Red Pyramid

15 March 2000 (afternoon, continued)

Lotus.

Red Pyramid as seen from the Bent Pyramid, Dashur

Red Pyramid as seen from the Bent Pyramid, Dashur

Next we go to the North Pyramid, also known as the Red Pyramid because of its rose-tinged limestone core blocks. Built from bottom to top at a consistent 43 degree angle, it is Egypt’s first “true” pyramid. The casing stones were looted in antiquity by Cairo builders, but remnants show they were smooth, white limestone.

Red Pyramid entrance

Red Pyramid entrance

Scholars have long scratched their heads over the Red Pyramid because, like Meidum and the Bent Pyramid, it’s attributed to Sneferu, a man who apparently collected pyramids the way some people collect spoons.

Down into the Red Pyramid, Dashur

Down into the Red Pyramid, Dashur

We can go inside the Red Pyramid: the entrance is about halfway up the sloping north face. We get to it via stairs, then descend through a steep, long, and beautifully even granite-lined passage to a place where things level out briefly before emerging into a splendid corbelled chamber.

Tidy burial chamber corbelling, Red Pyramid, Dashur

Tidy burial chamber corbelling, Red Pyramid, Dashur

 

 

 

 

Built less than 60 years after Djoser’s Step Pyramid, the interior stone alignments and surfaces of the Red Pyramid reflect the remarkable advances in precision since even Meidum, where the entry passage was roughly cut in spite of being an “official” entrance and not a robber’s tunnel.

 

 

Red Pyramid burial chamber wall and hacked-away floor, Dashur

Red Pyramid burial chamber wall and hacked-away floor, Dashur

From the first corbelled chamber we go through a short corridor to a second corbelled space, then up a wooden staircase to a third corbelled room, presumably the burial chamber. Most of the floor is simply gone — quarried away by tomb robbers. The one good aspect of this tragedy is a chance to see some of the core blocks, so we stand on a wooden platform at one side and look down into the hole. The air is so thick and salty it’s like breathing brine.

Next stop is the “Nile School for Countryside Carpets.” A few children are sitting at looms in the downstairs weaving room, demonstrating how they knot the rugs, and one girl in particular is as cute and bright as a sparrow. She’s wearing a long skirt paired with a sweater, her dark, wavy hair braided in a tight pigtail down her back. Her thin little face breaks into a dazzling smile as she shows us what she can do, her fingers plucking the warp so fast they’re a blur.

Our ridiculous rug.

Looking down at one end of our ridiculous rug.

Upstairs in  the showroom they ply us with free Cokes and we somehow end up purchasing a 7 x 11 foot knotted camel-hair carpet in teal, red, pink, beige, blue, brown, yellow and at least half-a-dozen other colors that match nothing in our home. We’ll have it shipped.

On the ride back to Mena House we pass a volleyball game where, for lack of poles, men are cheerfully holding up the net for their friends. At various intersections, guards with rifles and machine guns leaning casually from the windows of limestone towers.

Tonight we’ll have dinner at the hotel, do a bit of laundry, and re-pack. Tomorrow will be a full day, starting with the Giza Plateau and ending with our flight to Luxor.

Bent Pyramid

15 March 2000 (afternoon)

Lotus.At Dashur we stop first at the Bent Pyramid which, like Meidum, belongs to Sneferu. It’s the third-largest pyramid in Egypt.

The Bent Pyramid

Dashur — the Bent Pyramid

 

The reason for the name is obvious. The builders reportedly began with a core at a slope of 60 degrees, then added a low perimeter reinforcement at 55 degrees, and then about halfway up changed the remainder to 43 degrees.

Scan 1

Approaching the Bent Pyramid

The upper and lower portions also have different styles. The  lower blocks — both core and girdle — slope down and in as accretion layers, just like Djoser’s Step Pyramid, the pyramid of Sekhemkhet (Djoser’s successor), Meidum Pyramid, and a pyramid tentatively attributed to Khaba at Zawiyet el-Aryan. But once the angle changes the courses are set in horizontal layers for the first time.

