Pyramids, Popes and Parallel Worlds

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A November 2007 trip to Cairo by Liam Hetherington

At the Pyramids Photo - Giza Pyramids and The Sphinx, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

Quote: Some of Cairo's most intriguing sights are out on its fringes. Fields of pyramids stretch along the edge of the desert from Giza. South of the centre lies the religious 'Coptic Cairo' in the old Roman fort. In Cairo the ancient and the modern coexist in parallel.

30 Photos

Giza Pyramids and The Sphinx

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Attraction | "The Great Pyramids of Giza - Sleeping with the Pharoahs"

Quote:

"From the summit of these monuments, forty centuries look upon you!" stated Napoleon. Two centuries ago. The Great Pyramids of Giza defy age. They stand unbowed, piercing the skies, axes around which the rest of human history revolves. These were already ancient mysteries when Herodotus named them among the Seven Wonders of the World in the fifth century BC. Indeed, the Pyramids of Giza were already as ancient to Herodotus as the Colisseum in Rome is to us today.‘Awe-inspiring’ is too banal a word to describe these monsters. It seems silly, but I just did not expect the Pyramids to be as big as they actually are! The smallest of the three (that of Menkaure / Mycerinus) is the size that I p...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on October 5, 2008

Giza Pyramids and The Sphinx
Giza Plateau
Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

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Giza Pyramids and The Sphinx

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Attraction | "The Riddle of the Sphinx"

Guarding the Dead Photo - Giza Pyramids and The Sphinx, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

Quote:

And so. Abu Hol. The Father of Terror. The Sphinx. Included in the same LE50 ticket for the Pyramids, this mysterious apparition is part of the funerary complex of the Pharoah Khafre. Its exact provenance is still the subject of fierce conjecture and debate. What is not in question though is the almost hypnotic attraction it exerts. In many ways it is quite rough and eroded, its later head disjointed from the rock that makes up its body. Yet this does not detract from its appeal.To gain audience with the mysterious sphinx you navigate through Khafre...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on October 5, 2008

Giza Pyramids and The Sphinx
Giza Plateau
Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

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Egyptian Museum

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Attraction | "The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities - Ancient History"

Museum & Sphinx Photo - Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt

Quote:

Egypt and its incredible history deserves better than the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo. This Museum has been the repository for many of the relics of the Pharoanic period for 150 years now, and its treasures are legion: statues and sphinxes, murals and mummies, ornaments both religious and practical in nature, and of course the treasures of King Tutankhamun. Yet, maybe do to the sheer bulk of its collection (some 136,000 pieces), it does not seem to have been extensively reorganised since the 1920s. Exhibits are crammed in, poorly labelled, many open to be pawed by every passing visitor. In general it is a crowded, poorly-labelled jumble of relics, with only some pretence at order. T...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on October 5, 2008

Egyptian Museum
Tahrir Square
Cairo, Egypt
+20 (2) 579 6974

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Hilton Nile

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Attraction | "Nile Hilton - Perfect for a Sundowner!"

Cairo Sunset Photo - Hilton Nile, Cairo, Egypt

Quote:

I never thought I’d be reviewing a Hilton hotel. By nature one of life’s budget travellers, this is the sort of place I never usually step inside. However, I was recommended the Nile Hilton for one special reason, and I will recommend it to you for that self-same reason. The Nile Hilton’s rooftop bar (called, I think, ‘El Mojito’ – very Egyptian!) has one of the views in Cairo. This is the place to come for a sundowner. It is open from noon until 2.30, but you really want to time your visit for dusk. Sat with a drink, watching the sun blazingly sink down across the mighty Nile and behind the skyscrapers, all conversation dies. Thirty-six hours previously I had been in the wilderness...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on October 5, 2008

Hilton Nile
TAHRIR SQUARE
Cairo, Egypt
2025780444

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Coptic Cairo Sights & Attractions

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Attraction | "Coptic Cairo - History and Faith"

Coptic Cairo Photo - Coptic Cairo Sights & Attractions, Cairo, Egypt

Quote:

