Discovering the pyramids of Egypt.

"Aliens mate! It's the only explanation!"

I nod and smile to the stranger next to me as I consider my reply to his pearl of wisdom. We're at the Giza Necropolis staring in awe at the Great pyramid of Cheops, one of the pyramids of Giza, the only surviving wonder of the original seven wonders of the ancient world but this isn't the first pyramid site I've visited as we had gone off the beaten track a little bit the day before to visit a few lesser known but no less important pyramids. There are actually over 100 pyramids in Egypt and twice as many in Sudan so I was keen to explore further.

It's not that easy though as most visitors to Cairo are content to visit the Egyptian museum and the pyramids of Giza before moving south so there were no tours that would take in the sights we wanted in the extra day that we had at our disposal. It was at this point that we called on our hotel concierge to provide a solution. He had already proved his worth by directing us to a local hole in the wall where we purchased some cold refreshments so we were willing to put ourselves in his hands and sure enough within an hour he had secured the services of his cousin who would put himself and his taxi at our disposal for the day. I'm a bit sceptical that it was his taxi or even his cousin but nevertheless we had essentially organised a private tour for ourselves.

We started at Memphis which was the ancient capital before it was relocated to Thebes. There's not much left to see at Memphis however the collapsed colossal red granite statue of Rameses II is certainly worth seeing. We then moved on to our first pyramid site at Saqqara. Dating from the 27th century BC, the pharaoh Djoser's step pyramid was the first pyramid that was built in Egypt and represents a major shift in tomb building from the single story mastaba, the step pyramid is effectively a series of smaller mastaba built on top of each other.

We then moved on to the pyramid field at Dahsur, 40 km south of Cairo. The Bent pyramid built by the pharaoh Sneferu in the 26th century BC was a more ambitious project which became too ambitious when the builders realised that their pyramid was too steep so they shallowed out the angle midway through it's construction to prevent it's collapse. At the time that we visited the Bent pyramid was off limits to visitors but we were able to see it's unique shape from a distance. At the time of writing the Bent pyramid is open to visitors once again.

Our last stop was the nearby Red pyramid which is the largest pyramid at Dahsur and was actually the third pyramid built by Sneferu and is believed to be the first successful attempt at a smooth sided pyramid. Our visit to the Red pyramid was surreal, our party of 4 and a party of 5 Germans was the total amount of visitors that day! We climbed to the entrance and made our way down the narrow cramp inducing passage to the centre of the pyramid, the weight of thousands of years of history above our heads and as we re-emerged in to daylight I took in the majesty of my surroundings. In contrast to Giza there is nothing to see except vast swathes of desert in every direction, no shops, no chain restaurants, no city skyline, no hawkers selling tourist tat, just you, your thoughts and ancient history.

The following day we visited the pyramids at Giza, the number one attraction for a very good reason. They are spectacular in every way and there are no words that can do justice to the grandeur and scale except to say that I audibly gasped when we escaped the city skyline and caught our first glimpse from close proximity. We had seen them from the balcony of our hotel but it's hard to imagine the scale until you get closer. The Great pyramid is actually the older of the three pyramids of Giza and was probably constructed not long after the Red pyramid at Dahsur.

So there I was, standing in awe of the majesty of Cheops glorious pyramid and considering everything I had learned about the evolution of pyramid building from the first effort of tiered mastaba at Saqqara, to the trial and error of the bent pyramid at Dahsur, the successful smooth sided Red pyramid and finally the zenith of pyramid building standing in front of me.

I turned to my new friend and replied "Yeah mate, it was aliens. No doubt about it".

Would you like to see the only remaining wonder of the seven wonders of the ancient world? Are you fascinated by the wealth of historical artifacts that still survive from ancient Egypt?

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