Not just 3 Pyramids

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There are only 2 Pyramids left standing in this part of Cairo. Out in the desert there is basically no one. No touts, no tourists, bar the three other people who too were looking for an alternative Cairo experience. The half-day trip to Dashur is the hassle free way of being with the Pyramids... after of course negotiating the taxi.

There is no public transport and no tourist buses that come here. This means to get here you need to order a taxi. I arrived in the summer so this half-day trip would start what everyday would be along the main tourist trail - get out early and be back by 1030am. It would also be the beginning of me having fun bargaining. What’s so easy about here is that all you have to do is threaten to take your business elsewhere and you’ve got them in the palm of your hand. There is so much competition; you’ll eventually get the price you want.

To book a taxi it’s easier to book at a hostel and try and get a rough guide of what the price is prior. I decided to see Dashur with Saqqara. The guy at the hostel said 250 Egyptian Pounds (EP){$57}. I knew it was 160 ($36.) So he tries 200, 180, 170 whilst saying, “You know we are good here, we don’t rip people off.” I told him where I could get the better deal (Australia Hostel) and I am not negotiating the price.

So he calls up a man probably no one and says “Okay 160” than combines the price together with my room - I notice a mysterious 10 was added, so I point it out. “Ah what’s 10 pounds for you?” he said. I (pardon my French) F**KING HATE THAT COMMENT! I have heard that so many times this trip. So anyway the deal is for me to travel alone.

I tell this guy at breakfast what I’m doing so he goes “Can I get in on that?” He joins me - Hostel guy cuts in “Hey, hey I’ll get in on that - 180 now!” I raise my voice “I didn’t know he was coming. What’s the difference, same car, same petrol? Shit I just want to see the Pyramids and I have to talk to you about money. If it’s not 160 than I will have my money back thankyou. Fuck” See noise in negotiations for this guy is bad for business. Maybe culturally it’s something different but that’s a whole lot of shit nowadays… Noise is good. He lets us go and ends it by saying. “Err, no need to swear. Enjoy your trip Jonathon.” Not me - the ultimate compliment when negotiating with an Egyptian- You get what you want and they want to forget about the whole incident and pretend you are not there.

The trip turned out to be a great half-day. A nice car turns up with a guy who couldn’t speak much English. He would open the door for us and didn’t stop off anywhere, completely hassle free. I actually tipped him, not that much but for an Australian to tip, that says something.

First stop was Dashur about 45 minutes out from the centre of Cairo. It’s an area where they did the prototypes for the big pyramids of the future. The first Pyramid you get to see is the North Pyramid. This was the first pyramid they perfected to the style they wanted. They went with a 43degree angle - 30m up is an entrance where you can go into the Pyramid. There is a gatekeeper there who is more than satisfied with less than a 50c tip. It’s a low 70m walk down to a high ceilinged chamber. There is nothing inside but it is such a cheaper way of getting inside the Pyramids than the Giza Pyramids.

Near the North Pyramid is an odd looking sight. It’s a Pyramid gone wrong. The Bent Pyramid is just that. It’s said that the original angle was 55 degrees but they realised the stuff up halfway so they re-adjusted to 44 degrees. The fact that it’s still standing suggests even with a stuff up these guys were onto something, they knew what they were doing. This was the reason why I came here. I didn’t want to just see the pyramids and move on. I would have got nothing from that experience. Instead looking at and appreciated the process to get to the end result that is what made the Pyramids more special.

But it doesn’t stop there, closer to the city and preceding the Dashur Pyramids was the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. It was attached to the city of Memphis so has a museum and tombs to look at. On the tourist trail it enables Egypt to take the piss out of its tourists and charge way too much for all sites. Throughout Egypt you are looking at about $15 for some sites sometimes more. Even with my 50-50 success rate with my 4 year old NSW TAFE student card its expensive. My general rule is once every 3 weeks I’ll go to a museum so I skipped Saqqara and went with the Cairo Museum.