One interesting half-day in Cairo can be taken up by a visit south of the modern core of the city to ‘Coptic Cairo’. Here, sequestered inside the walls of the old Roman fort is a remarkable huddle of religious establishments. Almost ghetto-like, this is the heart of the Coptic Christian faith. The Bible was translated into Coptic a century before it was translated to Latin, and the early primates of Egypt rejected the version of the life of Christ and his teachings that was put forward by the early Catholic church. Likewise it kept its distance from the Byzantine, Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. Even after the Islamic conquest the Copts preserved their faith and identity, and even to...Read More

One interesting half-day in Cairo can be taken up by a visit south of the modern core of the city to ‘Coptic Cairo’. Here, sequestered inside the walls of the old Roman fort is a remarkable huddle of religious establishments. Almost ghetto-like, this is the heart of the Coptic Christian faith. The Bible was translated into Coptic a century before it was translated to Latin, and the early primates of Egypt rejected the version of the life of Christ and his teachings that was put forward by the early Catholic church. Likewise it kept its distance from the Byzantine, Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. Even after the Islamic conquest the Copts preserved their faith and identity, and even today they number some six million adherents. This figure is not likely to grow – the state has arrested over 200 converts from Islam under the National Security Act, and presidential permission is needed to open a new church…

Considering its location way down in the south of the city, Coptic Cairo is actually one of the easiest attractions to reach. Cairo’s wonderfully efficient Metro system runs right to it on the southbound Helwan line. Mari Girgis station sits right across the street from the ornate gateway into the Hanging Church. Stalls sell postcards of the Pope and recordings of his sermons. Pope Shenouda III that is. Stairs lead up to the church – it is actually suspended over what was once the water-gate of the Roman fortress (the river has now retreated some way to the west). A dark-wood roof like that of an upturned boat hangs overhead.

To the left of this tall yellow portal a wider way leads to the Coptic Museum, yet another exceptional museum to put the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities to shame. Entrance to the museum has a charge, unlike the other places you will visit in the area; even so, it is only LE40. Further down the street is the raised circular Greek Orthodox church of St George. And yet further, a way leads down steps into the labyrinth of the still-living neighbourhood, where churches and residences abut.

History and faith hang heavy in the air in this neighbourhood. The prize relic of the Hanging Church is an olive stone once chewed by the Virgin Mary. The Church of St Sergius is built over the site where the Holy Family supposedly rested on their flight into Egypt. The Ben Ezra Synagogue, newly restored through donations, sits where legend relates the infant Moses was found in his basket amongst the reeds. And in the basement of the Convent of St George a ancient nun placed a shackle around my neck that allegedly once confined the saint; rubbing my forehead (I had to stoop) and arms with the chain, she blessed me. The narrow streets are mazelike. You have to descend into them due to the changes in street level over the last couple of thousand years; yet many of the churches are above you as they were originally located atop the towers of the port fortress. The ways are covered over between the tall blank walls, and merchants hawk souvenirs. Yet a sudden turn leaves all the hubbub behind and brings you to a residential street, where grubby children peer out from doorways in buildings that predate the rise of Cairo itself, or to the edge of an immense graveyard.
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Member Rating 3 out of 5 on October 5, 2008

Coptic Cairo Sights & Attractions
Throughout Old Cairo
Cairo, Egypt

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Coptic Museum

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Attraction | "The Coptic Museum - Egyptian Christianity and Egyptian Christians"

The Coptic Museum Photo - Coptic Museum, Cairo, Egypt

Quote:

Another day, another museum to put the Egyptian Museum to shame. For the last century this institution has sought to preserve the relics of both Egyptian Christianity and Egyptian Christians. This hence means that domestic utensils and childrens’ games share space with Gnostic gospel scrolls and monastic murals. And the museum in no way suffers from it. In many ways, it takes up the story told in the later rooms of Aswan’s Nubian Museum and continues up into the second...Read More

Another day, another museum to put the Egyptian Museum to shame.

For the last century this institution has sought to preserve the relics of both Egyptian Christianity and Egyptian Christians. This hence means that domestic utensils and childrens’ games share space with Gnostic gospel scrolls and monastic murals. And the museum in no way suffers from it. In many ways, it takes up the story told in the later rooms of Aswan’s Nubian Museum and continues up into the second millenium. The LE40 I feel is eminently reasonable.

