The Great Sphinx of GizaAn Introduction by Allen Winston

In a depression to the south of Khafre's pyramid at Giza near Cairo sits a huge creature with the head of a human and a lion's body. This monumental statue, the first truly colossal royal sculpture in Egypt, known as the Great Sphinx, is a national symbol of Egypt, both ancient and modern. It has stirred the imagination of poets, scholars, adventurers and tourists for centuries and has also inspired a wealth of speculation about its age, its meaning, and the secrets that it might hold.

The word "sphinx", which means 'strangler', was first given by the Greeks to a fabulous creature which had the head of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. In Egypt, there are numerous sphinxes, usually with the head of a king wearing his headdress and the body of a lion.There are, however, sphinxes with ram heads that are associated with the god Amun.

The Great Sphinx is to the northeast of Khafre's (Chephren) Valley Temple. Where it sits was once a quarry. We believe that Khafre's workers shaped the stone into the lion and gave it their king's face over 4,500 years ago. Khafre's name was also mentioned on the Dream Stele, which sits between the paws of the great beast. However, no one is completely certain that it is in fact the face of Khafre, though indeed that is the preponderance of thought. Recently, however, it has been argued that Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid, may have also had the Great Sphinx built.

The Great Sphinx is believed to be the most immense stone sculpture in the round ever made by man. However, it must be noted that the Sphinx is not an isolated monument and that it must be examined in the context of its surroundings. Specifically, like many of Egypt's monuments, it is a complex which consists not only of the great statue itself, but also of its old temple, a New Kingdom temple and some other small structures. It is also closely related toKhafre's Valley Temple, which itself had four colossal sphinx statues each more than 26 feet long.

 The material of the Sphinx is the limestone bedrock of what geologists call the Muqqatam Formation, which originated fifty million years ago from sediments deposited at the bottom of sea waters that engulfed northeast Africa during the Middle Eocene period. An embankment formed along what is now the north-northwest side of the plateau. Nummulites, which are small, disk-shaped fossils named after the Latin word for 'coin', pack the embankment. These were once the shells of now extinct planktonic organisms. There was a shoal and coral reef that grew over the southern slope of the embankment. Carbonate mud deposited in the lagoon petrified into the layers from which the ancient builders, some fifty million years later, carved out the Great Sphinx.

To do so, they trenched out a deep, U-shaped ditch that isolated a huge rectangular bedrock block for carving the Sphinx. This enclosure is deepest immediately around the body, with a shelf at the rear of the monument where it was left unfinished and a shallower extension to the north where important archaeological finds have been made.

The good, hard limestone that lay around the Sphinx's head was probably all quarried for blocks to build the pyramids. The limestone removed to shape the body of the beast was evidently employed to build the two temples to the east of the Sphinx, on a terrace lower than the floor of the Sphinx enclosure, one almost directly in front of the paws, the other to the south of the first one.

It is generally thought that quarrying around the original knoll revealed rock that was too poor in quality for construction. Therefore, some visionary individual conceived of the plan to turn what was left of the knoll into the Sphinx. However, the Sphinx may equally well have been planned from the start for this location, good rock or bad. The walls of the Sphinx enclosure are of the same characteristics as the strata of the Sphinx body and exhibit similar states of erosion.

The bedrock body of the Sphinx became a standing section of the deeper limestone layers of the Giza Plateau. The lowest stratum of the Sphinx is the hard, brittle rock of the ancient reef, referred to as Member I. All of the geological layers slope about three degrees from northwest to southeast, so they are higher at the rump of the Sphinx and lower at the front paws. Hence, the surface of this area has not appreciably weathered compared to the layers above it.

 Most of the Sphnix's lion body and the south wall and the upper part of the ditch were carved into the Member II, which consists of seven layers that are soft near the bottom, but become progressively harder near the top. However, the rock actually alternates between hard and soft. The head and neck of the Great Sphinx are made of Member III, which is better stone, though it becomes harder further up.

The Sphinx faces the rising sun with a temple to the front which resembles the sun temples which were built later by the kings of the 5th Dynasty. The lion was a solar symbol in more than one ancient Near Eastern culture. The royal human head on a lion's body symbolized power and might, controlled by the intelligence of the pharaoh, guarantor of the cosmic order, or ma'at. Its symbolism survived for two and a half millennia in the iconography of Egyptian civilization.

The head and face of the Sphinx certainly reflect a style that belongs to Egypt's Old Kingdom, and to the 4th Dynasty in particular. The overall form of his face is broad, almost square, with a broad chin. The headdress (known as the 'nemes' head-cloth), with its fold over the top of the head and its triangular planes behind the ears, the presence of the royal 'uraeus' cobra on the brow, the treatment of the eyes and lips all evidence that the Sphinx was carved during this period.

The sculptures of kings Djedefre, Khafre and Menkaure and other Old Kingdom Pharaohs, all show the same configuration that we see on the Sphinx. Some scholars believe that the Great Sphinx was originally bearded with the sort of formally plaited beard. Pieces of the Sphinx's massive beard found by excavation adorn the British Museum in London and the Cairo Museum. However, it seems to possibly, if not probably be dated to the New Kingdom, and so was likely added at a later date. The rounded divine beard is an innovation of the New Kingdom, and according to Rainer Stadelmann, did not exist in the Old or Middle Kingdom. It may have been added to identify the god with Horemahket

There is a hole in the top of the head, now filled in, that once provided support for additional head decoration. Depictions of the Sphinx from the latter days of ancient Egypt show a crown or plumes on the top of the head, but these were not necessarily part of the original design. The top of the head is flatter, however, than later Egyptian sphinxes.

