Photo : MusikAnimal — CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Giza · Dahshur
Dahshur
Two of Snefru's pyramids, one of them changing angle halfway up, and nothing like Giza's crowds.
Snefru, first king of the 4th dynasty and father of Khufu, had two pyramids built here. The Bent Pyramid starts at fifty-four degrees and straightens to forty-three: the builders corrected course mid-project, and you can still see the change of mind in the silhouette. It also keeps a good deal of its limestone casing, which the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre no longer have. The Red Pyramid, further north, is the first successful true smooth-sided pyramid, and a passage takes you down to three chambers under corbelled vaults. Beyond it, the mud-brick Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III has slumped into a dark heap that shows plainly what a pyramid becomes once stripped of its casing.
The extra bit
You climb the Red Pyramid by an outside stair, then go down a long, low passage. If you go inside only one, make it that one: the air is heavy and the way narrow, but the corbelled chamber is worth the sweat.
Know before you go
Keep the taxi that brought you: none comes back along this road, and the wait at the roadside can be a long one. There is nothing out here — nowhere to buy a drink, nowhere to stand out of the sun, and barely a phone signal. Aim to arrive at opening, since the walk from one pyramid to the next is entirely in the open. Whether the pyramids are open inside depends on conservation work and on the season, and is never guaranteed. A military zone runs alongside: point the camera at the pyramids and nowhere else.
