Day
18 - Cairo : Abusir, Dashur Pyramids
This morning we drove down to Dashur. One of
the nice things about coming when the weather is cooler is
that we don't have to start out until about 9:00. This works
well until you go to a really popular site and find the tourist
buses ariving at about 11:00 from Hurgada and the Red Sea.
Today we planned to go to Dashur, Saqqara and Abusir, but we
ended up just going to Dashur and Abusir due to a fortuitous
circumstance.
 All the pyramid sites are located along the same road, or
seem to be to me. I did not want to go back to Memphis, as
we had seen the colossi of Ramesses II on our previous trip.
So we went to the furtherest site first, Dashur. Dashur is
the site of the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid, both built
by Senefru. These pyramids were closed to the public for many
years because they are located near a military base. The Red
and Bent Pyramids are both almost as large as the pyramids
of Chephren and Cheops (the son and grandson of Seneferu).
The Red pyramid was constructed after the Bent Pyramid and
is constructed in much the same way as the Pyramid of Cheops
with the corbled interior spaces.
The great thing about the Red Pyramid is that you can go inside
all for the single price of admission to the site, and it is
not nearly as crowded as the Giza Pyramid. We went inside,
it is a physical climb. You go up an outside stairway 28 metre's
high and then down a sloping passage with a ramp that has iron
foot hold bars placed at intervals. It is 60 metres down the
ramp, and you are bent over all the way, but then and you step
out into a beautiful corbled space, the first of three.
 The
only unfortunate thing about the pyramid is that when the work was
done to install the ramps, stabilize the pyramid and install flooring
and stairs, somehow something triggered a release of what smells
like Ammonia. I have seen a suggestion that it is bat guano, but
I don't know if the bats came before the opening or after that.
Maybe it is 3000 year old bat guano. I wouldn't be surprised!
The smell is especially strong in the upper chambers. So take a
handkershief or mask to tie over your face if you want to go up
into the upper chambers. They are more accessible than in Giza,
and no so spectacular, it's true. But I felt that this was a more
accessible and convenient way to see the inside of a pyramid than
buying a seperate ticket, and waiting around for all the other tourists
to get out of your way. I think it might be an easier climb, too.
We were followed in by a bus load of French Tourists, many of whom
were my age, 60 or older, and they (and I) were able to manage the
climb with some exertion.
A final note on the Red Pyramid - pieces
of the caping stone, the ben
ben or pyramidium stone, were found and the ben ben was
reconstructed and placed in front of the pyramid.
The Bent Pyramid is probably the most interesting of all the
pyramids. It is the prototype for the others. It is called
Bent because the sides are angled. If it had been completed
at the lower angle of ascent (50 degrees or more) it would
have been bigger than Cheops pyramid (the largest in Egypt),
but it is thought that the ground was not stable enough to
support the weight, and the pyramid began to shift and crack
during building. The builders then changed the angle to 43
degrees and finished the pyramid. A coffin was found inside,
and many people believe that Seneferu was buried in the Bent
Pyramid after all, even though it is believed that the Red
pyramid was built after the Bent.
The Bent pyramid has several very interesting features that make
it worth going on into the site to see it. The casing is mostly
still in place, you can see how the casing was put over the underlying
stone and you get a better idea of what the pyramids looked like
with their smooth sides. The Bent Pyramid is called "Seneferu
is Shining". All the pyramids have names
. The Bent pyramid has a satelite pyramid and the first evidence
of any pyramid of a valley temple. And there are remains of the
funerary temple.
After we left Dashur, we went to lunch and then stopped by
to see Abusir. We only expected to be there a few moments at
the gate, as the site is officially closed. However, Iman struck
up a conversation with the guard and learned that the Egyptian
Antiquities Archaeologist was there. So we were treated to
a two hour lecture on Abusir. Abusir tells two interesting
stories. There are three pyramids crowded together up on the
hill, Sa-hu-ra, Ne-weser-re, and Nefer-ir-ka-re. The pyramids
of Sa-hu-ra and Nefer-ir-ka-re were built first. The pyramid
of Sa-hu-ra was excavated by Burkhart in 1801. He took 1000
metres of reliefs back to the Berlin Museum!
The interpretation of the site has changed over the years, originally
it was thought that the pyramid of Nefer-ir-ka-re was unfinished,
and that Ne-weser-re adopted his causeway later (see illustration).
But now it is thought that the pyramid of Ne-weser-re is an intrusion
building, squeezed in between two pyramids of his father and to
legitimize Ne-weser-re who succeed his older brother Neferefe "who
died suddenly and unexpectedly" (maybe assinated). So Ne-weser-re
was short of funds, but couldn't disturb the tombs of the nobles
that were situated beside his father's pyramid, but he wanted to
be legitimized as Pharaoh, so he built almost within the funerary
complex of his father, stealing his causeway and valley temple by
creating a "dog-leg" bend to join to the orignal causeway
of his father, and destroying the link to his father's pyramid.
This would have caused a big controversy because the funerary cult
of his father would have been greatly disturbed by the desecration
and usurption of the ceremonial places that they used. It would
also mean that funds were really short if you most probably couldn't
afford to fund your own funerary cult with land and treasure, and
just took over the one of your father, because if he took some of
the buildings he probably took some of the funding foundation as
well. Perhaps they were not on his side in the coup against his
brother. The very irregularity of the layout of his pyramid, against
all the standards of the normal pyramid complex, hints at dark deeds
and conflict. I am not sure if there is any written evidence of
this story, but it does make sense when you see the maps of the
site.
The second interesting fact about Abusir is that papparii
found at the funery complexes of the pyramids give us the best
picture we have of how the economics of Egypt centered around
the funerary cults of the Pharaohs. Whole villages were created
to support the ceremonial worship of the dead pharaohs, and
considerable resources were spent. It is no wonder that in
hard times, these cults were disbanded or their resources redirected
to a more recent pharaoh!
After Abu Sir it was too late to go to Saqqara, so we went back
to the hotel and rescheduled Saqqara for tomorrow.
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