 The body is 72.55 meters in length and 20.22 meters tall. The face of the sphinx is four meters wide and its eyes are two meters high. The mouth is about two meters wide, while the nose would have been more than 1.5 meters long. The ears are well over one meter high. Part of the uraeus (sacred cobra), the nose, the lower ear and the ritual beard are now missing, while the eyes have been pecked out. The beard from the sphinx is on displayed in the British Museum.

 Below the neck, the Great Sphinx has the body of a lion, with paws, claws and tail (curled round the right haunch), sitting on the bedrock of the rocky enclosure out of which the monument has been carved. The enclosure has taller walls to the west and south of the monument, in keeping with the present lie of the land.

When viewed close-up, the head and body of the Sphinx look relatively well proportioned, but seen from further away and side-on the head looks small in relation to the long body (itself proportionally much longer than is seen in later sphinxes). In its undamaged state, the body is likely to have appeared still larger all around in relation to the head, which has not been reduced as much by erosion. The human head is on a scale of about 30:1, while the lion body is on the smaller scale of 22:1. There could be a number of explanations for this discrepancy.

This was, as far as we know, one of the very first of the Egyptian sphinxes, though there is at least one other, attributed to Djedefre, that predates it. The rules of proportion commonly employed on later and smaller examples may not yet have been formulated at the time of the carving of the Great Sphinx of Giza. In any case, the carving of sphinxes was always a flexible formula, to an unusual degree in the context of Egyptian artistic conservatism.

Then again, the Sphinx may have been sculpted to look its best when seen from fairly close by and more or less from the front. There is also the possibility that there was simply insufficient good rock to make the head, where fine detail was required, any bigger. Also, the fissure at the rear of the Great Sphinx may have dictated a longer body, rather than one much too short.

There remains the possibility that the head has been remodeled at some time and thereby reduced in size, but on stylistic grounds alone this is not likely to have been done after the Old Kingdom times in ancient Egypt.

There are three passages into or under the Sphinx, two of them of obscure origin. The one of known cause is a short dead-end shaft behind the head drilled in the nineteenth century. No other tunnels or chambers in or under the Sphinx are known to exist. A number of small holes in the Sphinx body may relate to scaffolding at the time of carving.

The figure was buried for most of its life in the sand. It was King Thutmose IV (1425 - 1417 BC) who placed a stela between the front paws of the figure. On it, Thutmose describes an event, while he was still a prince, when he had gone hunting and fell asleep in the shade of the sphinx. During a dream, the sphinx spoke to Thutmose and told him to clear away the sand. The sphinx told him that if he did this, he would be rewarded with the kingship of Egypt. Thutmose carried out this request and the sphinx held up his end of the bargain. Of course, over time, the great statue, the only single instance of a colossal sculpture carved in the round directly out of the natural rock, once again found itself buried beneath the sand.

In the more modern era, when Napoleon arrived in Egypt in 1798, the Sphinx was buried once more with sand up to its neck, at by this point, we believe the nose had been missing for at least 400 years. Between 1816 and 1817, the Genoese merchant, Caviglia tried to clear away the sand, but he only managed to dig a trench down the chest of the statue and along the length of the forepaws. Auguste Mariette, the founder of the Egyptian Antiquities Service,also attempted to excavate the Sphinx, but gave up in frustration over the enormous amount of sand. He went on to explore the Khafre Valley Temple, but returned to the Great Sphinx to excavate in 1858. This time, he managed to clear the sand down to the rock floor of the ditch around the Sphinx, discovering in the process several sections of the protective walls around the ditch, as well as odd masonry boxes along the body of the monument which might have served as small shrines. However, he apparently still did not clear all the sand

In 1885, Gaston Maspero, then Director of the Antiquities Service, once again tried to clear the Sphinx, but after exposing the earlier work of Caviglia and Mariette, he also was forced to abandon the project due to logistical problems.

Between 1925 and 1936, French engineer Emile Baraize excavated the Sphinx on behalf of the Antiquities Service, and apparently for the first time since antiquity, the great beast once again became exposed to the elements.

In fact, the sand has been its savior, since, being built of soft sandstone, it would have disappeared long ago had it not been buried for much of its existence.

Nevertheless, the statue is crumbling today because of the wind, humidity and the smog from Cairo. The rock was of poor quality here from the start, already fissured along joint lines that went back to the formation of the limestone millions of years ago. There is a particularly large fissure across the haunches, nowadays filled with cement, that also shows up in the walls of the enclosure in which the Sphinx sits.

Below the head, serious natural erosion begins. The neck is badly weathered, evidently by wind-blown sand during those long periods when only the head was sticking up out of the desert and the wind could catapult the sand along the surface and scour the neck and the extensions of the headdress that are missing altogether now. The stone here is not quite of such good quality as that of the head above.

below the neck does not look like scouring by wind-blown sand. In fact, so poor is the rock of the bulk of the body that it must have been deteriorating since the day it was carved out of the stone. We know that it needed repairs on more than one occasion in antiquity. It continues to erode before our very eyes, with spalls of limestone falling off the body during the heat of the day.

