Time Moves Backward, Or How to See the Pyramids

a short essay + a practical visitor's guide

To skip straight to my visitor’s guide to the pyramids, click here.

I have a photo of Nick at the Giza Necropolis our very first weekend in Cairo. He stands smiling on a hill overlooking the three pyramids, whose grandeur is not fully captured in the picture. With his raised hand he pretends to pinch the capstone of the Pyramid of Khafre, which, at 4,500 years old as of this writing, was already a relic to Cleopatra and to Jesus Christ himself. A mess of decrepit modern construction pokes through a haze on the horizon. Though newer buildings crumble around them, the pyramids still stand.

In my mind’s eye I had imagined the pyramids removed from the city, in a sacred landscape unspoiled by time. In truth they are surrounded by highways, ramshackle high rises, a Pizza Hut (which, incidentally, has one of the best views of the necropolis…or so I am told). Scattered at the base of the monuments are hawkers, panhandlers, and cameleers, all jockeying for tourists’ attention. Small children slip away from their families to climb the pyramids’ sides. Cameras flash, people shout and shove, trash tumbles about in the breeze. Giza is, as the French would say, un sacré bordel—a total goddamn madhouse.

It is difficult not to interpret this as an indictment of progress as a concept.

You look up at the pyramids—shabby in their old age, but still imposing after millennia—and are awestruck that humans could engineer such marvels, and so long ago. Then you look down at the modern sideshow unfolding at their feet. Then you stare out at the Cairo skyline’s simple rectangles, which threaten to topple after mere decades, and you can’t help but wonder if society is moving backward—not only failing to improve with time, but getting worse, more turbulent, less civilized in some respects. You see that history moves in fits and starts. It lurches, it stalls, it occasionally reverses course.

I’m not waxing poetic just to indulge myself. This lack of linearity is embedded in the very construction of the pyramids. The pyramids at Giza are in fact some of the earliest. Many subsequent attempts failed miserably, and no one really knows why. We still don’t know precisely how the pyramids were made or whether we could replicate them today. In that sense, we are less technologically advanced than the Egyptians of 4,500 years ago.

To bring this point into focus, I’ll give you a very brief history of pyramid building. The first successful attempt at a pyramid was the step pyramid of Djoser, a pharaoh from the 3rd Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, circa 2650 BC. It still stands at the Saqqara Necropolis, about an hour outside Cairo, and it looks like this:

Several decades later, Sneferu (4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom) ordered attempts to build a smooth-sided pyramid. Dahshur, a site about an hour south of Saqqara, houses his most famous failure—the Bent Pyramid, below—as well as the first-ever success: the Red Pyramid, named for its construction of red limestone.

Next came the Great Pyramid, built by Khufu, Sneferu’s successor, circa 2570 BC. This one is the largest and the grandest at the Giza Necropolis, with the pyramid of Khafre—Khufu’s son, who took the throne after a brief reign by his older brother—a close second. Menkaure, the son of Khafre, built the third and smallest pyramid of Giza.

These advancements bring us to circa 2500 BC, after which the Egyptians got worse at pyramid building. Most that were attempted later, such as the Black Pyramid at Dahshur, have long since crumbled; it’s hard to distinguish them from sand dunes or modern rubble piles. These later pyramids collapsed because they were built with inferior materials and techniques, but no one is certain why that is. Was it intentional? Was the art of pyramid building lost somehow?

Visiting the pyramids may not be a quiet, meditative experience, but it will force you to reflect on the concepts of time, change, and development. It will remind you that progress is neither linear nor guaranteed. Or, to put my international relations nerd hat on: there is no “end of history.”

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Everything You Need to Know About Visiting the Pyramids at Giza, Saqqara, and Dahshur

Giza may be un sacré bordel, but it’s not to be missed. As I hinted in the opening lines of this essay, you may have seen pictures of the pyramids, but no image can faithfully depict how impressive they are in person, and you can have a great experience if you approach your visit the right way. Expect a fair amount of nonsense, like stray bits of garbage and hawkers vying for your attention; ignore all of it. Put your horse blinders on, see the best examples of smooth-sided pyramids in existence, plus the Sphinx and the mastabas (rectangular tombs for high-ranking Egyptians), then move on to the much quieter Saqqara, which you can explore unmolested and at your leisure. 

When you get to Saqqara, you will travel back in time to see the step pyramid of Djoser, the smooth-sided pyramid’s predecessor. You will also see attempts at smooth-sided pyramids that came after the pyramids at Giza and which are now ruined, plus more mastabas with painted reliefs that are incredibly well-preserved (example below). Saqqara is still an active excavation where new treasures are being found every day, and it has a small but pleasant museum, including an informational video about the site.

