Keep an eye on the Sphinx

From Al Ahram Weekly – Link to full article

While the SCA secretary-general was being interviewed for “Guardian’s Spotlight” in July 2008, pigeons were seen pecking away at the eyes and ear cavities of the Sphinx and their droppings were splattered on the stone. Jill Kamil discusses this new danger

The secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities had much to tell his interviewer on “Spotlight”. Zahi Hawass waxed lyrical about “exciting things” that have been happening in the field of archaeology — the discovery of a new tomb of a queen at Saqqara that has yet to be formally announced; the entrance to two tombs in the Valley of the Kings on which excavation will begin in October; and “big happenings” in Aswan, Edfu and Kom Ombo. He was enthusiastic about the “improvements” at Dendera and the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, and gave details of the new museums at Rashid, Arish, Minya and Amarna, as well as site management at Beni Hassan and Tuna Al-Gabel.

Zahi Hawass raved about the progress on the Civilisation Museum at Fustat and the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza. Indeed, he also had much to say about the plan to upgrade the Pyramid Plateau and turn it into “a tourist-friendly and hawker-free zone”. He mentioned that the project’s security component included installing cameras, alarms and motion detectors, as well as building up a 20-kilometre fence.

I wonder if the new electronic security devices, however, while monitoring the movements of tourists and hawkers, cameleers and horse riders, will be able to pick up the unwelcome winged creatures that are finding a comfortable and shady roost in the eye and ear cavities of the Sphinx, and causing damage to the stone with their droppings. Apparently the pigeons are pecking away at this most grand and famous of monuments, finding in it an appetizing calcium meal.

Yet more focus on the Sphinx-Bird issue. Has the time come for the problem to be addressed? I am quite surprised to learn that some form of “anti-bird” measures have not been included in the Giza Plateau site management plan already, as this has been a known issue for quite some time.

 

SCA Developments on the Giza Plateau

If the media are anything to go by, it’s exciting times on the Giza Plateau.  As most visitors over the last few years won’t have been able to miss, a massive site management plan is underway, the most visible aspect of which is the network of walls and fences ringing the site, in an attempt to control access. Within the last few days, the first phase of this project, “went live” as modern parlance will have it. The SIS had this to say:

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni accompanied with Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawwas, inaugurated Monday 11/8/2008 the first stage of the Giza pyramids plateau development project.

The project that will be implemented by the Ministry of Culture on three stages to develop the plateau and prepare it for tourist visits will cost LE 300 million.

Minister Farouk Hosni inspected the first stage works that included building electronic ports, 18 km long security siege with 199 TV cameras around the tourist area to monitor all the area.

The works included as well fixing sophisticated weapons and explosive detectors and magnetic tickets machines.

Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawwas said the council will sign a contract with a specialized company to operate electric transport vehicles to move tourists and visitors from the parking lots to the archeological sites of the area.

During the visit, Minister Farouk Hosni announced the start of the 2nd stage of the project. The 2nd stage will include lighting works and paving the roads.

SIS Website

The BBC has reported the cost as £14 million, which allowing for exchange rates is lower than the figure given by the SIS. The Daily Telegraph has reported £13 million.

Focus has been on the high degree of technology and sophistication in the systems employed, including motion detectors, CCTV, metal detectors and even infra red cameras mounted along the perimeter. New reporters who attended the opening commented on the contrast between the incessant and omnipresent hawkers of hte plateau as it was previously (which had become almost as famous as the pyramids themselves) and the calm on the opening day of the new systems

Hawkers — many from the nearby impoverished neighborhoods looking to benefit from the tourist dollar — have had free rein, and have become notorious.

Tourists undergo a constant barrage from peddlers selling mock-ups of pharaonic statues and scarabs, T-shirts and other trinkets, or are followed by men on camels selling rides or photos — and rarely taking no for an answer. Young men even try to force their way into taxi cabs carrying foreigners toward the pyramids, looking to steer them to nearby horse stables for a ride around the site…..

…..It was not clear whether the trinket dealers were pushed out just for the day or whether they would return in a more controlled fashion. Kamal Wahid, the site’s general director, said phasing out the hawkers will not be sudden or “unkind.”

“Two years from now, you won’t see them inside the site,” he said. He added that a special area nearby will be designated for horse and camel riding for tourists — with the pyramids serving as a dramatic backdrop for photos.