So, today, much of the work on the Great Sphinx at Giza is not directed at further explorations or excavations, but rather the preservation of this great wonder of Egypt. This is the focus, and while some might even today have the antiquity authorities digging about the monument looking for hidden chambers holding the secrets of Atlantis, that is not likely to happen any time soon.

Sharm el-Sheikh

Sharm el-Sheikh is on a promontory overlooking the Straits of Tiran at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba. Its strategic importance led to its transformation from a fishing village into a major port and naval base for the Egyptian Navy. It was captured by Israel during the Suez Crisis of 1956 and restored to Egypt in 1957. A United Nations peacekeeping force was subsequently stationed there until the 1967 Six-Day War when it was recaptured by Israel. Sharm el-Sheikh remained under Israeli control until the Sinai peninsula was restored again to Egypt in 1982 after the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979.^{[citation needed]}

A hierarchical planning approach was adopted for the Gulf of Aqaba, whereby their components were evaluated and subdivided into zones, cities and centers. In accordance with this approach the Gulf of Aqaba zone was subdivided into four cities: Taba, Nuweiba, Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh. Sharm el-Sheikh city has been subdivided into five homogeneous centers, namely Nabq, Ras Nusrani, Naama Bay, Umm Sid and Sharm El Maya.

 

A street in Naama Bay.

Sharm el-Sheikh city together with Naama Bay, Hay el Nour, Hadaba, Rowaysat, Montazah and Shark's Bay form a metropolitan area.

Before 1967 Sharm el-Sheikh was little more than an occasional base of operations for local fishermen; the nearest permanent settlement was in Nabk, north of Ras el-Nasrani ("The Tiran Straits"). Commercial development of the area began during the Israeli presence in the area. The Israelis built the town of Ofira, overlooking Sharm el-Maya Bay and the Nesima area, and opened the first tourist-oriented establishments in the area 6 km north at Naama Bay. These included a marina hotel on the southern side of the bay, a nature field school on the northern side, diving clubs, a now well-known promenade, and the Naama Bay Hotel.^{[citation needed]}

After Sinai was restored to Egypt in 1982 the Egyptian government embarked on an initiative to encourage continued development of the city. Foreign investors – some of whom had discovered the potential of the locality during the Israeli occupation – contributed to a spate of building projects. Environmental zoning laws currently limit the height of buildings in Sharm el-Sheikh so as to avoid obscuring the natural beauty of the surroundings.

In 2005, the resort was hit by the Sharm el-Sheikh terrorist attacks, which were perpetrated by an extremist Islamist organisation, and aimed at Egypt's tourist industry. Eighty-eight people were killed, the majority of them Egyptians, and over 200 were wounded by the attack, making it the deadliest terrorist action in the country's history (exceeding the Luxor massacre of 1997).^[1]

The city has played host to a number of important Middle Eastern peace conferences, including the 4 September 1999 agreement to restore Palestinian self-rule over the Gaza Strip. A second summit was held at Sharm on 17 October 2000 following the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, but it failed to end the violence. A summit was held in the city on 3 August 2005 on developments in the Arab world such as the  situation in Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The World Economic Forum on the Middle East 2008 was also hosted by Sharm el-Sheikh.^[2]

Amidst the 2011 Egyptian protests, President Hosni Mubarak reportedly went to Sharm el-Sheikh and resigned there on 11 February 2011.^[3]

The average temperatures during the winter months (November to March) range from 15 to 35 degrees Celsius (59-95°F) and during the summer months (April to October) from 20 to 45 degrees Celsius (68-113°F). The temperature of the Red Sea in this region ranges from 21 to 28 degrees Celsius (70-84°F) over the course of the year

Egypt Feature Story The Tomb of Tutankhamun (King Tut) by Mark Andrews

It is not the grandest tomb in Egypt, and was certainly not occupied by one of Egypt's most powerful rulers.  But in general, the population of the world know the tomb of Tutankhamen (KV 62) better than any other, because of all the royal tombs, it was found mostly intact. What was found in this tomb surely gives us pause to understand the motive behind ancient tomb robberies.  If such a vast fortune in treasure (in all, some 3,500 items were recovered) was found in this tiny tomb owned by a relatively minor king, what must have dazzled the eyes of the thieves who first entered the huge tomb of Ramesses II, or one of Egypt's other grand kings? Of course, the list of funerary equipment was very useful to Egyptologists, giving them an idea of what had been removed from other royal tombs.

Wonderful Artwork found in the Tutankhamun Tomb

A top from one of the Canopic Jar

The tomb, which lies in an area that was not normally used for royal burials in the Valley center, was apparently quickly buried deep below the surface of the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes). It was forgotten about until Howard Carter discovered it on November 4th, 1922. Part of Howard Carter's luck was that it was not discovered earlier when, his predecessor in the Valley, Theodore Davis who was American, came within little more than a meter of finding it himself.

