I wanted to go to Fayum for a long time - since I read Coel's "Alchemist". An oasis, a lake … Then I read about "Fayum portraits" on the net … But it still didn't work out. The fact that there are also pyramids in Fayum was, to my shame, the last thing I learned, and then the trip became a “no matter what”. However, soon the tale takes its toll …
Leaving Egypt - now for a long time, in the end I have planned a trip to Fayum. Only 100 km from Cairo. What seemed easier? But let down … the weather! The rain started on the eve of the trip. Postpone? But Andro, my travelmate, and I had other plans - and very, very little time. We decide to go!
What did we want to see? The oasis itself, the lake and its surroundings. Museum with portraits and other artifacts from the excavations. Three pyramids: in Sila, Hawara and Lahuna. And it would be nice to visit the pyramid in Medum - for some reason I couldn't get there either.
The rain has confused all plans. We never got to the oasis itself. For three hours we drove along the roads flooded with water, and the police turned us around everywhere - there was no way. And only the last - the sixth - road made it possible to reach two pyramids. The third, in the Force, the most mysterious, remained unattainable. But, as they say, better than nothing.
What did I expect to see? "Pyramids" are shapeless heaps of stone and clay. Although before the trip I re-read and reviewed a bunch of information from the Internet, she did not impress me, and did not change my expectations.
What did I see? Formally, it is difficult to call it pyramids. Perhaps the only "but". In all other respects, they are not inferior to other, albeit not great, pyramids of Egypt. And there are no less mysteries in them.
Promotional video:
Finally, here it is, the pyramid at Hawara. It turned out to be much larger than I expected. It also turned out to be darker than I saw in the photographs. It's clear why - she just got wet.
Stuck in the wet sand, we come closer.
Underfoot every now and then come across broken and soggy adobe bricks (next to white sea pebbles, which are clearly more here than on the shores of the Red Sea, where I have never met such at all). In addition to rain, there was also a strong wind the day before, and there were a lot of them, the guide explains. Yes, this pyramid is made of adobe bricks, adobe is made of clay and straw.
We go around the pyramid on the left. But this is a completely different matter!
At the base of the pyramid are huge limestone blocks, battered by time, a "bunker". The yellowish stone contrasts sharply with wet brick - especially wet and dark.
Here is the entrance to … nowhere. It is possible to descend only a few meters - further water.
In dry weather, it would be possible to walk a little more, but then everything is flooded. But even here, in the descending corridor, there is something to see. On the one hand, mortarless masonry is perfectly preserved, on the other, slightly damaged by time and stress. The limestone is covered with a salt (salty!) Crust.
My attempts to remove the gap between the blocks were, albeit a little belated, but suppressed by the accompanying local security guard: "How is it all built, this cannot be removed!"
Next to the pyramid, a field dug and covered with bumps - the guide explained that
it was there that the famous Egyptian Labyrinth was located. Since I have not seen him, I will not write about him - there is quite a lot of information about this on the Internet.
Near the pyramid, on the site where the fragments of handmade granite columns and some other parts of something are laid out, there is a red stone, it looks like quartzite. On it is a portrait, as the guide says, of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. The quality of the work is amazing. Quartzite is a hard stone. Here, the feeling is that the picture was “squeezed out” in wet plaster or plasticine. Especially this
concerns small details.
In general, as is generally typical of the Egyptian pyramids, the pyramid in Hawar sets a lot of mysteries, without even touching the main one - the Labyrinth.
For those who climbed not only Giza, but also Sakkara, Dashur and Abusir, it is quite obvious that the stone "bunker" under the pyramid and the brick body of the pyramid belong to different times. It can even be said that clay-straw bricks have been preserved better for 4000 years than limestone blocks. Again, if the builders possessed the technology of processing and moving stone, which allowed huge blocks to be laid without a gap and without mortar, if they were able to cut quartzite like plasticine - why would they need clay bricks? Moreover, of them all the pyramids attributed to the 12th dynasty are executed, which distinguishes them from the earlier ones, the pyramids of the 5th-6th dynasties, built albeit from small ones, not comparable with the blocks of the large pyramids of Giza and Dashur, but still made of stone.
