Egypt: Cairo, Luxor, Assuan, Abu Simbel to Sharm

It has been 10 months since I returned from Egypt… much too long.

Thanks to some great guides during my last stay, I really became fascinated about Egypt, its history of dynasties, its gods and also about the Egyptian beliefs, hieroglyphics and mummification.

In a few days I will go back.

To get the most of this trip, I have been preparing, researching, reading about the history of ancient Egypt.

So fascinating and complex I hope to learn more this time about pyramids, temples and mosques

Soon I will be cruising on the Nile following Agatha’s footsteps.

I will start in Cairo to go see the Great Pyramids of Giza and then up to Sakkara, follow Napoléon’s trails and visit the capital’s citadel and most known mosques.Tahrir Square will be without any doubt a place where I will stop.

 

So what about the Pyramids of Egypt?

What people think about immediately when hear of Egyptian pyramids are  the Great Pyramids of Giza but Egypt is more than those pyramids. Across the country one finds about hundreds of pyramids. They were constructed during the 3-12 dynasties (2665 to 1780 BC) in a frame time of 900 years. Most pyramids  are around Cairo along the Nile on an area of 40 km to the oasis of Faijum. Other places for famous pyramids are Abusir, Medium, Dashur and Sakkara.

• Mastaba: before using pyramids to bury their dead, Egyptians used mastabas (rectangle tomb with a flat roof)
• Steps pyramid: in Sakkara. The Djoser pyramid was built under the architect Imhotep around 2665 before Christ in the 3rd dynasty. It was the first pyramid ever built – 62 meters tall (203 feet)
• Bent pyramid: in Dashur. Was built under Pharaoh Snofru in the 4th dynasty. Its particularity was that the pyramid had two slopes.
• Red pyramid: in Dashur is the third largest Egyptian pyramid and was built during Snefru
• Smooth pyramid:  There are three of them – Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos, located on the Giza plateau. It took 75 years to build the three and they are all different sizes.

1. Cheops was built in 30 years from 2604 to 2581 before Christ and
   is the biggest of all. It is 479 feet (146 meters) high by 759 feet
   (230 meters) long.
2. The son of Cheops, Chephren, built the second tallest pyramid in
   Giza around 2500 before Christ. The famous Sphinx with a broken nose
   stands in front of it.
3. The smallest pyramid of the three was built by Mykerinos, the son of Chephren.

Cheops pyramid has 2.3 Million stones and each weigh between 2.5 to 15 tons!

The pharaoh was the son of God Aman. What a better way to be closer to God after death than by building a pyramid? The rays of the sun would  come right on you.

Which were the most known Egyptian Gods?

The Ancient Egyptians believed that the after life was much more important than life on earth. They had thousands of gods to pray to for almost anything. To show how much they cared about their gods, they built temples to pray. Each god was portrayed with either a human face or animal face.

• Amun Re/Ra: creator of god – his temple is in Karnak.
• Anubis: god of mummification and looked like a jackal.
• Horus: sky god, with a falcon head – his temple is in Edfu.
• Isis: fertility goddess and perfect wife

• Osiris: was an important god, the god of the dead and after life.
• Re/Ra: was the sun god  and had the face of a falcon or a scarab.
• Sobek: was the god of the waters and portrayed with a crocodile head – his temple is Kom Ombo.
• Thot: was the god of wisdom and had the head of an ibis.

Other animals important to the Egyptians were the cow, snake, vulture, cobra, scarab, falcon, crocodile, ibis and jackal.

• Aswan
• Egypt
• Giza
• Luxor
• pyramids