It is a little known fact that Howard Carter did not excavate every part of the King’s Valley, down to bedrock in his search for Tutankhamun. Having identified the area, in the centre of the Valley, most likely to produce the sort of find his patron desired; & which would indeed do so, many years before he seems to have expended much of his efforts in the search for answers to much more academic questions; such as the hunt for foundation deposits – in order to clarify which king was actually responsible for the construction of which tomb, & only went flat out in his search for Tutankhamun’s tomb, when it became apparent that his source of funds might be about to dry up.

From "Recent Excavations in the Valley of the Kings by the Amarna Royal Tombs Project" by Glen

Howard Carter was told, prior to finding the tomb, that Lord Carnarvon was withdrawing from the project, but after pleading his case, was given one more season of  excavation in order to find it.

Actually, we are told  that after having initially discovered the steps of the tomb on November 4th, Carter initially telegraphed Lord Carnarvon, who was still in England at his Hampshire estate, after which Carter refilled the stairway to await his benefactor's arrival.  Upon Lord Carnarvon's arrival on November 24th, work was resumed and by November 26th, the interior was observed for the first time since antiquity.

After its discovery, the worldwide media spectacle the discovery created along with movies about the curse of the mummies which are still produced every so often, is probably as interesting as the actual tomb itself. What many people do not realize is that it took Carter, with his attention to details, another ten years to fully explore, excavate and clear the tomb. Legend has it that Carter posted the first notice of discovery of the tomb on the bulletin board at the Old Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor.

Tutankhamen was certainly not one of the greatest of Egyptian pharaohs.  In fact, prior to the discovery of his tomb in 1922, little of his life was known.  Today, we know much more about  this king, but surprisingly little of that knowledge comes from the treasures of his tomb.  Tutankhamen died about 1325 BC, after only nine years of rule.  Apparently he died fairly suddenly, because a proper royal tomb, to our knowledge, was never prepared for this pharaoh.  Instead, the tomb of Tutankhamen is relatively small and follows a design more often found in non-royal tombs. Some scholars believe that the tomb that King Ay was eventually interred in was actually begun for Tutankhamen.

Actually, Tutankhamen's tomb is not nearly as interesting as other tombs in the Valley of the Kings.  It consists of an entrance leading to a single corridor, followed by several annexes for funerary equipment.  At a 90 degree right angle is the small burial chamber, with another annex attached leading back in the direction of the entrance.  This is not much of a tomb compared to other royal tombs, and most all of the funerary equipment will not be found here, but rather in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo, if it is not elsewhere on exhib

Only the burial chamber received decorations.  Here, all of the walls have the same golden background.  On the west wall we find scenes depicting the apes of the first hour of the Amduat.  On the south wall the king is followed by Anubis as he appears before Hathor. Here, there is also a scene of the King being welcomed into the underworld by Hathor, Anubis and Isis.  The north wall depicts the King before Nut with the royal ka embracing Osiris.  On the same wall, we also find the scene of Ay performing the opening of the Mouth ritual before the mummy of Tutankhamun.  Finally, on the east wall, Tutankhamun's mummy is depicted being  pulled on a sledge during the funeral procession.  Within the procession are two viziers to the king, and a third person who might be Horemheb.

It should be noted that this tomb was not found completely intact.  In fact, there had been at least two robberies of the tomb, perhaps soon after Tutankhamen's burial, probably by members of the tomb workers.

Tutankhamun's Gold Inner Coffin

Dahab Egypt -gold arab

Dahab (Gold in Arabic) is a small tourist town located on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Dahab was once a small Bedouin fishing village, but the arrival of international hotel chains has meant that Dahab is now a thriving tourist resort. It is one of the oldest and most established diving areas in Egypt and is home to some of the most spectacular dive spots on the Red Sea. The Blue Hole, which is a few kilometres from Dahab is a world renowned dive site. The Blue hole reaches depths of 130m is places,

Dahab can’t really be compared to the larger resorts such as Sharm el Sheikh or Hurghada as these are much larger and more commercial tourist resorts. Dahab is a much more laid back and quieter resort and is known for attracting many backpackers.

One of Dahab’s main attractions is its unique restaurants, a mixture of Bedouin and hippie styles. Large cushions and low tables, decorated with colourful cloths, line the beach. Many of these restaurants have fish stalls in front where you can choose your own fish and have it prepared to your own taste. After your meal you are able to lie back and relax on the cushions or sample the traditional Egyptian sheesha pipe.

There is so much to do in Dahab, that you will never run out of things to do such as Bedouin safaris, yoga, wind-surfing, kite surfing, kayaking, quad bike trips, horse and camel rides and much more. You can also take an overnight trip to Mount Sinai from Dahab, and climb to the summit through the night to watch the sun rise over the Sinai Mountains.

For the ‘shopper’ there are many great buys in Dahab such as sheesha pipes, rugs, silver jewellery, oriental lamps etc. Haggling is a must, as most of the prices are geared towards tourist, you should expect to pay around 60% of the price first offered.

