Lahun Pyramid

Today we did our first pyramid visit. It was a cautious outing (close to home) but very enlightening and it gave us some good tips for future trips. One - it doesn't hurt to ask someone who knows how to drive there. On these less visited sites the signing just gives you general directions (at least the ones in English do). There is a big blue sign right on the highway so we knew where to turn off but that was the last one. We knew the general direction but soon got lost driving along the irrigation ditches and through little villages where I don't think a motorized vehicle has driven in quite some time. We finally made it by driving along the edge of the desert and coming up to the site behind a hill. This actually worked out for us because we were able to wander around an area to the west of the pyramid complex which they are currently excavating for about ten minutes before the guards spotted us and kicked us out. Which brings us to tip number two - bring along a native speaker. The guards were friendly but the one who guided us around the site spoke better English than our Arabic but not by much. We asked him if many people came to visit the site and he said "oh yes - many Americans" but as far as we could tell we were a pretty big deal. Our guide rode with us up to the site and we were followed by the entire guard contingent (all eight of them). The senior guys stayed with us and the younger ones climbed up on the ridges surrounding the site to stand guard with rifles and Uzis. What they were protecting us from I am not sure but we did feel very safe. Just another example of the many times we have seen the results of cheap labor. As far as the pyramid goes it was fascinating. It was the Lahun pyramid built by Sesostris II during the 12th Dynasty (around 2000B.C.) when the Fayyum area was much more the center of Egyptian power. We would have liked to spend a lot more time there just looking around but that didn't seem to be their plan so we will have to come back for a second trip. All in all a pretty good day.

We only had to run a few cows off the road on our journey down the irrigation ditches.




A view of the pyramid in the distance. Like almost all the pyramids it was built right at the edge of the desert and it is still the edge today. I think it is amazing that they have been farming the same ground for over 4000 years.











Some of the pottery fragments grouped into piles in the new excavation area. We aren't sure what period they are from. The area has been used as a burial site since prehistoric times all the way up through the Romans and just down the road is a modern Egyptian cemetery. There were a few pieces with beautiful blue coloring.






Looking down into one of the burial shafts. This area is not part of the pyramid complex but several hundred yards from it. If you search Lahun pyramid on the internet you will find articles about the discoveries earlier this year of some important mummies and coffins that predate the pyramid by several thousand years. If you enlarge the picture you will see that the objects on the left are human bones and scraps of cloth. Once again we don't know if they date back to the tomb construction (1st and 2nd Dynasty) or are later burials reusing the tomb, but bones are scattered all over the site.





The Lahun pyramid itself. What you are looking at is the mudbrick core. Once the limestone covering was removed (they think it was Ramses II that stripped this one) it begins to erode a lot quicker. You can see the spokes of the limestone framework sticking out upon which the bricks were placed.











This is looking down the shaft (80 meters deep) that leads to the burial chamber under the pyramid. In the same area was the only real treasure found here - in one of the princesses tombs. There were four vertical tombs in a row but only one of them had escaped looting.












In this picture you can see some of the remaining limestone casing.











This is walking around the east side of the pyramid with our guide and one of the guards - on the rock in the distance is one of the lookouts. Off to my right is the foundation of one of the two walls that surrounded the pyramid. In front of me is the queen's pyramid - not much left.