no way to tell the difference. The authorities are building a huge wall around the entire pyramids area in part to control this problem, and that will be a good thing to have completed.
A rain shower came up while we explored around the back of the smaller pyramids. Here are four of them in one frame, with the rain clouds in the background.
Aside:
Poor Tom used up his pair of 16 MB digital camera cards shortly after we started exploring on our own. He started deleting some earlier pictures to take others. This is why I strongly recommed the 1 GB IBM MicroDrive if you have a digital camera.
I shot all six-week's worth of photos on mine (including all of the 20-shot panoramas) and had space for 950 more images upon return home. It's like having infinite film. Nice not to have to worry about saving space or frequently downloading to a computer.
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