Egypt fishing holidays

In Egypt in the 1960's a dam was built on the Nile at Aswan. The resulting lake flooded over 360 miles of Egypt's Nile valley creating one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. This lake has turned into a magical wilderness of stunning desert scenery, bordamerous crocodiles, monitor lizards, golden jackals, and desert fox. More importantly for the keen fisherman, Lake Nasser is the greatest venue in the world for wild Nile perch; while your lure is in the water you literally don't know if the next fish is going to be a 50 pounder or one over 200 pounds. Nile Perch are spectacular fighters; their aggression as they hit flies or lures is just mind blowing. One minute you are working your fly/lure and the next the take can be enough to whip you off your feet. Like many sport fish, Nile Perch are also great jumpers, launching themselves clear of the water, gills flared open, shaking their big head and the enormous mouth, all in a desperate attempt to shake the hook. Although Lake Nasser is famous for the Nile Perch, there are other species that if fished with balanced tackle, can and do provide great sport. These include Tiger fish, Vundu catfish and on light fly tackle, the bread and butter fish of the lake, Tilapia. Our fishing tours to Lake Nasser can concentrate purely on the fishing, or you can add a Nile cruise, sightseeing, or a Red Sea stay. While on the lake itself, we have a mother boat with basic beds and cooking facilities, and smaller boats which allow more flexibility to explore and search out that big one. 

cairo, aswan.lake.nasser

A fishing safari on Lake Nasser is a journey into the wilderness, a return to nature, and a chance to catch one of the biggest freshwater fish in the world. It is also a chance to enjoy camping under the stars and the incredible experience of being out in a real wilderness. Fishing on this isolated desert lake is sure to provide you with some of the best fishing you will have ever done, and almost certainly you'll catch the largest freshwater fish of your life. Lake Nasser is in its own right a truly breathtaking natural wonder, where stunning desert scenery borders clean blue waters, dotted with numerous rocky islands and outcrops. The whole area has a feeling of peace and tranquillity and of untouched natural beauty, the like of which is rapidly disappearing from the modern world. For anglers with a sense of adventure and a hankering for those remote, faraway places our Lake Nasser boat safaris are sure to hit the spot. Read more

cairo, aswan.lake.nasser 

Want to experience the real "Jewels of the Nile?" Well this tour is for you. It’s a perfect combination of Egyptian culture and the thrilling experience of catching the real Jewels or the Nile - the mighty awesome predatory Nile Perch. First you will have seven days fishing on Lake Nasser with your own boat and guide for the perfect private fishing safari. You will then get to experience the other fantastic sights and sounds of the Egyptian way of life - both past and present - with a luxury 5-star Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor. Just check out the itinerary attached to this tour. Read more

 tour description

Want to experience the real "Jewels of the Nile?" Well this tour is for you. It’s a perfect combination of Egyptian culture and the thrilling experience of catching the real Jewels or the Nile - the mighty awesome predatory Nile Perch. First you will have seven days fishing on Lake Nasser with your own boat and guide for the perfect private fishing safari. You will then get to experience the other fantastic sights and sounds of the Egyptian way of life - both past and  present - with a luxury 5-star Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor. Just check out the itinerary attached to this tour.

ou start your Egyptian fishing adventure in Cairo with a visit one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the great pyramids at Gisa, followed by the Sphinx. We next take you on a tour to the world famous Egyptian museum. From here you fly to Aswan and transfer to Aswan dam, and from here you will make your way up the lake with all the fuel, food and water you require for the full length of your tour

This tour is a safari in the truest meaning of the term. You are living it by camping on your boat literally miles away from any civilization. The stars become your ceiling with a step behind the rocks to your bathroom. Within 2 hours you are out of mobile phone signal, no television, or radio and no electricity. Just you your fellow anglers and guides completely at one with mother nature for the rest of your tour. What awaits you is pure nature and heaven, you can fish as hard or as little as you like. Although Lake Nasser is famous for the Nile Perch there other species that if fished with balanced tackle, can and do provide great sport, Tiger fish, Vundu catfish and on light fly tackle the bread and butter fish of the lake Tilapia. Most of our customers come on this trip to try and catch the largest fresh water fish of their life. Although this can never be guaranteed, practically everyone achieves this goal and has an Angling Adventure of a Lifetime.

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After finishing your fishing we transfer you back to Aswan where you will board a luxury 5-star cruise boat for a leisurely cruise the Nile. Before setting sail we take you on a visit to the lovely island temple of Philae and for a traditional felucca sailboat cruise.

Surrounded by the sumptuous setting of your luxurious cruise boat you slowly make your way down river. You can relax by the pool and watching the world go by during the day, and dine and enjoy traditional Egyptian entertainment by night. En route you will stop at the fabulous temples of Komombo and Edfu before finally reaching Luxor.

In Luxor you take a tour to the Pharaonic tombs in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens as well as the vast temples of Luxor and Karnak. Finally you fly back to Cairo were we transfer you to the airport for you flight hom

EGYPT TOUR Hurghada EGYPT

Hurghada was founded in the early 20th century, and until a few years ago, remained a small fishing village. But today, it has gone on to become the foremost tourist resort of the Red Sea coast and an international center for aquatic sports. If it takes place in or on the water you can do it here: windsurfing, sailing, deep-sea fishing, swimming, but, above all, snorkeling and diving. The unique underwater gardens offshore are some of the finest in the world, justifiably famous amongst divers. The warm waters here are ideal for many varieties of rare fish and coral reefs, which may also be observed through glass bottom boats. This area has many fine accommodations, usually offering warm and efficient service. Restaurants are mostly along the main road. While in Hurghada, don't miss the museum and aquarium, with their complete collections of flora and fauna of the Red Sea.

