I, Sphinxster

Right after the camel ride, we got back on the van and went to the edge of the Giza necropolis to see the Sphinx. The Sphinx is somewhat of a historical mystery it seems. First, "Sphinx" is somewhat of a misnomer; we still don't know what contemporaneous Ancient Egyptians (that is, Egyptians roughly of Khufu's era, around 2500 B.C.) called it. "Sphinx"* is what much later classical Greeks called it. They had their own story about a lion-human hybrid. In the Greek myth, the Sphinx had wings and a women's head, whereas the Egyptian Sphinx has a male head with Pharaonic headdress and no wings. But close enough, I guess.**

Anyway, no one has been able to determine when the Sphinx was built. The consensus is that it was built by Khafre, the Pharaoh who built the second largest of the Great Pyramids. But there is no direct mention or evidence of the statue that links it to that period. This lack of evidence is why we don't know that Egyptians of that era named it. Some past and present Egyptologists have claimed that the Sphinx predates Khufu's era and may have been excavated/restored around 2500 B.C., rather than constructed then.

Over a millennium later in 1400 B.C., it was buried up to the shoulders in sand, and the Pharaoh Thutmose IV restored it during his reign. Ramses II may have restored it again during his reign over a century later. It may be during this era that the ceremonial Pharaonic beard was added, which later fell off.

The Gizan Great Sphinx may be superlative in a few senses, but it is not the only sphinx in Egypt. In fact, at some point sphingine imagery became somewhat common; there's a roughly mile-long road between the Luxor and Karnak temples whose sides were lined with hundreds of smaller sphinges, many of which still survive.

Oh, and about the Sphinx's missing nose: I've always heard it was blown off by Napoleon's troops, who used it for target practice. But evidently that's a myth, since sketches from the mid-1700's show the nose already missing.

For more of my pictures from the Sphinx, click here.

* Sphinx comes from the Greek verb to strangle, the Greek Sphinx's method of dispatching those who could not answer her questions. As such, it's etymologically related to the word sphincter.

** And no worse than Egypt, essentially the Greek name for the country, which has little resemblance to the terms the ancient or modern Egyptians used for it.

Camel Ride: The Sequel

Background: earlier in November in a parking lot outside the Roman theater at Aspendos, fellow Turkey tourer Brian and I paid to take camel rides; we each took pictures of the other during our few-minute rides in circles on a level parking lot.

That was before I knew that each person on the Egypt tour got to take a camel ride by the Pyramids. So, on the way from the Pyramids to the Sphinx, the tour stopped to take a group camel ride.

This time, the trip was significantly longer; the handlers led us a hundred yards or so down a small dune and then back up again for a trip of 10-15 minutes. Before Turkey, I'd never ridden a large animal. This time, I noticed that the saddle only had one stirrup; that led me to think of the severe ankle damage I'd likely sustain if I fell off. The inclined path didn't help either. The desert is somewhat rocky and uneven and it seemed that my camel kept stumbling and lurching a little as it went up and down, which made me more nervous. Much of the time, I had one hand on the reins and another hand on the post of the saddle behind me to secure myself. This awkwardness amused some of my fellow riders.

Another portion of camel rides that are somewhat disconcerting is that camels are too tall to easily mount or dismount while they are standing; so they have to crouch down for the riders. A standing camel, though, doesn't really want to go back down on the ground. So the handlers have thick sticks with which they strike the camel behind its front knees. This induces the camel to quickly kneel on its front legs and then more slowly lower its back legs. So the beginning and end of the rides are somewhat lurchy and I was never sure how the camel was going to react to this method of correction.

Here are some more pictures from my Giza camel ride.

Pyramids

Early on the second morning of our tour, we went down the road from our Gizan hotel to the site of the Pyramids. The Pyramids are essentially mausoleums. Each of the three contained the mummified corpse of a Pharaoh along with all the treasures and possessions someone of his standing would need in the afterlife. The largest (the Great Pyramid) was built by Khufu (aka Cheops), the next largest by his son or grandson Khafre, and the smallest by Menkaure. The afterlife was a major concern in Egyptian theology, so the final resting place of the Pharaoh was a major public project throughout his reign. Although it is smaller in height and in volume, Khafre's pyramid (the one with the remnants of its outer casing still visible around the top) is built on higher ground and so looks taller than the Great Pyramid that Khufu built. Since the Egyptians associated the setting sun metaphorically with the end of life, Giza is on the west side of the Nile.

The Gizan Pyramids were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and are the only still in existence today. Although the Great Pyramid was built approximately 4,500 years ago, it was the tallest man-made structure until the construction of the Lincoln Cathedral in England was completed in 1311 AD. Their size made them prime targets, though; these and later smaller pyramids were all looted. Future generations of Pharaohs moved their tombs to underground complexes in the Valley of the Kings.

Besides the three main pyramids, there are a few much smaller pyramids that contain the remains of the queens of the Pharaohs. Additionally there are rectangular mounds called mastabas that mark the underground burial chambers of nobles. There are also underground pits that house disassembled ceremonial boats. One of these was unearthed in 1954, reassembled painstakingly for a decade, and is now on display in a museum that abuts the Great Pyramid. This Wikipedia image shows the layout of the Gizan Pyramid site.

For more of my pictures of the Giza Pyramids, click here.