First time I saw it – from the plane – the captain announced that we are now above the Great Pyramid and we all rushed to the windows. There she stood. In the yellow field of a Giza plain. Even from the plane she looked absolutely gigantic. And…black ?!
Despite of being built from limestone, in the shadow from above the Pyramid resembled some eerie magic device, as if unknown wizard created it for his own wizardy purposes, that we will never know. It imposed fear.
We stayed in Cairo only one night on arrival, then went to travel all over the country, returning to the capital only for the last 4 days before departure. And this one first night we’ve spent in the shadow of the Pyramid. (Of course, this is where our hotel was, we did not literally slept there on a sand!) But from the balcony of the hotel room the pyramid was as close as it can get. She stood literally over the road from the hotel.
So next morning we had all day before boarding train to the Upper Egypt, and the best place to spend this day was surely – the Giza Plato. Giza Plato is the place, where all the pyramids and a sphinx and few other ancient features located. It used to be quite far from the city, but nowadays the city spreads to the very edge of a desert. So the pyramids appear to be part of a city landscape. Later, when we travelled further into the desert, we’ve seen a lot of newly built districts that are coming close from the other side of Giza as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if in some few years to come the pyramids will be standing in the central square of Cairo.
Anyway, the plato itself is a remarkable sight: being slightly above the city level, it offers a wonderful view in all directions. Roofs of careian houses on one side, the endless sands to the other and a magnificent creation right in front of you.
The main pyramid, of course, the great Pyramid of Cheops. It is about 480 feet (150 meters) high, which is quite impressive, especially, when you stand in front of it and look up to the top. Each stone it is made of is about 2 tons – see it in comparison with "normal human sample":
For the fee (and it’s not a small fee) one can enter the Pyramid. Now guess, if we’ve tried to do this or not?..;-) The passage you enter, is higher up above the surface, so you’ve got to climb the pyramid a bit before actually enter it. There are few known shafts inside the pyramid and there are plenty of scientific material available about the pyramid’s design. I would just tell my own impressions when I’ve ventured to walk the passage to eternity…
Well, "walk" is not a word – it was more of a crawling up…the passage is only about 1 meter wide and 1 meter high and goes up under unbelievable angle (they say – about 26 degrees) for about 40 meters. I must say – this journey is not for claustrophobic. (and it was even more "fun" to crawl back the same way, the same fashion, but – down!)
(Well, this is not the passage of Khufu's pyramid, but another one. But they all built the same way, so you'll get the impression. Photography is strictly forbidden inside the Pyramid and they even took my camera while I went inside)
We made it all way up only to discover that now we’ve got to climb another passage, exactly the same slop and seemingly longer (about 50 meters) but at least now we can walk there – the corbelled roof goes up to around 8-9 meters.
It is hard to describe the sensation inside the pyramid. Astonishment? Awe? Humbleness? In any case it was very special. Despite of the uniqueness of the fact that you are inside of a massive stone "box", nothing more is there for the tourist’s interest. And smiling I watched how those tourists that had made it to the King’s chamber, were turning away clearly disappointed that it is "just a plain room" and not worth all that climbing. It was just a plain room, not too big. Simple. No inscriptions on the walls at all. Just a huge granite sarcophagus and two small openings in the walls – small shafts to lead the soul of the Pharaoh towards the skies. It was discovered that all the small passages in the Pyramid aligned precisely to the stars of the ancient sky.
…"The southern shaft from the King's Chamber points directly to where Orion's Belt would have been in the ancient sky. The southern shaft of the Queen's Chamber points to Syrius. The northern shaft of the King's Chamber points to the circumpolar stars. These stars never disappear in the sky. It is thought that these shafts were to help the spirit of the dead pharaoh find the important stars…"
In any case, even if this was just a beautiful Tale, the experience of being inside of the Pyramid is one of a kind. I stood there, in front of the carefully paved way to the stars and suddenly I thought: "Why I am not a Pharaoh?!"
Additions. Inside the Great Pyramid.
Just want to add more about what I felt inside the pyramid. I climbed up the claustrophobically narrow passage, sweating and panting, looking under my feet to see where to step carefully as the lights there were quite dimmed…and when occasionally you look up, towards the end of a tunnel, where the light seemed bright and encouraging…the feeling inside this first passage was as if you going to the place of no return. The tight space puts a pressure, your head goes heavy and the fear starts to fill you from inside…
Then I found myself in the next gallery – the same very narrow passage (only about 1,5 meters wide) but with enormously high ceiling, so high, that when you turn your head to look at it, it spins. And in front of me I saw those stairs to the chamber – going up almost vertically. And when I walk them, the fear changed, but still – it was a fear. This time – a fear of looking back. I can’t really say, which passage of those two was the most challenging. Both are some treks! Both have a certain danger. Both imposed humbleness and the feeling of own insignificance.
And finally, after climbing the stairs and crawling through a short horizontal corridor, I arrived into the King Khufu’s Chamber. Inside the room itself there is nothing much you can do. Some people go there to meditate. Most of others – just out of curiosity. (and those surely do get disappointed!) At a few rare moments, when there was not a single visitor in the chamber apart from us, the silence sets in the room, one of a kind that you call "dead silence". I think, because of the fact, that this chamber is actually in the very middle inside the gigantic building, certain conditions affect the density of the air. The silence in a room is "tangible" – it felt like you can stretch out your hand and touch "thick something". And the silence does "speak" into your ears. Whispers of a past? Or bells of a spiritual presence? Or just weird anatomical effect on your body? Who knows…it surely very different from any other experiences out there on the surface…
And another thing to mention: there, inside the chamber, you don’t feel any fear at all. In fact, you feel very relaxed, spiritual and if not for the guards, that tries to get through as many tourists as possible, one can stay in this small room for very long time without noticing. Time certainly flows differently there, inside The Great Pyramid.
We have been in few more pyramids as well. None of them was quite like this one anyway. And although they repeat the same design, the spiritual senses were completely different in each different pyramid. I can only suggest that they were, in fact, special machines, built for special purposes by the wise ancient nation. Purposes, which we might never know…