Today, Hurghada is known as a party town, particularly among Europeans. Locals and others will tell you that life begins at night in Hurghada, with the many, many clubs. They are particularly frequented by the young, but certainly many others of all ages. One may often find a rousing party centered around the visitors from a tour group taking over the action of a particular bar. They are easy to find along the main street, along with loads of inexpensive and expensive hotels

One of the Local Evening Hot Spots just a bit still too Early

Hurghada is also a city under development. Many new hotels and construction are taking place, and we can expect to see some great new hotels, restaurants and other facilities in the near future. Actually this is a busy section of the Red Sea in general. Safaga is just south of Hurghada, and Soma Bay with its beautiful Sheraton is even closer to the South. To the North is El Gouna, a highly organized resort community. Together, these communities and resort areas offer just about everything a visitor might wish for, from raucous parties to isolated scuba diving, with golf, bowling and fishing in between.

Islands near Hurghada offer all kinds of fun and excitement. Take a day trip to Giftun Island for snorkeling and a fish barbecue, or view the Red Sea from a submarine! When you're not in the sea you can shop in the boutiques, relax in the luxury holiday villages or visit the Roman Mons Porphyrites (mountain of porphyry) remains at nearby Gebel Abu Dukhan (Father of Smoke). Day-trips or safaris to explore the Red Sea Mountains by camel or jeep are also available. Other nearby islands and destinations include the Shadwan Island (Diving, snorkeling, fishing but no swimming), Shaab Abu Shiban (Diving, snorkeling and swimming), Shaab el-Erg (Diving, fishing and snorkeling), Umm Gammar Island (Diving and snorkeling), Shasb Saghir Umm Gammae (Diving), Careless Reef (Diving), Abu Ramada Island (Diving), Shaab Abu Ramada (Fishing), Dishet el-Dhaba (Beaches and swimming), Shaab Abu Hashish (Beaches, diving, snorkeling, swimming and fishing), Sharm el-Arab (Diving, swimming and fishing and Abu Minqar Island (Beaches and swimming

The Probable Pyramid of Snefru at Meidum in Egypt

Just across from the Fayoum in the Nile Valley, south of Cairo, situated alone on the edge of the Western Desert above the lush green fields at Meidum is a tower shaped structure some sixty-five meters high that was once a pyramid that we believe was built by the 4th Dynasty King, SnefruEgyptologists. Some believe that the early phases of construction were done by Huni, his predecessor, and that Snefru was only responsible for the completion of the Pyramid. However, Huni's name was not found at the pyramid, and various written documents suggest that it and the nearby residential city belonged to the reign of Snefru. Also, many of the nearby tombs also belong to the family of Snefru.



In may ways, Meidum is the most mysterious of all the great Pyramids. When Snefru came to the throne around 2575 BC, Djoser's complex at Saqqara was the only large royal pyramid that stood complete. But Snefru would become the greatest pyramid builder in Egyptian history by completing not one but three of them.



The early locals of this century called the Meidum Pyramid el-haram el-kaddab, meaning "false pyramid" and because of its form, it attracted attention as early as the Middle Ages from travelers. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the famed Arab historian Taqi ad-Din al-Maqrizi thought it looked like a huge, five stepped mountain. However, it eroded so badly that when Frederik Ludwig Norden visited it in the eighteenth century, the pyramid seemed to have only three levels. But it was not weather that eroded it so, but human beings.

Another View of Snefru's Meidum Pyramid in Egypt near the Fayoum





When Napoleon's expedition passed by Meidum in 1799, his well known draftsman, Denon, had only enough time to make a few sketches and prepare a short description of the pyramid. Later, Perring made a much better investigation of it, including making measurements in 1837. Afterwards, the Lepsius expedition of 1843 studied it in some detail. Nevertheless, its internal structure remained a mystery.

Then, in an extensive effort to discover and document the pyramid texts, Maspero was finally able to open it, along with some mastabas in the area, but archaeological investigation would not start for another ten years. It was Petrie, the founder of modern Egyptology, in collaboration with Egyptologist Percy Newberry and the architect, George Fraser, who led this excavation. They were responsible for not only fully investigating the inside of the pyramid, but also unearthing the pyramid temple, an approach causeway and a series of private tombs in the area around the pyramid. However, this would not be the last that the pyramid would see of Petrie.



After a long interruption, Petrie returned to Meidum with the Egyptologists, Ernest MacKay and Gerald Wainwright. This time they conducted excavations at the northeast corner of the pyramid, in the so-called South Pyramid, and in other places. They tunneled into the pyramid, showing that its core consisted of five accretion layers with an outer surface built of carefully dressed limestone blocks. However, as thorough as Petrie's work always was, his research into this pyramid seems to have raised more questions than it answered.