The ground floor is arranged chronologically, showing how early Christianity coexisted with other religions. You see ankh crosses, comically plump carvings from Greek mythology, and names such as ‘Phoebamon’. Murals from the desert monasteries (many of which still survive in the remoter reaches of Egypt’s mountains and deserts) follow. The main pieces, saved from defunct hermitages, come from Bawit monastery near Assyut, and the Monastery of St Jeremiah at Saqqara. Some of the images are almost manga-like, all big shaded eyes and clear colours. Upstairs there are examples of the Nag Hammadi scrolls, documenting life in a gnostic community.

The building itself is equally as impressive, full of exquisite mashribiyya carvings and ornate lamps. One section of roof is decorated with images of Nilotic towns. One moment sticks in my memory. 11:30, the Call to Prayer from numerous mosques reverberating through the windows, layered one atop the other. Two tourist police in their white uniforms sat facing the window, heads down on their arms, in prayer in the Christian museum.

This is a lovely museum, and interesting even for those who are neither Christian, nor massive fans of applied decorative arts. Considering that the sights of Coptic Cairo are free (save for donations) I personally consider the LE40 entrance fee here a good deal. Located almost exactly across the road from the Mari Girgis Metro station, it is also one that is marvellously easy to get to.
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Member Rating 3 out of 5 on October 5, 2008

Coptic Museum
Mar Girgis Street
Cairo, Egypt
+20 2 362 8766

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Step Pyramid of Saqqara

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Attraction | "Saqqara, and the First Pyramid"

Saqqara Photo - Step Pyramid of Saqqara, Cairo, Egypt

Quote:

This is where it begins. Saqqara is a place of death, yes, but also of birth. The birth of architecture, of pyramids, and of the timeless legends that have entranced for millenia.The pyramids of Giza are world famous, but I wanted to see where the story began, and see the first prototypes of these awe-inspiring tombs. For that you have to head south of Giza on the west bank of the Nile, where the desert still abuts Cairo and its outlying villages. Courtesy of George, the concierge at my hotel, I arranged a taxi for eight the next morning. For LE180 I would be transported to Saqqara, Dahshur, and Memphis. A cooling breeze ruffled the tree tops as I stepped out to meet my ...Read More

This is where it begins. Saqqara is a place of death, yes, but also of birth. The birth of architecture, of pyramids, and of the timeless legends that have entranced for millenia.

The pyramids of Giza are world famous, but I wanted to see where the story began, and see the first prototypes of these awe-inspiring tombs. For that you have to head south of Giza on the west bank of the Nile, where the desert still abuts Cairo and its outlying villages. Courtesy of George, the concierge at my hotel, I arranged a taxi for eight the next morning. For LE180 I would be transported to Saqqara, Dahshur, and Memphis.

A cooling breeze ruffled the tree tops as I stepped out to meet my driver the next day. Ari was a pudgy fellah in a striped shirt with more than a touch of the Omar Sharifs about him. We set off south. From the highway the pyramids of Giza, the pinnacle of pyramidology, could be seen through the murk, framed by high-rises like a glimpse into another world. I lived for four years in Cambridge, testily shoving through the crowds of gawping and camera-clicking tourists, oblivious to the history that lined my daily walk to lectures. Was it really possible for Cairenes to feel so blasé about these immense monuments, could these things ever fade unnoticed into the background, regardless of however many times you passed them? Ari just laughed at the question.

We headed first to Saqqara, about 45 minutes by road. The contrast between the lush thickets of palms, the mango orchards, and the vivid green fields that lay along the irrigation canals and the sudden onset of grey desert is brutal. The pyramid fields are literally on the very edge of dark lord Seth’s kingdom of the dead.

