PYRAMIDS!!
Hi Everyone!! Hannah here. Today we were fortunate enough to travel to Giza to see the pyramids, the Sphinx statue, and ride some camels. We were able to go into The Great Pyramid of Khufu, which is the most famous pyramid of them all. Prior to entering the extremely small pyramid passageway (hello claustrophobia) our guide, Amany, gave us a brief history lesson.
Here are some quick facts that we learned today about the pyramid. Khufu was an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, who had this pyramid built to hold his burial chamber. To build The Great Pyramid of Khufu, it took 2 million 300 thousand blocks of stone. Each stone weighs approximately 2 tons, but as the pyramid gets higher, the stones get lighter and smaller. Every 2.5 minutes, a new stone was added to the pyramid structure. So you can see how it would take a long time for the pyramids to be built. It took twenty years to be exact. This is partially due to workers only being able to work four months each year.
After our history lesson, we were able to take in the wonder in front of our eyes. It was truly unbelievable to enter that pyramid and see the innovation of these ancient Egyptians. The pathway up to the burial chamber was steep, narrow and very short (height wise). We were practically crawling through some parts of the tunnel. At the top, the tiny tunnel opened up into this big, dark and plain burial champber. A few of us were surprised at the lack of details in this room. Especially seeing all the fine and precise details from the museum yesterday. This may be my claustrophobic self coming through, but there was no air at all inside the pyramid. It was extremely hot, humid, and quite frankly, it felt like a sauna. So it was a pleasant surprise to emerge from the pyramid to find the 95 degree weather feeling like a cool relief from the heat. The abundance of air outside was also a relief.
Once our internal tour of the pyramids was over, we took an external tour. After taking multitudes of pictures, we went inside a museum that held a wooden boat. A very large wooden boat. It's tradition for a pyramid to have a canal near it, with a wooden boat inside the canal. It basically looks like a giant parking space for a boat. These boats were used to transport the furniture and all the other treasures that the Pharoah wanted in his tomb.
The next thing on our list was a camel ride. All day we'd been watching these camels walk around the base of the pyramids. Each camel had very colorful blankets under their saddle, which stood out against all the tans of the desert and pyramids. Camels don't look very tall until you're on one. They are a lot taller than you might think. The rides were brief, but the views were amazing and this was a highlight for many people.
Our last stop before lunch was to visit the Sphinx. Yesterday at the museum, we saw the face (of a statue) that the Sphinx was modeled after. Although only two days have passed, we've already been able to make so many connections from what we've learned each day.
We stopped for a quick lunch at a shawarma and falafel place and then continued on to our final stop of the day. The last thing on our agenda was to stop at a jewelry store, where students could have their names written in hieroglyphics. They also had a papyrus shop downstairs, and we learned how to make the papyrus paper.
It was all around an amazing day, as we all attested to during our session of highs and lows after class tonight. Tomorrow, we are all anxious to move into the AUC and finally unpack from our suitcase and start a more regular routine.
Until next time! - Hannah
Here are some quick facts that we learned today about the pyramid. Khufu was an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, who had this pyramid built to hold his burial chamber. To build The Great Pyramid of Khufu, it took 2 million 300 thousand blocks of stone. Each stone weighs approximately 2 tons, but as the pyramid gets higher, the stones get lighter and smaller. Every 2.5 minutes, a new stone was added to the pyramid structure. So you can see how it would take a long time for the pyramids to be built. It took twenty years to be exact. This is partially due to workers only being able to work four months each year.
After our history lesson, we were able to take in the wonder in front of our eyes. It was truly unbelievable to enter that pyramid and see the innovation of these ancient Egyptians. The pathway up to the burial chamber was steep, narrow and very short (height wise). We were practically crawling through some parts of the tunnel. At the top, the tiny tunnel opened up into this big, dark and plain burial champber. A few of us were surprised at the lack of details in this room. Especially seeing all the fine and precise details from the museum yesterday. This may be my claustrophobic self coming through, but there was no air at all inside the pyramid. It was extremely hot, humid, and quite frankly, it felt like a sauna. So it was a pleasant surprise to emerge from the pyramid to find the 95 degree weather feeling like a cool relief from the heat. The abundance of air outside was also a relief.
| The Great Pyramid of Khufu |
The next thing on our list was a camel ride. All day we'd been watching these camels walk around the base of the pyramids. Each camel had very colorful blankets under their saddle, which stood out against all the tans of the desert and pyramids. Camels don't look very tall until you're on one. They are a lot taller than you might think. The rides were brief, but the views were amazing and this was a highlight for many people.
Our last stop before lunch was to visit the Sphinx. Yesterday at the museum, we saw the face (of a statue) that the Sphinx was modeled after. Although only two days have passed, we've already been able to make so many connections from what we've learned each day.
We stopped for a quick lunch at a shawarma and falafel place and then continued on to our final stop of the day. The last thing on our agenda was to stop at a jewelry store, where students could have their names written in hieroglyphics. They also had a papyrus shop downstairs, and we learned how to make the papyrus paper.
It was all around an amazing day, as we all attested to during our session of highs and lows after class tonight. Tomorrow, we are all anxious to move into the AUC and finally unpack from our suitcase and start a more regular routine.
Until next time! - Hannah
Comments
Post a Comment