In the mid-1920s, Borchardt made his way to Meidum and after mere days in the field, accumulated so much information on the pyramid that it filled an entire book which is still highly regarded today (Die Entstehung der Pyramide an der Baugeschichte der Pyramide bei Mejdum nachgewiesen). He spent considerable time reconstructing, on the basis of the ruins, a corridor leading toward the pyramid from the southeast, which Petrie had earlier discovered in 1910. In Borchardt's opinion, it was used to transport construction material to the pyramid. There was a ramp that had a gradient of ten degrees which made it possible to construct the lower half of the pyramid, consisting of about 88.5 percent of the total volume of masonry. The ancient builders increased the gradient of the upper half of the ramp, and on these assumptions, everything about the construction strategy seemed to be explained

Only a few years later, still in the 1920s, an American expedition visited the ruins under the leadership of the British archaeologist, Alan Rowe, but then there was a long period during which the pyramid received little attention. When, a half century later, another expedition visited the pyramid, this time it was an Egyptian effort led by Ali el-Kholi. They concentrated on the huge gravel mound at the foot of the pyramid.



Because of the marshy terrain and the high water level, the valley temple belonging to this pyramid has not yet been found. Snefru's residential city of Djedsnefru (which means "Snefru endures") was probably located east of it.



There was an unroofed causeway that stretched more than two hundred meters and which almost certainly linked the pyramid's enclosure wall with a valley temple on the edge of the valley. There was actually another "approach" that Petrie excavated, that may have been originally intended as for use as a causewa.

The pyramid was surrounded by a single, high perimeter wall made of limestone blocks. To the east, another huge mastaba lay adjacent to the enclosure wall, which may have been built for the crown prince, though no owner has been identified. It is therefore known only as Mastaba No. 17 on maps of the necropolis. However, it is remarkable that stone rubble from the pyramid was used to construct it, and that its mudbrick mantle was originally plastered and whitewashed.

Within the enclosure wall, the large, open courtyard that it enclosed had a floor made of dried clay. Within this courtyard, near the southwest corner of the main pyramid, was a second, though much smaller pyramid, probably originally built as a step pyramid. This is almost certainly the oldest known example of a cult pyramid. It has a substructure that was accessible from the north through a descending corridor. Within its ruins was unearthed a fragment of a limestone stela bearing a depiction of the falcon god Horus. On the opposite side of the courtyard are the remains of a mastaba that was probably intended for a royal consort.



At the center of the east side of the pyramid, Petrie discovered a mortuary temple built of limestone blocks, also within the enclosure wall. It is so small that it might have been a commemorative chapel to the king rather than a true mortuary temple. It is unique in many ways, above all because it was the first one to be built on the east rather than the north side of the pyramid. It is also the most intact and well preserved temple from the Old Kingdom. Even the limestone ceiling slabs remain in place. It is also very simple, and almost certainly connected with the whole conceptual transformation of this pyramid complex during the E3 stage of construction.



The floor plan of this temple is almost square. It consists of three sections that include an entry corridor with a double bend in the southeast corner, an open courtyard and a room with two stelae. The Stelae, which stand close to the foot of the pyramid, consists of pieces of smooth-sided limestone that are rounded at the top, but they bear neither inscriptions nor images. Between them stands an offering table. The lack of decorations would seem to indicate that the temple was never really used for any cult activity.

Nevertheless, the temple appears to have had a profound effect on later visitors, as various graffiti show. Dating mainly from the 18th Dynasty, some of the writers praise the temple. Ankhkheperreseneb, who visited it in the 41st year of Tuthmosis III's reign, says that he came "to see the marvelous temple of Horus Snefru. He saw it, as if heaven were in it and in it the sun rose." He further exclaims that, "May cool myrrh rain down from the heavens and fragrant incense drip onto the temple roof of Horus Sneferu!" Yet, by the time of his visit it was already in poor condition, for sometime during the First and Second Intermediate Periods herdsmen actually lived there.



As for the Pyramid itself, the explanation of the strange form that it takes today and the many riddles that surround it lies in the complicated transition from the 3rd Dynasty step Pyramids into the true, smooth sided pyramids of the 4th Dynasty. When Wainwright dug into the inside of the pyramid, he showed that the core of the pyramid was constructed of accretion layers of limestone blocks inclined at an angle of about seventy-five degrees. They stood on a square base measuring thirty-eight meters per side.



That the ancient Egyptians used the accretion method to build the pyramid came as no surprise to Egyptologists even in Petrie's time, because that was a fairly widespread construction method. What did surprise them was the smooth outside surface of each level, which seemed illogical and must have considerably decreased the cohesion of the layers and that of the structure as a whole. The answer to this particular riddle came later from Borchardt, who demonstrated that the Medium Pyramid was built in three stages, during which its outward appearance changed significantly.

The pyramid was originally a seven step structure built on a rock foundation, but perhaps even before it was finished, an eighth step was added. Each of these first two stages, designated E1 and E2, was intended to be the final structure. Yet, the pyramid was eventually rebuilt in order to transform it into a true, smooth sided pyramid. However, in contrast to E1 and E2, the extension designated E3 did not rest on a solid bedrock foundation, but on three layers of limestone blocks laid on sand.