Cameras are not allowed inside, which is starting to become a bit of a joke with all the mobile camera phones - It’s a shame because there are some photogenic artefacts (… obviously.) I looked at the map at the entrance and eyed out my plan of attack. I headed straight to the back for Akhenaton - Past Ramses and a whole bunch of other stuff. I’d get back to them but I wanted to see my favourite Pharaoh. Sure some might like Ramses the Great because he ruled so long, made grand buildings and banged and married 3 of his daughters. (Yeah! No joke on that last one. I’ll get to that next blog.) But I preferred the rebel.

He built a place in Amarna north of Luxor (then Thebes). Thebes was the capital and he changed all that. Cutting off all the power of the nobles and religious groups and proclaimed that there is only one God the sun Amun. I would have loved to have gone there but the site is being excavated and is difficult to get to as a solo traveller. Tours only go here once a month and it’s hard to fit everything in in Egypt even with 3 weeks.

When he died his reigning years were mostly striped from the record. And if you look closely, his coffin, which is at Cairo museum, you can see part of the hieroglyphics missing. His elongated features and pot-belly are clear to see in the statues. It is unusual for a Pharoah to show off his imperfections like Arkanarton. I remember watching a documentary on this guy who was married to Nefertiti, which was known as the most beautiful woman in the world and quite possibly Tutankhamen’s father. I find it interesting that still he is forgotten among the elite pharaohs although it does seem to be changing.

Tutankhamen’s stuff from the tomb is here too and it’s interesting to see the purity of the gold, especially on the mask and coffin. Everything else starts to wear thin. Cairo museums problem is that they have got too much stuff. And all that stuff seems to have been displayed. Perhaps if they cut down a bit to the most impressive I would have left astounded from what I had just seen. Instead I had that ‘yep okay over it’ kind of feeling. It’s a bit like having to read a friends long winded blog entries…

For those that have been around since near the beginning of JP4 you may remember Johannes the Dutch guy I travelled throughout Laos and Cambodia with? Well he’s half Egyptian so I met up with him and his family and went to see a football World Cup Qualifier. Egypt vs. Rwanda. Standing in the aisle (our seats were taken) the noise was great but the play below par. Egypt 3-0… Australia don’t have to worry about them should they qualify.

Next day we went to the pyramids. We went in the afternoon, which is the wrong time to go. A shadow hits the front of the Sphinx but than again the back of the pyramids had good light. I was a bit disappointed really so much so that I forgot I was looking at an ancient wonder of the world. I also forgot I was looking at the Nile a few days earlier. It happens to me now with things that I see all the time on TV or in magazines. There is a sense of yeah already been there.
Maybe I should have got a camel out to the desert and looked back - a more remote type of feeling. It’s literally a footstep away from the city, passing rubbish filled creek and upper class slum dwellings. The government is really not trying to hide the truth in this regard. But I think my opinion would have been different if I did it in the morning. Plus the heat, it’s just too much in the summer. I did start to like it better the further back I walked - The sphinx from behind impresses by its size.

I actually enjoyed Cairo. The traffic is hectic at times but everything ran smoothly. -The metro worked well, I didn’t get stuck in traffic when in a taxi. The touts know whose easy meat. I am a rough as guts type look so I’m wasting their energy if they continue for more than 10 seconds. You could probably do Cairo in a day and skip the religious parts and just do the main pyramids. But for me Cairo is not Cairo unless it’s a trip to Dashur and a day walking around appreciation organised chaos on the streets.

Dashur can let your imagination go wild. Surrounded by desert you can make out the construction work in your head. It’s so quite you feel like you are stuck in time just standing there letting the seconds tick away like minutes. If ever I was to suggest a place to go to in Cairo Dashur is the place to be.

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Photos

Inside North Pyramid
Dahshur

Corner again
Notice my travel buddy in the middle

The classy taxi for the day
North pyramid in background