Inside the Great Pyramid

Smithsonian Mag ^ | 01 Sept 2011 | Mike Dash

[rlmorel]

When I was there in the mid-seventies while in the USN, I climbed up a bit, but I found it to be relatively scary.

I only climbed up a few levels of that sandy, crumbly stone, and when I looked down, realized a single slip could get me killed, and I carefully came back down.

I heard later (don't know if it was true) that after our group left port, a sailor from another ship was killed or seriously injured climbing on it, and the Navy made it a mast offense if you were caught climbing on it. Never went back, so I can't say if it is true or not. You know how rumors can be...:)

[Inyo-Mono]

Very interesting article bump!

[Recon Dad]

....what’s wrong with you...this was a shovel ready project.

[NavyCanDo]

"I've been there but not inside the great pyramid.”

Same with me, while in the Navy around 1980. Wish I would have paid more attention to the pyramids though. A bus full of German girls pulled up the same time we did. I think I got 493 pictures of us sailors with the girls, and maybe a dozen of the pyramids.

[Recon Dad]

I've walked around it and the others on the Giza. But I found out the hard way on the pyramid at Chichen Itza that I can't take heights. Almost lost passed out half way up.

[KamperKen]

Thanks! How impressed were you with the size being up close?

[JoeProBono]

[wildbill]

Strange that there are few hieroglphs inside. Most burial sites are covered in them.

[Recon Dad]

It was awesome and well worth the trip just to get up close to them. Even putting up with Cairo it was worth it.

[silverleaf]

first, bend over

then imagine walking bent over, in the dark, in stale air, up a sloping walkway, in a passage so narrow you cannot turn around ..... with other people behind you.....for several stories, maybe about 20-30 minutes worth ...the time now seems endless

Not something I would do again, but once gives you bragging rights!

[silverleaf]

the geometry involved in the structure dimensions, and what it represents, is stunning

there are desert people far to the west, the dogons, whose legends describe star people visiting, the great pyramid supports their legends as to the origins of those star visitors, I believe

[silverleaf]

I did the interior, not the exterior

the exterior is, as you say, way too dangerous

[IrishPennant]

I did, Silverleaf...it was worth doing when I often think back on it. I was on a BrightStar operation in 1985 I think...got a day of liberty in Cairo...Paid, I think, $10 US to climb hands and knees up a shaft to a large square room where there was a single florescent bulb lighting up black painted walls and an Egyptian explaining what "used: to be in the room...then a crab walk, feet first, back down the shaft.

Irritating then...but now that I am almost 50, I can't tell you how many people I have taken pride in telling them I did it.

I also remember paying $5 bucks for a camel ride and the local national asking me to pay $10 more to get the camel to kneel down so I could get off...wrong question for a Jar head - yes it was high, but heck, so was $10 bucks.

What wasn't high is the little Egyptian kid with the galvanized bucket of Egyptian beer bottle for $1 US each. After three months in the sand and no beer, that was golden!!!!

All in all, yeah, I would go inside again if I had never done so in the past....

[silverleaf]

Hey I was there for Bright Star too! Maybe in 1985! CENTCOM?
Small world.

Yeah, I also sat on a mangy camel and had a couple of big guys stand by in case the Egyptian tried to shake me down for more money to get off the camel ... :-)

I was just telling my kids tonight it’s sad to think they may never get to visit there ... bad stuff happened since the last time I was in Cairo, and more to come in the years ahead, I fear

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

But this means they do not realize that the Arab chronicles they cite are collections of legends and traditions needing interpretation

That is the politest way of saying that Arabs lie like rugs that I have ever read.

[Daffynition]

[rlmorel]

It was funny how it came on me...it hit me very suddenly that...hey...if I slip, it is a long way down, and I am not stopping once I start.

Then I began to notice the grit under my shoes, how my fingers were gripping, and my sphincter tightened right up.

Funny, just thinking about it right now makes it all come back!

And there were guys who went a heck of a lot higher than I did. Crazy bastards.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The outside limestone covering was reportedly covered with pictures and hieroglyphs.

Since it was stripped and used in other building we will probably never know.

[Daffynition]

[IrishPennant]

That’s great!!!! I think about the fact that my 14 year old son will never get to go there. I did like the historical perspective of being in Cairo. I think if Egypt were safe today I would pay to take him over. You and I didn;t have to pay for it then...and we had guns - hehehehehe.