 

Bent Pyramid Casing Stones

Bent Pyramid Casing Stones

 

Another interesting feature: most of the casing stones are still in place and the missing ones are at top, not the bottom – just the opposite of what one might expect in a stone looting situation. The remaining casing stones give us a chance to imagine a fully finished pyramid in all its smooth, bright, limestone glory. It must have dazzled, although now the look is more like a thin layer of icing spread on an enormous scone.

Closer look at core blocks, the Bent Pyramid

Closer look at core blocks, the Bent Pyramid

The Bent Pyramid is unsafe and so we can’t go inside, but walk all the way around. (There’s a subsidiary pyramid to the south, too.)

 

Pyramids were built in stages and Bill, who’s an engineer, grabs a flake of limestone and kneels in the sand to illustrate. Scholars are still debating the reason for the angle change of this pyramid. Was it planned from the start or an innovation in response to subsidence problems?

The ancient Egyptians placed the Bent Pyramid directly on desert soil, not on rock. The interior chambers are shored up with cedar beams, apparently proving there were signs of instability even during construction. Most Egyptologists have thus concluded that stability issues were the reason for the change in angle — to lessen the weight of stone — but there are those who believe the angle may have been a deliberate choice arising from changing religious beliefs. The interior, which I now long to see more than ever, has two entrances (intended, not just robber’s tunnels) and three magnificent corbelled chambers.

If you’d like to read more about the Bent Pyramid and see some photos of the interior then I recommend this link: The Guardian’s Bent Pyramid

Exposed corner, Bent Pyramid

Exposed corner, Bent Pyramid

 

Meidum

15 March 2000 (morning)

Lotus.

Scan

The “collapsed” pyramid at Meidum

Today we’ll see the pyramids at Meidum and Dashur. We get on the highway and head south, but stop at a security checkpoint ten minutes later. After the checkpoint we pass a factory with chemical drums stacked next to rusted-out corrugated iron buildings, everything coated in dust. Then we’re in the desert and there’s nothing but the road.

After a while we pass a military camp and Moustafa tells us military service is compulsory for men: one year for those with a college degree, two years for high school graduates, and three years for those with no education. The goal is to ensure recruits can read, write, and drive by the time they finish.

There are a few newly planted saplings along the median, otherwise nothing green, not even weeds. The desert is a uniform gold except for a an occasional crust of dark pebbles. It’s flat for long stretches, then breaks into wadis and mesas. A green streak shimmers in the distance and Moustafa tells us it’s an irrigated tree farm. After an hour of driving we come to another checkpoint and then our bus driver stops for directions. There are two shelters by the side of the road: one of small limestone blocks; the other of pampas grass bundles resting upright against a rough wooden skeleton. A blue Isuzu truck and farm tractor are parked nearby.

Scan 2

Scrambling up Meidum pyramid

Meidum is the “collapsed” pyramid attributed to Sneferu and when we arrive we’re the only tour group. We scramble up the rubble for fantastic views of the desert and cultivation, mud swallows flitting over our heads. They’ve built nests on the side of the pyramid where there’s a hollow of missing blocks.

Scan 2

View from Meidum Pyramid

The pyramid entrance is on the north, about even with the top of the lower sheer surface, and to get to it we must climb wooden stairs.

Scan

Cave-like tunnel into Meidum Pyramid

 

 

 

 

 

Once inside we go down a long, steep passage via an arrangement like the one in Teti’s pyramid: “steps” made from metal rails fastened to wooden planks. Eventually the passage levels into a room with more wooden stairs. We go up, turn, and enter a chamber that’s the temperature and humidity of a sauna.

Scan 1

Corbelled chamber, Meidum Pyramid

The ceiling of this burial chamber is the first known corbelled stone structure in history. There’s a rickety looking ladder leaning against one wall beneath an original cedar beam. The modern rebar reinforcement beneath the beam does not inspire confidence, but seems unnecessary anyway. Meidum Pyramid is roughly 4600 years old.

Scan 3

Closeup of original cedar beam, Meidum Pyramid

 

Scan 4

Meidum pyramid. Note the person at the base for scale.