International Herald Tribune

“Unkind” or not, I do hope that Wahid’s assurances that the site will kept clear hold true. The previous situation was clearly unsustainable from all points of view. The site is extremely sensitive, and uncontrolled visitors, both tourists and hawkers, were essentially unsupervised. On my most recent visit to the site, earlier this year, I noticed many visitors climbing on the slopes of Khufu’s pyramid as well as other structures. In addition the amount of animal traffic on the site was extremely high, which is both destructive and dangerous, given the number of un-excavated structures and the crowds in the area.

I am glad to see the project has reached this milestone, and I hope it is carried through to it’s conclusion. The site is home to the greatest monuments of Egyptian civilization, to the tombs of some of the greatest rulers of the Old Kingdom, and is one of the world’s most important archaeological sites. It is heartening to see that the infrastructure and polices be put in place so that visitors and traders alike begin to treat it as such.

 

Menkaura and the Mediterranean

This is hardly up to date news, it did in fact hit the pages of The Times  back in June (link), however I havn’t had a chance to comment on this until now. However, I feel it warrents a mention.

The empty sarcophagus of Menkaura, a Pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, was found inside the burial chamber of his Giza pyramid by Richard Vyse, who had  ”excavated” the pyramid using gunpowder. In a true testament to Menkaura’s engineers and architects, this didn’t bring the entire structure down on top of either Vyse or the sarcophagus.  He also found shards of a wooden coffin, inscribed with Menkaura’s name, and a skeleton wrapped in cloth. The coffin turned out, interestingly, to be from the 26th Dynasty, whilst it’s inhabitant was from the Coptic Period. The Pharaohs of the 26th Dyansty had, it seemed, piously re-consecrated the pyramid, having found it robbed, as was common at the time, the 26th Dyn. being the height of the Archaic Revival mentioned in my last post on the Late Period tomb of Harwa.

Vyse claimed that the basalt resting place of  Menkaura would be endangered if it were to be left in place, and decided to ship it back to the British Museum in London, along with the coffin shards and remains.  All did not go to plan, however. The sarcophagus was loaded onto one ship, the Beartrice, along with some other artifacts Vyse had found, whilst the coffin and remains were placed upon another vessel. The Beartrice departed Egypt, and stopped in at Malta, where she departed, ominously enough, on October 13th 1838.

Exactly what happened next is unclear, but the Beartrice was lost, and sank somewhere off the Spanish Mediterranean coast, never making it as far as Gibraltar.  It is speculated that the wreck lies around the south eastern coats of Spain, around Cartagena. And now, Dr. Zahwi Hawass wishes to recover the sarcophagus, and has enlisted Robert Ballard, who located the wreck of the Titanic with help of the US Navy (they were using the mission to search for two lost 1960′s nuclear submarines) to help him.

Many have said that the project is next to impossible, as the exact location of the Beartrice is not known. However, in comparison to the project to locate the Titanic, conditions are in fact much easier, from a marine point of view. Firstly, the area is in fact, fairly confined. If we are to go with the fairly well founded assumption that the best chance for finding the vessel is along the coast of Cartagena, then the actual area of seabed to be searched is not huge compared to the North Atlantic. Secondly, conditions are infinitely better. The sea bed in this area is much shallower. The Titanic lies at some 3,800 metres, and more than 600km from the nearest land, in an area of frequent violent storms. The Mediterranean, by contrast, is an enclosed, almost tideless, sea, with much more moderate weather conditions. The area in question is close to land, as indeed, almost every single point in the Mediterranean is. The difficulties with this project are not technical.

The difficulty is legal, and, of course, political. Egyptian antiquities, on a British vessel, that (it is believed) sank in Spanish waters. In addition, Dr. Hawass announced this project before an agreement with the Spanish authorities has been reached, and I have been unable to find any actual acceptance of the request for his assistance, or confirmation, by Robert Ballard.  Dr. Hawass has stated that he is hoping for co-operation with the Spanish authorities, citing the positive publicity this would bring for all parties (in association with National Geographic, one assumes, especially given the involvement of Ballard) and has also stated that whilst the sarcophagus would return to Egypt, any other Egyptian antiquities found with the wreckage would remain with the Spanish.  This is a pragmatic move, and is more likely to lead to Spanish co-operation. However I cannot help but think this a rather risky offer to make, as well as somewhat contradictory in light of the wish, often expressed by the SCA, to return Egyptian antiquities to Egypt. It is risky, because we do not know for certain what other artifacts were on board the Beatrice when she went down. There may be some unique or extremely valuable items amongst the wreckage, and should this be the case (rather than “less valuable” or lower profile items, which is expected) then I cannot help but fear that many in Egypt will be eating their hats, as it were, in frustration.  It will inevitably lead to arguments…

