The Other Pyramids

The saying goes "Rome wasn't built in a day."  As it turns out, neither was Cairo.  The iconic pyramids that most people associate with Egypt are the Pyramids of Giza.  These are the ones on countless Egyptian postcards, the ones that every tour bus goes to, and the ones that Tom and I were taken to in our first week in Egypt.  You may remember the photo from our very first Eg-cellent blog.  The pyramids in Giza can be described as the pinnacle of Egyptian pyramids.  They include the world's largest pyramid, the only remaining wonder of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.  These pyramids are picture perfect, built with  optimal slope.  There are over a hundred pyramids in Egypt, evolving in size and construction.  This weekend we had the opportunity to see some of these "other pyramids".

Similar to many of our adventures, our trip to the other pyramids was a Maadi Runners event.  We met the other runners too early in the morning to catch a bus for the half-hour ride south of Cairo to Sakkara, home of the first pyramid ever built:  the Step Pyramid.  Unfortunately we did not enter the pyramid site, but we did get to see the famous Step Pyramid from afar along our running route.

The longest stretch of the 10-mile run followed a dirt road along a canal through an Egyptian village.  The cows, goats, and sheep along the path gave it a true rural feel, while the palm tree forest lining the trail reminded us that we weren't in rural Canada.  The villagers we met along the way were much friendlier than those that try to run us over in Cairo, with adults directing us through the only confusing part of the path, while the children cheered us on.


The run lead us to a second set of pyramids, the Pyramids of Dahshur.  The first pyramid we approached was the Red Pyramid, which didn't look very red to me.  I followed another runner up the stairs part way up this pyramid, thought to be the first successfully built smooth-sided pyramid.  It is also the third tallest pyramid in Egypt, after the two larger pyramids in Giza.  My legs realized soon after that it was pretty silly to climb stairs with some running left to do. 


This site is best known for the "bent pyramid", the first attempt at a smooth-sided pyramid.  The bottom of the pyramid has very steep sides, but (likely due to instability) the slope was changed halfway through construction, and the top half is less steep.  Actually, the top half of the Bent Pyramid was constructed at the angle which was soon after used to build the red pyramid, and  also used for the pyramids in Giza.  The "official" finish line of the run was with one hand on the Bent Pyramid.

After some group photos at the pyramids, we headed to one of the runners' beautiful house nearby to have some Egyptian asshole for brunch.  Sorry, that should have read assel, the Arabic word for honey.  You can imagine the confusion when an Egyptian man tries to use "hello assel" as a pick-up line.  The brunch, including its assel, was possibly the best post-run brunch on record.

I'm not sure if I've ever written about bread in Egypt.  Its almost exclusively what we would call pita in Canada, although Egyptians, even those fluent in English, have no idea what the word "pita" means.  It's eaten with virtually every meal.  After eating a piece of this Egyptian bread fresh from a clay oven, I understand why one would eat it with every meal.  The warm and delicious bread was complimented by homemade fateer, which are like really big, flattened mille-feuilles with assel.  There was also garden fresh vegetables, foul (Egyptian beans), 3 types of cheese, banana choco chip muffins, and peach cobbler made by yours truly.  I think that the thing I will miss the most about Egypt is the Friday morning run with brunch, and the assels I've had the pleasure of sharing it with.