Since my guide on day one was such a jackass and I really didn't get to walk around, I went back to Giza today and spent some time. The crowds were much thinner, the tour buses were a bit more scarce, and there was a nice wind blowing so it was all a bit less of a sweat bath.
There were remains of 6 other pyramids there that I really didn't get to look at -- they're all much smaller and mostly for the queens of the pharaohs that were entombed in the big 3. There are tombs for other noteworthy folks, including a nice one for Cheops' doctor. There's also a couple of old cemeteries that I saw from a distance.
I bought an extra ticket today and went inside the Pyramid of Khafre. This is the middle pyramid, and since the top of the Great Pyramid has fallen off, the same size. As you enter, there's a very narrow passageway that goes down steeply. You have to bend over quite a bit at the waist to fit, as the ceiling is very low and there's barely room for one person, yet you've got folks coming both ways. After the descent (about 4 minutes with traffic), you even out in a chamber that is tall enough to stand in. At the end of the chamber is a very steep ascent, again narrow and requiring some serious squatting. At the end of that, you come to the burial chamber in the center of the pyramid. While his sarcophagus is still there, the rest of the room is very empty. There are some very faint etchings on the walls and an inscription by the Italian who discovered the tomb in the early 1800s, but not much else. On the way out, I noticed some other passages that went to other chambers, but they were all behind closed gates.
What's interesting to note is the air -- there is next to none. Fresh air can only enter through the passageway that everyone comes through. In the meantime, you have a ton of people exhaling constantly. These pyramids get full of carbon dioxide and make it very hard to breathe. And it's hot -- really hot. And some people said they were feeling faint because of the air. When I got out (and I had to wait a while because of a big crowd heading in), the desert air seemed like an icebox in comparison. I even got goose bumps for a bit. A visit into a pyramid is not for anyone even remotely claustrophobic, I tell you.
I also went in to one of the smaller queen's pyramids later. There were much fewer people and since it's such a small pyramid, you get to the center much faster. Again, pretty underwhelming once inside. The same for the tomb of Cheops' doctor. The pyramids and surrounding tombs were created very early in Egyptian history. But building such great monuments only showed the looters where to look. All were stripped bare very early on in history. Later Pharaohs realized this and started building their tombs in the ground with no big markers in the Valley of the Kings. They figured that the looters would have a much harder time finding them. Of course, they failed to consider the workers selling out the locations for a bit of extra change. Nonetheless, several made it through in tact, including Tutankhamen's.
All in all, Giza is a pretty amazing place. Though they're only 9 of the more than 100 pyramids in the Nile Valley, the big 3 are huge and very impressive. I'm so glad I came and saw them. And Luxor -- the Valleys of the Kings and Queens are so impressive!
Next up tomorrow is an entire day at the Egyptian Museum (about 3 blocks from my hotel)!
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