So, what is to be done? Personally, I see no reason why this project shouldn’t go ahead. I feel the technical issues, whilst expensive to tackle, are far from insurmountable. Politically and legally, a genuine and out of the limelight dialogue between the Egyptian, Spanish and British authorities could easily be stepped up, with no side issuing unilateral statements to the awaiting media.  Menkaura’s sarcophagus could, and should, be brought home. There is a strong argument for this, but it is not one that should be fought through the media. Meanwhile, deciding on who gets the other “spoils” before they are even seen is, I fear, only going to lead to further problems down the road, as well as conjuring up unseemly images of vultures fighting over a carcass.

 

Sphinx in dire need of a bird-repellent

From Daily News Egypt (May 29th) – Link to original article

By Ahmed Maged

CAIRO: The crowds of pigeons, doves and sparrows that have been landing regularly on several parts of the Sphinx indicate that the level of humidity is dangerously increasing within the stone structure of the statue, senior tour guide Bassam El Shammaa warned.

Visitors to the site have noticed birds settling on the statue’s head and the shaded northern part of the structure. Other birds sit in the shaded gaps that make up the Sphinx’s eyes and ears.

Besides leaving behind acidic droppings, the birds also slowly eat into the fragile stone as they pick the tiny grains of sand.

El Shammaa launched an on-line campaign last year called “Save the Sphinx,” in which he expanded on his theory that the rising groundwater levels endanger the monument, with water seeping into the stone and creating calcium deposits.

It is these calcium deposits, he says, that are attracting increased numbers of birds.

“I spoke to experts who told me about capillary action, a natural phenomenon that causes any fluid to ascend or descent through hair-like tubes,” he said.

“Most probably this is the Sphinx’s current condition: most specialists support the assumption that humidity must have ascended and interacted with the Sphinx’s limestone rock, resulting in a kind of calcium that is usually relished by pigeons,” he added.

“But we shouldn’t forget that the birds eat into the stone as they pick those tiny bits of calcium. The Sphinx has suffered enough and it’s about time to take immediate action. The effect of underground water coupled with the presence of these birds can result in the archaeological loss of one of the emblems of Egypt.

I am not a supporter of Bassam El Shammaa’s theories on the Sphinx, but the problems on the Giza Plateau caused by sewer water from nearby urban development (including some of the hotels in the immediate vicinity of the site) has been an issue for some time now. Whether or not this is the sole cause of the bird problems, I wouldn’t like to say. In temple sites, the presence of birds on site predates the water level changes in the late 20th century, so I don’t think the situation is - so to speak – quite as cut and dried as that. However, both issues, water table, and damage caused by bird droppings, are critical conservation issues, and the latter does tend to get less attention that it demands. Even a cursory uneducated glance at sites such as the Ramesseum will clearly show how damaging the effects of both these problems can be.

 

Last of the ancient wonders IV: The pyramid face angle

From Al Ahram Weekly – Link to original article

Assem Deif investigates the face angle of Egypt’s pyramids. Although it relies on the culmination of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, it is rounded to match the nearest Egyptian unit, seqed

When the Egyptians witnessed the rising of Sirius just before dawn (known as the heliacal rising), they knew that the Nile would soon flood; for they depended upon the flooding for the agriculture and fertility of their land. The heliacal rising, which falls close to the summer solstice, marked the beginning of the New Year coinciding with the month of Thoth.

Since Sirius brought prosperity to Egypt, tracing of the star was crucial. At the Isis-Hathor Temple of Denderah there is a statue of Isis which was oriented to the rising of Sirius. When the priests saw the rays from Sirius penetrating the temple to fall upon the gemstone she wore, they announced that a New Year had begun. In the temple appears the inscription, “Her majesty Isis shines into the temple on New Year’s Day, and she mingles her light with that of her father on the horizon.”

Sirius did not only bless the living by bringing wealth to the Egyptians, but it also blessed their dead. It was believed that Sirius was the doorway to the afterlife, so the ancient Egyptians abstained from burying their dead at the time of the year when the star was hidden from view, which lasted about 70 days. This led Herodotus to assume that the mummification process could take up to 70 days, yet it is commonly known that it used to last 40 days. Presumably, what he meant was that it would not take more than 70 days, as burying the deceased involved other rituals as well.

