Red Pyramid

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Paula Terrey

15 March 2000 (afternoon, continued)

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Paula Terrey

15 March 2000 (afternoon)

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

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.

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

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

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

Mastabas at Meidum

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Paula Terrey

15 March 2000 (morning, continued)

The ruined exterior of Mastaba 17

Next we visit Mastaba #17, which is right next to Meidum pyramid. Its bulk is impressive, but because it was mostly built of mudbrick it’s lost its form. If it weren’t so rectangular and sitting alone in the middle of a perfectly flat plain it could pass as a weathered hill.

Sarcophagus of an unknown prince

We enter via an old robber’s tunnel but it’s tricky. First we must crawl through a narrow passage, then climb down a wooden ladder to an area where we can stand, then crawl again over a limestone block that was one of several used to seal the original burial chamber passage. The real entry has a curved wall and massive stone blocks line the burial chamber.

Ancient wooden mallet propping lid

The sarcophagus is as big as a teenage elephant and an ancient wooden mallet — perhaps left by tomb robbers? — is still in place, propping open the lid. We’re told that the rifled mummy of a prince, name unknown, was discovered inside.

Palace façade remains of Mastaba 16

“Meidum Geese,” Mastaba 16. Photo courtesy of Roland Unger, Wikimedia Commons. They are on display in the Egyptian Museum.

After Mastaba #17 we take a short drive to Mastaba #16, which belonged to Nefermaat, one of Sneferu’s sons. The famous “Meidum Geese” painting came from inside this tomb and the outside has a palace façade that’s still intact in places. This hints at exciting things to explore, but when we enter through a tunnel we find it’s dark and bat-nasty. These conditions are more romantic on paper than in person and we don’t make it far. Then it’s back on the bus for the drive to Dashur.

Tomorrow is the feast of Eid Al-Adha, commemorating Abraham’s near-miss sacrifice of his son, and preparations are underway. We see women in tropical-bright robes walking toward an irrigation ditch, massive aluminum pots on their heads, and I can’t help but wonder if they’ll use that water to cook.

A donkey so laden with clover we see only his nose and legs. Water wheels. Fields of onions, clover and wheat. Goats lounging on a pile of decayed mudbricks. Roaring diesel pumps. A cemetery surrounded by fields. A blue galabeya scarecrow with a plastic bag head. A tiny boy prodding a donkey. A butcher shop, cattle heads hanging from the awning. A cascade of purple morning glories. Cactus next to clover. Shimmering silver dust on palm fronds. Stick crates bursting with ripe tomatoes.

As we drive through a small town we see men building furniture by hand, long golden curls of wood falling from their planes and chisels. Other men are loading blocks of pure white limestone into the back of a pickup. Our driver toots his horn to warn our Mercedes bus is barreling down on them and a worker looks up, smiles, and waves as he leaps back, his face so coated with limestone dust he looks like a grinning ghost.

Meidum Pyramid from Mastaba 16

Meidum

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Paula Terrey

15 March 2000 (morning)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Closeup of original cedar beam, Meidum Pyramid

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