It is curious that heaps of stones remained from those pyramids, and the brick ones still stand, albeit dilapidated, but keep their shape, although, according to the official chronology, they are only 500 years younger …
It is believed that the brick pyramids were covered with thin limestone slabs. This, to some extent, would explain their safety …
For example, a "fur coat" made of clay bricks served as a "heater" or insulator, which provided some special conditions in the "bunker". But Fayum is a rather humid place, although there is a desert around. It rains here regularly in winter, and strong, and adobe bricks tend to get soaked, as we have seen … In general, it seems that either Amenemkhet III is not as old as it is believed, or the pyramid of his name was built later …
But the "bunker" - most likely earlier. Much earlier than the clay pyramid erected on his roof … But officially, the "bunker" is, of course, a tomb.
Here is how the cunning system of moves, "for deceiving the robbers", is described in the book "Ancient mysteries of the pharaohs" by the Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Fakhri:
“Initially, the length of the side of the pyramid was about 100 meters, the height was about 58 meters with an angle of inclination of about 48 ° 45 '. From the entrance to the south, steps led to the lobby. It looked like a dead end, but in fact, the ceiling slab could slide back, opening a door to another room, from which a passage filled with stone blocks led. It was a trick for deceiving outsiders, and it seems to have worked, for one ancient thief patiently dug a tunnel through all these blocks - and in the end he found nothing! A real corridor led to another room, which was also a dead end in appearance: here a sliding port-curtain opened a passage that ended in a dead end. But from it a hatch opened, which led into a corridor going on one side of the burial chamber. The two false burial shafts that went down from the floor of this corridor were supposed to give additional work to the thieves,and the other side of the corridor was filled with stone blocks, which also distracted the kidnappers from burial. However, despite all this, some stubborn burglar found a diagonal corridor that did lead to the burial chamber. But his problems did not end there either - there was no door in the chamber, which was cut from one block of solid yellow quartzite. It could only be entered by breaking or moving a certain roof block, a stone slab that weighed over 45 tons! The thieves made their way through the block, got to the grave and took whatever they wanted. Obviously, they took away their souls for all the torments they had to go through: the thieves burned everything that was inside the chamber, including the body of the pharaoh. Burnt pieces of diorite and lapis lazuli speak of the splendor of the funerary implements.which also distracted the kidnappers from the burial. However, despite all this, some stubborn burglar found a diagonal corridor that did lead to the burial chamber. But his problems did not end there either - there was no door in the chamber, which was cut from one block of solid yellow quartzite. It could only be entered by breaking or moving a certain roof block, a stone slab that weighed over 45 tons! The thieves made their way through the block, got to the grave and took whatever they wanted. Obviously, they took away their souls for all the torments they had to go through: the thieves burned everything that was inside the chamber, including the body of the pharaoh. Burnt pieces of diorite and lapis lazuli speak of the splendor of the funerary implements.which also distracted the kidnappers from the burial. However, despite all this, some stubborn burglar found a diagonal corridor that did lead to the burial chamber. But his problems did not end there either - there was no door in the chamber, which was cut from one block of solid yellow quartzite. It could only be entered by breaking or moving a certain roof block, a stone slab that weighed over 45 tons! The thieves made their way through the block, got to the grave and took whatever they wanted. Obviously, they took away their souls for all the torments they had to go through: the thieves burned everything that was inside the chamber, including the body of the pharaoh. Burnt pieces of diorite and lapis lazuli speak of the splendor of the funerary implements.some stubborn burglar found a slanting corridor that did lead to the burial chamber. But his problems did not end there either - there was no door in the chamber, which was cut from one block of solid yellow quartzite. It could only be entered by breaking or moving a certain roof block, a stone slab that weighed over 45 tons! The thieves made their way through the block, got to the grave and took whatever they wanted. Obviously, they took away their souls for all the torments they had to go through: the thieves burned everything that was inside the chamber, including the body of the pharaoh. Burnt pieces of diorite and lapis lazuli speak of the splendor of the funerary implements.some stubborn burglar found a slanting corridor that did lead to the burial chamber. But his problems did not end there either - there was no door in the chamber, which was cut from one block of solid yellow quartzite. It could only be entered by breaking or moving a certain roof block, a stone slab that weighed over 45 tons! The thieves made their way through the block, got to the grave and took whatever they wanted. Obviously, they took away their souls for all the torments they had to go through: the thieves burned everything that was inside the chamber, including the body of the pharaoh. Burnt pieces of diorite and lapis lazuli speak of the splendor of the funerary implements. It could only be entered by breaking or moving a certain roof block, a stone slab that weighed over 45 tons! The thieves made their way through the block, got to the grave and took whatever they wanted. Obviously, they took away their souls for all the torments they had to go through: the thieves burned everything that was inside the chamber, including the body of the pharaoh. Burnt pieces of diorite and lapis lazuli speak of the splendor of the funerary implements. It could only be entered by breaking or moving a certain roof block, a stone slab that weighed over 45 tons! The thieves made their way through the block, got to the grave and took whatever they wanted. Obviously, they took away their souls for all the torments they had to go through: the thieves burned everything that was inside the chamber, including the body of the pharaoh. Burnt pieces of diorite and lapis lazuli speak of the splendor of the funerary implements.