The Egyptians, being blessed by Sirius, buried their dead such that the head lay in the direction of the star’s culmination point. In other words, the corpse lay on the meridian with the head pointing due south. Visitors to the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid will notice that the sarcophagus is fixed in this direction.

Something for the mathematically gifted amongst you, an examination of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, investigating the possibility that the overall angle of inclination may have been linked to the rise of Sothis/Sopdet, first proposed by Mahmud Hamdy Pacha. Although I find Petrie’s view interesting too, that the “ventilation” shafts had solar connections, being intended to direct the rays of the sun rather than star.

 

Travelogue – Giza Plateau (6/2/08)

Febuary 06 2008

Base: Windsor Hotel, Cairo

Site: Giza Pleateu, Giza.

The Pyramids. Everyone has to do them, and I’m no exception. Khufu’s pyramid is very big. Khufu’s pyramid is very old. Khufu’s pyramid was/is NOT:

• Built by aliens
• Built as a map of the universe
• Built as a divine symbol of the ultimate futility of the Jewish religion
• The remains of Atlantis

The Giza plateau is, however, about more than Khufu’s pyramid, undeniably awe inspiring though it, and the others, are. There are a vast number of other things of interest on the plateau, and it was to be the valley temple of Khafra that was the main focus of my attentions.

Somewhat overlooked by most visitors to the site, the Temple of Khafa is hidden in plain sight. In front and to one side of the Great Sphinx, the massive, austere all-granite structure is entirely undecorated, but the huge blocks are beautifully finished, and the whole structure interlocks rather like a giant three dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

Originally, the dark innards of the angular building, with it’s unadorned square granite columns, housed 23 statues of Khafra, some of which are now on display in the Cairo Museum. Finished in greenish white veined Diorite (an incredibly hard stone that polishes beautifully) one of those on display is considered one of the finest examples of Egyptian sculpture. Khafra sits in the traditional pose with Horus as a falcon stretching his wings behind his head. A perfect blend of the human and divine aspects. Combined with the granite of the building itself, it must have been a true sight to behold. Alas, all the statuary has now been removed, and only limited access to the temple is allowed – to the main pillared hall (which would originally have been roofed) and the exit to the pyramid causeway. The building was built with a great emphasis on symbolism, particularly in the colour and choice of stone, the use of indoor and outdoor spaces, and the number of statues (23, including a wide central bay for one of them, implying a relationship with the hours of the day) and columns. However since there are no inscriptions left to us, it’s ultimately a matter of speculation.

Either way, this is the best preserved of all the valley temples, and although it can get unbearably crowded, with tour groups being whisked through in a matter of minutes on their way to the sphinx and Khufu’s pyramid, it still has an atmosphere that leaves no doubt as to what this temple represented.

From the temple you can no longer follow the causeway up to the plateau as the way is barred in an ongoing (and undeniably worthy, if perhaps optimistic) attempt to keep out the insane number of touts that descend on the site. The fence here is part of an elaborate network of tall walls, cameras and fences erected to keep both land encroachment and trespassing at bay. Despite these valiant and commendable attempts by the SCA to impose order, the site is still heavily populated by touts and it can get wearying. This is something all the busier sites suffer from, to varying degrees, and is indicative of the ongoing issues the SCA faces in protecting these sites.

From the Temple of Khafra, therefore, all that can really be seen directly from the accessible section of the causeway is the Great Sphinx. The largest of all the sphinx statues, at various points in history this mindbogglingly ambitious work of sculpture was the subject of it’s own religious following, and two temples to the statue were built, in the Old Kingdom, and a later New Kingdom structure. The remains of both are not extensive, and the temples were, by Egyptian standards, quite modest, and difficult to access, being periodically closed. Exactly who built the Sphinx and quite why, is unknown. The only known inscription on the sphinx itself is the Dream Stela of Thutmose IV, declaring that whilst he slept in the shadow of the Sphinx as a young prince, the divine aspect of the statue spoke to him, announcing that he would be crowned Pharaoh if he freed it from the accumulated sand that surrounded it. He did indeed become Pharaoh and he did indeed clear the sand, for the stela now stands between the paws of said Sphinx.

The stela (not accessible close up) relates how Thutmose was hunting and target shooting in the deserts around Ineb-Hadj (Memphis) and stopped to rest his retinue (for Thutmose, naturally, did not need rest!) and recieved his vision.

