Hey, Beags

[Minimalist]

I did finally get to see all of Engineering an Empire - Egypt last night. As noted, the fact that they skimmed over the Giza pyramids was illuminating but one thing caught my attention even more.

At one point the host was down in the burial chamber of Djoser's Step Pyramid and, lo and behold, there were decorations and hieroglyphs on the walls of this 3'd Dynasty Pyramid.

We know the 5th Dynasty pyramids were extensively decorated.

We even know that 4th Dynasty tombs and even the graves of workers were adorned with inscriptions, as Zahi was kind enough to point out one time.


But....the Giza Pyramids are unadorned and anonymous?

Bizarre.

[marduk]

the Giza pyramids were heavily inscribed
on the casing stones

[Leona Conner]

Hey Min, I noticed that too. I saw another program a few months ago, that where to hose went into Djoser's Pyramid with Dr. Salima Ikram. The decorations were quite spectacular. I can understand why Zahi Hawass will not open it to the public. Could you imagine what the American tourists would do?

[Minimalist]

Could you imagine what the American tourists would do?

Scary thought, Leona.

[Beagle]

Now that you remind me, that's pretty odd. In the Djoser pyramid they also found what were described as "mummy wrappings". Now what tomb robber would want to unwrap a mummy?

I'm sure there is a reasonable answer. The mummy was probably Roman anyway.

[Minimalist]

I believe there was a tendency to place various amulets inside the wrappings.

[Beagle]

That explains it then. Wonder what they did with the corpse? Also, after reading so much about ZH, I'm always a bit cynical about his reasons to not let the public in. Probably good reasons in this case though.

BTW - my internet connection is not a very good one. If I seem to disappear mysteriously thats probably the reason. Could be ETs though.