Saqqara sprawls over some 7km of desert, though the heart of the site is the precinct that sits around the step pyramid of King Zoser. This is open from 8am to 4pm, with an LE50 entrance charge. By the paved carpark there is a museum dedicated to Imhotep. Imhotep essentially created architecture and was the first to break away from the low mastaba ("bench" in Arabic) dwellings that had previously been the norm and dared to dream of reaching the skies. So instrumental was he, that he was still being venerated as a god a millenia after his death. The exhibits within stress his achievements: ‘the first column’, ‘the first arch’, ‘the first wall carving’ (cobras, since you ask). All these things that we take for granted, all springing from the genius of this one man, Imhotep. So, all-in-all, he deserves a bit more recognition than merely being remembered as ‘the bad guy from The Mummy’…

Switching up the slope onto the sun-baked plateau, you come across ‘the first pyramid’, built to entomb King Zoser. It is a yellow-brown brick-built structure comprised of six steps, more reminiscent of Mesoamerican step-pyramids than the smooth-sided Egyptian confections. However Saqqara pre-dates, say, Chichen Itza in Mexico by some 2700 years. The largest edifice ever built of stone at the time of its construction in the 27th century BC, today the pyramid looks somehow primeval, like a reef thrust from the seabed, like a strange rock formation in the Australian outback Atop each tier piles of sand still lie humped, as though it had just been revealed by a sandstorm. You really are back at the very dawn of history.

The precincts around the pyramid have been partially restored by Jean-Philippe Lauer who was granted an eight-month license in 1926 and ended up staying until his death in 2001. Indeed, you enter the site through a narrow restored hypostyle hall. To the north of Zoser’s pyramid a slanted cubicle is set into the sand, a serdab. Peering through the two eye-holes you can see a life-sized statue of Zoser, staring out across the desert for eternity. Following his gaze, the later pyramids of Abu Sir can be discerned on the horizon. (The original statue is now in the Egyptian Museum – what a fate!). Other tumbledown pyramids, tombs and edifices surround this central court and stretch off seemingly at random.

At LE50, entrance to the site at Saqqara might cost as much as entrance to the more famous one at Giza, but here you are spared the crowds and the hawkers (well, most of them, anyway…). At Saqqara, on the edge of the desert, the birthplace of the pyramids, with dust on your shoes, you feel like one of the very first explorers to stumble into this timeless world.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on October 5, 2008

Step Pyramid of Saqqara
North Saqqara
Cairo, Egypt
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Dahshur Pyramids

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Attraction | "Dahshur - Red Pyramid, Bent Pyramid"

The Bent Pyramid Photo - Dahshur Pyramids, Cairo, Egypt

Quote:

Constructed later than Zoser’s step pyramid at Saqqara, but earlier than those at Giza, Dahshur’s history reveals the adjustments that were made to refine the art of pyramid construction. The two most iconic pyramids here, the ‘Bent Pyramid’ and ‘Red Pyramid’, were built for the same pharoah, Snefru, father of the more famous Khufu (Cheops). In fact - according to the theory of Kurt Mendelssohn - these two were actually versions 2.0 and 3.0 along the learning curve. The argument is that the first attempt at a tomb for Snefru occurred much further south at Meidum – the...Read More

Constructed later than Zoser’s step pyramid at Saqqara, but earlier than those at Giza, Dahshur’s history reveals the adjustments that were made to refine the art of pyramid construction. The two most iconic pyramids here, the ‘Bent Pyramid’ and ‘Red Pyramid’, were built for the same pharoah, Snefru, father of the more famous Khufu (Cheops). In fact - according to the theory of Kurt Mendelssohn - these two were actually versions 2.0 and 3.0 along the learning curve. The argument is that the first attempt at a tomb for Snefru occurred much further south at Meidum – the ‘Collapsed Pyramid’. What caused its collapse? A trigonometric cock-up they reckon – it was built with its angled sides too steep.

A second pyramid was being built simultaneously here at Dahshur. Corrections were immediately taken on board and the angle of the slope was reduced. Hence, the Bent Pyramid. This iconic silhouette originally rises at a far steeper slope than any other surviving pyramid, before altering to a gentler angle. It looks like a squared-off nosecone from a missile. You cannot actually access the Bent Pyramid, but I think this preserves its mysteries. You can see it hulking in the distance, its angles all… wrong.

However, you are able to approach Snefru’s third pyramid, the Red Pyramid. Approach… and enter!