“…One of those days, it so happened that prince Thutmose came, passing by at the time of midday and he sat down in the shadow of this Great God. Sleep seized him, a sleep at the time when the sun was at the zenith, and he found the Majesty of this noble god speaking with his own mouth, like the words of a father for his son, saying: “Look at me, see me, my son Thutmose. I am your father, Harmakhis-Khepri-Atum, and I shall give you the kingship on earth, in front of all the living ones. You shall wear the White and the Red Crowns upon the throne of Geb, the hereditary prince. The earth shall be yours in its length and width, (everything) that the Eye of the Lord-of-All illuminates. The food of the Two Lands shall be yours, (as well as) the great tributes of every foreign land, (your) lifetime will be a time, great in years. My face is yours, my heart is yours as you are a protector to me, for my (current) condition is like one that is in need, all my limbs (as if they were) dismembered as the sands of the desert upon which I lie have reached me. So run to me, to have that done which I desire, knowing that you are my son and my protector. Come forth, and I shall be with you, I shall be your leader…”

Source:

Translation of part of main panel of Thutmose IV “Dream Stela” at the Great Sphinx, Giza.

Translation from:

http://www.ancient-egypt.org/literature/stories/dream_stela/translation.html

Thutmose IV, as it happened, had an elder brother who was in fact heir to the Horus Throne, and it is quite feasible that this stela was erected once Thutmose IV was on the throne in order to bolster the legitimacy of his position, since it is almost certain that much jockeying for position had taken place between the princes. The claim made here of a divine revelation in a dream telling the future ruler directly that he would rule in return for an act such as this, is unusual in Egyptian political history. Most claims to legitimacy in the New Kingdom, where there was reason for doubt (such as in the case of Hatshepsut) were made through the idea of the claimant being the son of Amun. Also his invocation, not of Amun, but of Harmakhis-Khepri-Atum is significant, indicating a shift away from the cult of Amun towards the solar gods. Amunhotep III, his successor, would continue this subtle trend, whilst his son would take the trend to a whole new level of quasi-monothestic fanatacism.

The Sphinx itself, as it exists today, is significantly restored from that found by Napoleon and his expedition, which apparently found the statue buried up to the neck in accumulated sand and damaged by time and the hand of man. Contrary to popular myth, it was not his men who destroyed the nose. Their illustrations show the nose to have already been missing. The beard also is now missing, along with portions of the Nemes head-dress (now partially restored).

The Sphinx has a history of restorations going back to the New Kingdom, with work carried out to restore it’s splendour by Thutmose IV, Ramesses II, the 26^th Dynasty Pharaohs in the Archaic Revival period, along with the Romans, who began the practise of performing plays in front of it, whilst several 20th century restoration efforts eventually led to the current appearance, and the return of the plays, in the form of sound and light shows.

From the Sphinx I headed back though Khafra’s valley temple, and up the modern approach road to the plateau itself. As you approach either the pyramids of Khufu or Kharfa it is easy to fail to appreciate the scale of these structures, not only their height but their sheer mass. The nearer one approaches, the more the size of the structures conspire to hide their height. Khufu’s simply towering away in an endless mass of stone in every direction. It is from inside the museum of the solar barque that you really appreciate it most, where standing on the upper level, looking out the glass wall, all one can see is mass of stone in front of you, completely blocking all else. Only then does the scale of the structure really begin to hit home.

No one knows the exact mechanics of how this most awe inspiring of structures was built, though it was with some arrangement of ramps (probabaly straight) using sledges and levers to manoeuvre the blocks. As a quick side note, although it is often said this is because the Egyptians had no knowledge of the wheel, it should also be pointed out that this was not purely a lack of know-how. The pyramids lay beyond the fertile zone, in an area with soft sand. When hauling large and heavy objects across this surface, a sledge has been shown to be the most efficient means of moving them. Like in a snow, wheels under heavy load will simply sink and dig themselves into the sand. A lubricated sledge is more efficient for this kind of work, and was used by the Egyptians for moving heavy loads like colossi and large blocks from their quarries long after they began producing wheeled vehicles for other tasks.

