Egypt, Day 4

Today was a big adventure with pyramids.  No not, the big ones, but a couple more that make the books.  First thing in the morning we headed out to Dahshur to view two more early pyramids.  If the step pyramid of Djoser was the first, the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid both tried to do him one better.  The Best pyramid was the first one to look like a pyramid as we know it. Built for the Pharaoh Sneferu, they got about half way up and realized the bedrock wasn’t strong enough to support such a massive structure.  So, they changed the angle of the sides, going from a 54-degree inclination to a 43-degree angle.

Now it turns out that such a “mistake” means that pyramid isn’t fit to be the final resting place of the pharaoh.  So he just built another one.  The Red pyramid just across the way.  This one is the third largest of all the pyramids and according to Dr. Hawass, the hardest one to get into.  I sure hope so, because honestly I didn’t make it all the way down inside.  We got a good part of the way, but were worried about making it back out.  But we’ll do better next time!

After these adventures, we headed into Memphis to take a look at a beautiful and massive statue of Ramses II.  I shouldn’t be surprised after seeing pyramids that something so large is created, but I am. 

So while it was only a few things for today, it was still quite an adventure.  Next up is the move to our floating home on the Nile which we kick off in Luxor.