About half past three we are almost on the edge of the desert, the three Pyramids looming up ahead of us. The sand , the Pyramids, the Sphinx, all grey and bathed in a great rosy light; the sky perfectly blue, eagles slowly wheeling and gliding around the tips of the Pyramids. We stop before a Sphinx ; it fixes us with a terrifying stare. Its eyes still seem full of life; the left side is stained white by bird-droppings (the tip of the Pyramid of Khephren has the same long white stains); it exactly faces the rising sun, its head is grey, ears very large and protruding like a negro’s, its neck is eroded; from the front it is seen in its entirety thanks to great hollow dug in the sand; the fact that the nose is missing increases the flat, negroid effect. Besides, it was certainly Ethiopian; the lips are thick. Ascent of the Great Pyramid, the one to the right (Kheops). The stones, which at a distance of two hundreds paces seem the size of paving-blocks, are in reality - the smallest of them - three feet high; generally they come up to our chest. It is the sunset that the Pyramids must be seen.
From G. Flaubert’s travel notes
The pyramids
Giza
The Pyramids of Giza
The Cheops pyramid of Giza
The Sphinx of Giza
Sakkara
Sakkara
The Step Pyramid of Zoser
The Pyramid of Userkhaf
The Pyramid of Pepy I
The Mastaba el-Fara'un
Dashur
Dashur
The Bent Pyramid
The Red Pyramid
The Black Pyramid
The Satelite Pyramid
el-Lisht
The Pyramid of Amenemhat I
Abu Sir
The Pyramids of Abu Sir
Meidum
The Pyramid of Meidum
Copyright © Zbigniew Kosc
All Rights Reserved
Amsterdam 2004
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mail to: z.kosc@chello.nl
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