Pyramids

Went out to see some of the older pyramids. This is the step pyramid at Sakkara which is believed to be the first-about 2600 b.c.

Then Snefuru built one that he tried to make larger and smooth sided. It collapsed, they think maybe while this one was being built which is why all of the sudden the slope changes on this one - the bent pyramid. It actually has a lot of it's smooth limestone around it even if it isn't shiny and white anymore.
Sorry about the haze. With all the people around Cairo it's bound to happen.

Snefuru's third try finally worked.  It isn't as large as his son's (Khufu) at Giza and it is a little squattier but it showed him how to do it. This is out at Dahshur and since we were the only ones here we decided to go into this one.  Imagine walking up around 100 steps to the entrance. Then walking down over 200 feet in a squat position ( the tunnel is only 3 feet tall).  Then you get to a flat corridor for about 25 feet and all the sudden it opens up...

to a 40 foot tall room - very tall and narrow.  There are some steps going up another story or two to the burial chambers.  You climb up and it really stinks of ammonia.  Oh, I can hardly breath.  I really wish I had a scarf with perfume that I could put over my mouth.  I look and quickly get back down to the first room which isn't quite as bad. Is it the smell of dead bodies? or just all the people's exhalations mingled together? or something worse (Bryan guessed urine)? Our guide says they all smell like this. Did they smell like this when they were being constructed?  It made me glad I wasn't a tomb archeologist. But I really was glad I went down. It's a great experience. Now we just have to get back into squat position and make the steep climb back up. When we finally got outside and started down the steps our legs felt like rubber.  We were both so-o-o-o sore the next day.  That night we fly south to Aswan.