Although not to my own eye the most perfect or beautiful of the pyramids (that honour falls to Khufu’s predecessor, Snefru, and his Red Pyramid) the organisation, scale and ambition of the operation is impossible to deny. Most people are now aware that these structures were not built by slaves, nor purely by ignorant labourers. The engineering and design involved was both sophisticated, methodical and highly accurate. Overall, the pyramid of Khufu is accurate to an error factor of 1 / 1000, whilst individual finished blocks are accurate to 1/50^th of an inch. Whilst not demanding of alien space lasers or anything of that ilk, it id demand highly skilled architects and craftsmen to direct organised work groups of stone cutters, surveyors and scribes, as well as general labourers. It was, like the other pyramids before it, but on an even more ambitious scale, a true mega-project, and what we see now in the pyramid itself was merely the centre piece of an entire town, both for the workers who built it (and their support staff – cooks, metalsmiths, barbers, doctors, priests, security, administration and accounting, mining and quarrying, logistics and so on) , and for the permanent priesthood and general workers of the sprawling necropolis as a whole, with it’s valley and pyramid temples, estates, tombs of lesser royals and their chapels, and the mastabas of the nobility. Put simply, there was nothing like it anywhere in the world.

The decent into Khufu’s pyramid is hot, steep, cramped and insanely crowded, not to mention expensive. Although it may be something people wish to do simply to say they have, I did this once in my childhood, so saw no need to disturb the burial chamber again. It is, for those who are unaware, completely bare on the inside, and the connecting passages inside the structure are incredibly low and narrow, and not recommended for anyone with any claustrophobic tendencies. One is forced to wonder what is was like trying to move the sarcophagus – a solid stone piece weighing rather a lot – down these tunnels. Perhaps being the person at the back, rather than the front, was the better job to have.

So I stuck to exploring the less trumpeted delights. This didn’t include a (what for me would be a return) visit to the solar barque of Khufu, found beside his pyramid. This massive wooden boat, almost perfectly preserved, is a perfect example of the sophistication of the Old Kingdom at a time when most empires were far from even being a gleam in a chieftains eye. The delicacy of some of the work in carving (note the details upon the oars), the ambitiousness of the design and dedication involved in building not only a complete, but a grand and beautiful vessel, with an eye on aesthetics as much as function, is truly incredible, and deeply humbling.

The barque is the only one of several surviving vessels to have been removed from it’s pit. It now is on display in the same area where it was found. Others are known to exist on the Giza Plateau, as well at other royal burial sites, including Dashur and Abydos, and have been examined via unobtrusive and non-destructive techniques, including miniature cameras. However none are known to be in as perfect a state of preservation, and none have been removed. Their current location in the sand is believed to be the best possible preservation environment. The barque, and the others like it, served as symbolic model barques of the celestial one in which the Pharaoh travelled across the sky with Ra (the primary state god of the Old Kingdom) and his entourage.

There are many other sites on Giza Plateau worth mentioning, but not all of them are accessible to the public, in particular the lovely mastaba of Meres-Ankh, though this is closed at the time of writing. Other mastabas on the south eastern side (near the satellite pyramids) include two mastabas, that of Qar and Idu, whom were father and son. These are usually open to the public most of the time, though usually kept locked unless a visitors asks specifically to see them. They feature the standard Old Kingdom reliefs and statues, but I found the environment inside decidedly uncomfortable, despite the place being quiet and I being left alone.

Giza Practicalities (Visitors Info)

Location: On the edge of the city of Giza (opposite Cairo on the west bank of the Nile). About 40 mins to an hour from central Cairo by road.

Transport: Good. Although not near a metro station numerous public buses run direct to the Pyramids from central Cairo. Fares vary from 25pt to LE2 (depending on type of bus). Taxis are also widely available in Cairo and Giza. Note bus destinations and times from stops are in Arabic only. “Al Ahram” is the Arabic term for the Pyramids. Taxis also run there and there is no need to have a taxi wait for you. Simply exit the plateau via the Sphinx exit and you will find yourself straight into the town, where plentiful taxis and buses are available. Do not underestimate journey times from central Cairo to the pyramids. It is a very long way, 40min to an hour is common. Pyramids Road is the most direct route, but can get congested.

Costs: LE50 to access the plateau (and public mastabas). LE40 for the Solar Boat Museum. LE80 to enter inside the pyramids. Note tickets for the pyramid interiors are sold are the main ticket office, whilst those for the Solar Boat Museum are sold in the museum itself.

Times: 8am to 6pm, plus S&L in the evening. Note that entry to the pyramids is restricted by numbers and split into morning and afternoon entry periods.

Notes: Be aware that the site is navigable on foot, so unless you specifically desire one, ignore offers of rides of any kind. Also be aware that there are no signs or direction markers on the plateau, and that the necropolis can be hard to navigate if looking for a speicific tomb. If you are looking for something speicfic besides the sphinx and pyramids be sure to get clear directions, preferably a high quality map. Be aware of “no change” tricks at the Solar Boat Museum. Ensure you have the correct money available.