Even more strangely, while the E1 and E2 stage blocks were angled toward the middle of the pyramid, as in the case of Djoser's Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara, thus significantly increasing the structure's strength, the E3 blocks were laid horizontally. This fact had been noticed by Borchardt, but Kurt Mendelssohn, who visited Meidum as a tourist, published a best selling book in 1986 on his theory that the method used to build the E3 stage resulted in a catastrophic slippage that buried the workers who built the pyramid under the rubble that now surrounds the structure. However, Mendelssohn's theory has not at all been excepted by Egyptologists, because it contradicts the archaeological discoveries that Petrie had already described and that remain obvious today. The stratification of the massive gravel mounds on all four sides of the pyramid shows that the erosion of the structure took place gradually over a long period of time. However, the change in construction methods did make it much easier for the work of stone thieves. Borchardt pointed this out, and explained that the rings of rough masonry bound the individual layers of the core more strongly and were simply laid bare when those layers were destroyed.



Moreover, archaeological investigations have also shown that the pyramid was probably destroyed at the end of the New Kingdom, since in the piles of rubble at its foot secondary graves from the 22nd Dynasty were found at a height of between seven and ten meters above the temple floor. It is assumed that the removal of the casing blocks had already begun during the reign of Ramesses II.



More recently, the American, George Johnson, offered his opinion on the large gravel mound around the pyramid. In his opinion, the wall concealed the remains of a construction ramp that ran around the pyramid and was built in connection with the transformation from the second (E2) to the third (E3) stage. He points to the unused limestone blocks that had not been part of the masonry that el-Kholi found during his investigation of the mound on the northwest corner of the pyramid.

Another view of Snefru's Pyramid at Meidum in Egypt



The builder's marks on some of the blocks from which the pyramid was built are interesting. Among them are stylized images of two, three and four step Pyramids that led some scholars to assume that they show the original, gradually altered form of the pyramid. However, we know know that the images determined the placement of the blocks on the corresponding levels. No less interesting are the inscriptions that include dates and designations of the work groups. They come from the seventh through the eighteenth cattle counts of an unnamed ruler, though it was probably Snefru. Similar mason's inscriptions can be found on the pyramid of Snefru at Dahshur.



In addition, the actual significance of the alteration of the structure during stage E3 has not yet been fully explained. The monument's step-shaped form was abandoned in favor of a true pyramid form, and the north-south orientation in favor of an east-west orientation. This seems to reflect an important shift in religious ideas that occurred during the transition from the 3rd to the 4th Dynasty. Ricke believed this to be the time that the Osiris myth was incorporated into the worship of the dead king. The king became identified with Osiris, the ruler of the netherworld, and his death became a mythical event. However, according to another interpretation, the change in the tomb's form and orientation was connected with the decline of the astral religion and the rise of the solar religion. Similarly, the German Egyptologist Dietrich Wildung argued that the pyramid complex in Meidum was a predecessor of the later sun temples of the 5th Dynasty.



We might also add that some scholars believe that the last stage of the construction may have occurred many years after the completion of the first two stages, after Snefru had already moved to Dahshur. These scholars seem to believe that he may have finished the pyramid as a cenotaph rather than a true tomb.



The entrance to the pyramid is on the north-south axis, in the north wall, about fifteen meters above ground level. This is a unique placement of an entrance to a step pyramid, so high above ground level. From here, a corridor runs down until it reaches a few meters below the base of the pyramid, where it turns into a horizontal passage that leads to the burial chamber. There are niches on the east and west sides of the horizontal section of the corridor, though their purpose is not certain. They may have been used to make it easier to move the blocks used to seal the corridor after the burial.

The burial chamber itself, which was never finished was entered through a vertical shaft that led upward from the south end of the corridor and came out in the northeast corner of the burial chamber floor. When Maspero entered the pyramid for the first time, he discovered ropes and beams there, which made him think that the shaft was what remained of a tunnel built by grave robbers to facilitate their work. He dated the this structure to the period when the burial chamber was plundered. However, some Egyptologists believe it was part of the original structure, used in raising the king's sarcophagus into the burial chamber, though there was apparently never a sarcophagus in the burial chamber and no one seems to have been interred there. Also, why would workers have made it so complicated when the sarcophagus could have been placed in the burial chamber during construction?



In the tradition of the step Pyramids of the 3rd Dynasty, the burial chamber is aligned with the pyramid's north-south axis. The so-called false vault constructed of large limestone blocks is worth noting. The idea behind it is very ancient and draws on the brick architecture of the Early Dynastic Period. Its purpose was to prevent the enormous weight of the pyramid from shattering the ceiling of the burial chamber. Apparently the builders chose this method over the granite ceiling slabs that they were also familiar with.





There are also rooms to the north of the burial chamber and above the horizontal section of the corridor that were probably the result of alterations in the pyramid's construction plan.



Apparently, Snefru abandoned this pyramid complex, though why he did so continues to be unresolved. Afterwards, he founded a new residence and a new pyramid necropolis near Dahshur. Perhaps he wanted to be closer to the fortress of the White Walls (Memphis), or maybe he wanted to found a new, more strategically located residential city. Stadelmann, who believes that the pyramid in Meidum was built for Snefru from the outset, thinks that the complex and surrounding tombs belonged to the queen mother and the princes of a so-called first generation. According to him, only a later generation of Snefru's family was buried in Dahshur.



Height: 92m
Base: 144m
Slope: 51o 53'