The Pyramids, 2-1-2006 Pyramids Most Famous Monument

By Bob Van Leer

(Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 1, 2006) - Our main stop today was to visit the pyramids of Giza, the most famous ancient monuments in the world. The three pyramids are located on the plateau of Giza on the west-side of the Nile overlooking Cairo.

Although smooth-looking, the pyramids are actually constructed of large irregular limestone blocks weighing 1.5-3 tons each. Originally the pyramids had a smooth face, but this was removed along with about 40 feet of Khufu (Cheops), the largest pyramid. It was built starting in 2589 B.C. Cheops was 480 feet tall when completed and contained nearly 6.8 million tons of limestone. All the statistics about the pyramids are enormous. The footprint of Cheops is 13.1 acres. Near it are three smaller pyramids constructed for his queens' remains.

The second largest pyramid at the site belonged to Khufu's son, Dhafre. The third largest is Menkaure, at 203 feet tall.

In front of the three pyramids is the Sphinx of Giza, with the body of a lion and the head of a king or god. It was build by Khafre around 2500 B.C. Its entire length is 150 feet. The sphinx is carved out of limestone in place and erosion has claimed some of the original detail of the carved figure. There continues speculation on how these huge piles of rock could have been built without power. Our guide said it is estimated the Cheops was built by 100,000 men over a 20 year period, working only when the Nile was in flood and they couldn't farm, about three months a year.

Pollution is having its effect on the limestone structures and Hussein said one plan being considered is banning motor vehicles from the plateau. Visitors would disembark at parking lots and be taken to the pyramids by electric vehicles. Also being considered is even putting a cover on the sphinx at night.

Cairo is moving out towards the plateau. In one area the government thinks it has moved too close and is planning to move out all the residents to another area. Hussein said they are being offered free new housing, but this is not getting an enthusiastic reception.

We left Giza for a drive a few miles south to Sakkara to see the "step" pyramid, the first pyramid ever built. It gets it name from the fact that the sides are not smooth, but are in a stair step. The pyramid was built of a bottom square with five squares on top of it, each smaller than the last. It was built for King Djoser, the second king of the third Dynasty and is the oldest known of Egypt's 97 pyramids. It is part of a cemetery complex that contains one building that Hussein said is the oldest known building in the world dating to 2600 B.C.

On the way to Sakkara, Hussein gave us some statistics on Egypt. He said the population is 72 million and increased 15 million in the last 10 years. When I first visited Egypt in 1989 the population was 53 million. He said it was decided birth control was not against Islam, so it is now catching on and slowing population growth. He said 40% of the population is under 14 years of age.

He said the daytime population of Cairo is 17 million, dropping to 15 million at night. Schools are crowded with 40-60 children in some classes. Double shifting is used. Traffic is terrible. He said 30,000 acres of farmland per year was lost in the city and now there is a penalty for this kind of conversion.
The route we drove is fertile irrigated farmland. But Hussein said Egypt still has to import much of its food, some coming from the U. S. The country is 93% desert and two major projects are under way to reclaim some for farmland. One is to move Nile water under the Suez Canal to the Sinai desert on the other side. Production from this project should start next year, he said. A second project is south of Aswan, where we will be going this weekend.

One the way back from Sakkara we stopped at a "carpet school", where children are supposedly learning carpet weaving after school. After looking it over, it looks more like a way to use child labor under 10 rather than schooling. The managers talked about the superiority of small fingers to make the large amounts of knots needed for the rugs, ranging from 300 per inch to 4500. Measurements are in square meters and we were told a 1000 knots per inch rug takes about 1-1.5 months per square meter.
In the evening we went back to Giza for a light and laser show at the pyramids and sphinx. It was well done and impressive that they could light these large structures and point out details by laser from the platform where we were sitting.

It was a long, tiring day, but interesting and informative. Tomorrow most of the group goes by train to visit Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. Betty and I elected to stay in Cairo.
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