Pyramid Hopping
The first of all the Egyptian pyramids, the Pyramid of Djoser, it turns out, was just a horrible mistake that turned out really really well for one architect called Imhotep. He built the walls around Pharaoh Djoser’s Mastaba (the original less fancy monument that rulers were then buried in) way too high and needed to compensate by adding another level. In the end, he got a little step happy and just couldn't stop until he’d reached six layers.
A little drive further into the desert is the infamous bent Pyramid of Dahshur and the Red Pyramid. Turns out, this whole pyramids as fancy burial monuments went down pretty well with the Pharaohs of the time. Pharaoh Snefuru, however, didn’t just want your standard step-pyramid. No, he wanted something fancier, something smoother. And so work began on the pyramid of Dahshur, what was meant to be a fully smooth shape. They didn't get it quite right with this second attempt (hence the wonkiness), but when they got to the third (the Red Pyramid) they completed Egypt's first ever true pyramid. It was a little bit smaller, perhaps, than perfect, but it did have straight edges so that was a definite step up *wink wink* from before.
We got to clamber about inside the Red Pyramid. It was exciting and terrifying in equal measure. I felt like there should be a sign outside saying: 'Claustrophobics be warned'. It felt like the risk of suffocation was nigh. But I also got to live out all my childhood fantasies of being an intrepid explorer so really, it was all worth the fear asphyxiation.
The five of us were the only people around (thank God or else it might have been unbearable), you have to climb all the way up the outside of the pyramid to reach its entrance and then clamber, stooped over, all the way back down again in a tiny sloping corridor, with a floor of wooden ridges added to stop it from just becoming one massive slide.
The stench of ammonia was almost unbearable, strengthening the deeper into the belly of the pyramid you go, forcing you to breathe only through your mouth until you can almost taste it on your tongue. It’s pumped in to keep the air clean. I would say it wasn’t necessarily doing the best job, but then what do I know about ancient pyramid ventilation technology.
At the end of a very, very, very long passageway, and a small climb up some modern(ish) wooden stairs, you reach the empty burial chamber. Of course it was empty. The luxurious content long ago stolen away by grave-robbers or the British. But the room was no less impressive without it, especially when you allow your mind to wander and realise that you are in the very heart of an ancient monument to death, with several hundred tonnes of stone standing above your head.
*First posted on mollytravels.com