After that of his son Khufu / Cheops at Giza, the Red Pyramid is the second largest in existence. It was so named because of the colour of the limestone it was constructed from, though to my eye it was only marginally darker in hue than those at Saqqara or Giza. A staircase leads up the north face to just under half its height. From this vantage point you can just see through the smog Saqqara (just as at Saqqara you could look south to Dahshur and north to Abu Sir). And here is located a low cleft that allows access into the pyramid. Sloping duckboards lead down into the depths for those prepared to crouch and waddle down, down into the heart of the funerary construction. Down at the bottom, in the furnace-like heat that raises a sweat to your skin, there are three chambers. These are high, narrow, wedge-shaped spaces, ridged like a christmas tree. Two of these follow in sequence; you then climb a staircase up, which leads you to a balcony over a third similar chamber arranged at right angles to the first two. There were no lights here on my visit, so bring a torch.

One additional thing – it stank. The Rough Guide called the air inside the Red Pyramid ‘fetid’. That doesn’t describe it. The air had a sort of peppery hospital disinectant aroma. It smelt the way dentists’ mouthwash tastes. You have been warned.

Dahshur does not have a vast amount to do. You can climb inside the second largest pyramid in existence, true, and once down there you only have two of three other individuals for company rather than the dozens within the Pyramid of Khafre at Giza. As such, LE25 for your fee is in no way excessive. But the other pyramids at Dahshur – the Bent Pyramid, the Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III etc can only be seen in the distance, mysterious and forbidding.
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Member Rating 3 out of 5 on October 5, 2008

Dahshur Pyramids
Dahashur Pyramid Field
Cairo, Egypt

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Memphis

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Attraction | "Memphis - the King is Dead"

Resting Ramses Photo - Memphis, Cairo, Egypt

Quote:

Predating Thebes / Luxor, Memphis was capital of Lower Egypt, and once was situated at the very apex of the Nile delta. Yet Memphis is no Luxor. Nothing remains of this, the world’s first imperial city. Its glories have been buried beneath century after century of Nile sediment. Some tresures have been unearthed and carted off to museums. Some statues remain in situ in the fenced off and tree-shaded area that comprises the ‘archaeological site’. For LE30 the trip is not worth it.Memphis is located in the village of Mit-Rahina, on the Nile side of the irrigation canal...Read More

Predating Thebes / Luxor, Memphis was capital of Lower Egypt, and once was situated at the very apex of the Nile delta. Yet Memphis is no Luxor. Nothing remains of this, the world’s first imperial city. Its glories have been buried beneath century after century of Nile sediment. Some tresures have been unearthed and carted off to museums. Some statues remain in situ in the fenced off and tree-shaded area that comprises the ‘archaeological site’. For LE30 the trip is not worth it.

Memphis is located in the village of Mit-Rahina, on the Nile side of the irrigation canals, and so is greener than the stark plateau of the pyramids. It is also much busier – coach parties were disgorged into queues that I had not seen at Saqqara or Dahshur.

So what is there to see? Well, the only true jewel is a giant statue of… guess who? Yep, Ramses II. Inside a prefabricated warehouse-style affair the pharoah lies flat on his back, carved from a smooth creamy limestone. Clearly he was once striding forward vigorously, though with a more kindly smirk on his face than I had previously seen at Karnak and Abu Simbel.

Other statues dot the grounds. Smaller Ramseses, a grinning alabaster Sphinx. But my judgement is that you can easily bypass Memphis, a location with so little to offer that it has to use an image of the Saqqara step pyramid as the image on the official Department of Antiquities ticket!

If the mud-brick houses of Memphis dissolved back into the Nile from whence they had come, and the masonry was pillaged by later rulers, the route back to Cairo was able to reveal scenes of life that might not have changed substantially in two millenia. Donkeys were tethered outside mud-brick huts amongst the palms, old men in gellabiyyas chewed sugar cane, another rode a donkey so laden down with canes that all that could be seen of it was four legs and two ears. Bracketted between the irrigation canals and the river, here was a timeless Egypt, just half an hour south of one of the biggest and most bustling metropolises in the world. Yet, I reflected, as once more the Giza Pyramids danced like a mirage on the western horizon, even in Cairo there are geleabiyyas and head-scarves alongside the designer jeans and Sean John tops, horse-drawn carts and air-con BMWs travelling on the same road. Maybe the universes are not parallel after all, but tandem. Cairo is that rarest of places where Pharoahs, Romans, popes and imams all coexist alongside each other.
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Member Rating 1 out of 5 on October 5, 2008

Memphis
24 kilometres south of Cairo
Cairo, Egypt
No phone available