The length of the monolithic burial chamber inside is about 7 meters, width - 2.5. The walls are about 55 centimeters thick, so the entire stone should weigh about 110 tons. The quartzite room was inserted into a hole carved into the rock under the pyramid and covered with limestone slabs about 2 meters thick: a brick vault was built above all this, and the whole pyramid was built above it.
The burial chamber contained the quartzite sarcophagus of Amenemhat III, almost unadorned, except for the panels at the base and the curved lid. Between the sarcophagus and the wall was a second coffin made of quartzite blocks and also covered with a lid. Two identical quartzite canopy boxes stood at the head of each sarcophagus. None of these items bore inscriptions.
When Petri examined this chamber, it was filled with water, and it was very difficult and inconvenient to study it. From the water, Petri pulled out fragments of alabaster vessels with one of the names of Amenemhat III, while in the last corridor there was a beautiful alabaster altar and several alabaster plates in the shape of ducks. On them was written: "Daughter of the king Ptahnefru."
The story about the tricks of the builders in order to deceive the ubiquitous robbers evoked a feeling of deja vu. Anatoly Vasiliev, the person with whom “pyramidology” and, in general, interest in Egypt began for me 30 years ago, also set out all his calculations for the construction of the Great Pyramid, saying: “Hemiun did this on purpose to deceive the robbers”. But as history shows, no tricks help, not the first, so the last robber goes through the walls without bothering with "puzzles". True, they rarely find anything in the pyramid.
Have you read about the device of the "tomb"? Now imagine what the burial procedure should have looked like. Drag the mummy through all these manholes and traps and brick them up, putting a 45-ton block in place … Then build a clay pyramid over all this …
And how was Pharaoh's daughter buried later? Or are they in one tranche? And where did they go afterwards - Pharaoh and his daughter? Did the robbers burn? So, right to the ground, that there are no bones left, only pebbles? In the confined space of a "burial chamber"? Which was cut from one block … In general, I personally cannot imagine all this. Imagination is lacking.
The fact that there were no inscriptions on the sarcophagi is symptomatic. They were on the plates, but not on the sarcophagus … The sarcophagus is quartzite, and the plates are alabaster. Anyone will scratch on alabaster, but quartzite … Oh! After all, there was a wonder-master who depicted Amenemkhet III on a quartzite block?
But first the thought comes to mind that there are no inscriptions or drawings either on the walls or on the sarcophagi of the "senior" pyramids. I do not even want to comment on the message regarding the burial chamber, cut out of one quartzite block, and then lowered into a pit cut in the rock, covered with two-meter blocks. Here you can ask only one question - the same one that has to be asked every time in the pyramid of the name of Cheops: “How? How did they do it ??? " Moreover, who these “they” are is a completely different question.
I wonder if one and the same craftsman could make a sarcophagus of quartzite in a "tomb", cut out the burial chamber itself, and depict Amenemkhet III? And is it Amenemhat?
I was not too lazy to find a profile photo of the statue of Amenemkhet III (which is in the Hermitage) and compared it. Compare and you. At least one detail immediately catches the eye. Amenemhat was a man, uh … lop-eared, if not eared. Judging by the statues in museums, the whole dynasty was distinguished by large fleshy ears. And the man depicted on quartzite has a small, "neat" ear. And if the family landmark was carefully "drawn" on the statues, then the easiest way to achieve a portrait resemblance was to depict a large family ear.
In general, as always - no matter how many questions you ask about the pyramids, as a result you will only get new questions.
And we went further, to the second Fayum pyramid, in Lahun. But about her next time.
Author: kilubatra