The third major pyramid site is Dahshur, which houses the Bent Pyramid, the Red Pyramid, and the Black Pyramid, the latter of which is now ruined. The Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid both predate the pyramids at Giza, but the Black Pyramid was built some 800 years later. In my humble opinion, you can skip Dahshur if you’re pressed for time or aren’t up to a full day of pyramid sightseeing. Dahshur is absolutely worth visiting, but it’s (again, in my humble opinion) the least interesting of the three sites, and doing all of them makes for a very long day.

Nick and I toured all three sites starting around 8:00am and did not realize that it would be an all-day affair, so we went without eating until we got back to Cairo around 3:30pm. If you do want to see all three, I’d recommend you either bring food with you or request that your guide (you need a guide, by the way—more on that below) build in time for a lunch stop. In that case, assume you won’t get back to Cairo until early evening. Know that you’ll spend a fair amount of time driving, as the sites are 30 minutes to one hour apart depending on traffic, and there is no public transportation between them.

I’ve focused my tips below on Giza as it’s the most frequented site and the trickiest to navigate, but these tips go for Saqqara and Dahshur, too. Most people do all their pyramids sightseeing in one day, and that’s the approach I would recommend as it’s most efficient. However, I see no reason why you couldn’t break up your visits if you were willing to contract a guide for multiple days.

Finally, you may have heard about the highly anticipated opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza. As of now, it’s expected to open to the public in November 2022—but the opening has already been delayed several times, so I’m not holding my breath. I plan to visit the Grand Egyptian Museum as soon as humanly possible, and assuming it opens before Nick and I leave Egypt, I will update this post with any relevant tips.

Here’s how to have a good experience at the Pyramids of Giza:

• For the love of God, TAKE A GUIDE. Not just because they know the history and can give you more information on the pyramids than you would ever find yourself, but because they should body block anyone that tries to hustle you. They can also help arrange transportation between Giza, Saqqara, and Dahshur. Added bonus: they might shush any rude children who run around the archaeological sites screaming, which is very satisfying to witness. Feel free to hide behind your guide; they are there to ease your way.

  • HOWEVER! Don’t go with any random guide you find on the internet or in the pyramids parking lot, and certainly not with anyone who approaches you on the street. Plan ahead based on recommendations. Guides in Egypt need to be licensed by the Ministry of Tourism; a random person who approaches you to offer their services may prove better than no guide at all, but they are unlikely to be legit. It’s best to get a recommendation from someone who has already gone and had a good experience (this principle applies to just about everything in Egypt). I have names that I’m happy to share—feel free to email me.

• Skip going inside the Great Pyramid if you’re claustrophobic, have vertigo, or are not very steady on your feet. It’s just an empty chamber, anyway. To get there, you have to climb up a steep, narrow staircase that can only accommodate one person at a time. It gets very stuffy inside, and because there aren’t any points of reference to tell you where the ground is, I sometimes felt unsure if I was going up or down. This photo will give you a sense of how it feels (this is looking up, by the way):

  

• Do. Not. Sit. On. The. Camel. Or hand anyone your camera. Or show interest in buying any souvenirs. Just avoid talking to people entirely. That includes children, and probably even police. Nothing good will come of it. Let your guide do the talking for you. If you really, really must ride the camel or buy the chintzy mini sphinx, do so at your own risk. A corollary to this is…

• Don’t linger. Dawdling just makes you look approachable and turns you into a target for scammers. Walk up to the pyramids, have a look, take your pictures, and move on. Instead of sticking around at the base of the pyramids…

• Go to the panoramic lookout point. Your guide will know what this is. It’s just a couple minutes’ drive from the main parking lot, and it’s a little less crazy than the main entry point. The pyramids are at least as impressive from far away as they are up close, and it’s breathtaking to be able to see all of them together.

What to wear/bring with you:

• Wear sunscreen, sunglasses, and loose clothing that protects your skin. A light scarf and a brimmed hat are also good ideas. There is essentially no shade at the pyramids complex.

• Sturdy shoes are a must. You may find yourself walking up and down stone stairs, over rocky patches of sand, or over rickety wooden boardwalks. Flimsy sandals might seem appealing when it’s hot, but remember to protect your feet!

• Bring water and snacks. There aren’t a ton of opportunities to buy food or drinks…unless, of course, you want to stop at the Pizza Hut. :)

• Have cash on hand for tickets/to pay your guide. Our guide did not include tickets in the price of our tour, so we paid for entry at each site. This seems to be a common approach, and I don’t know of a mechanism to purchase tickets in advance. Talk this through with your guide beforehand and don’t get caught with insufficient funds.

• If you bring a camera other than your smartphone, be prepared to pay for a permit (and ask your guide what you can and cannot photograph no matter what kind of camera you’re using). In the past, visitors with cameras have been charged a fee upon entry, but that might be changing as Egypt relaxes its rules on photography in public places. In general, good rules of thumb are to not use flash near any painted reliefs and to never photograph police.

Thanks for reading! If you have questions about visiting the pyramids, leave them in the comments, and if you know anyone who would benefit from this guide, please click the “share” button below. See you next week.