Next we drove a short way to between the other two pyramids built by Cheops' son and grandson. The white cap on the top of the one pyramid is actually a limestone coating that was scraped off (it used to cover all three pyramids). This occurred as well as the looting of the stones from the top of the Cheops' pyramid when the Muslims came into Egypt in the late 7th century. There seem to have been duel motivations: 1) the limestone had carvings all over it that were viewed as against their religion as images and 2) they needed the materials to build their own homes. The stones themselves are not indigenous to the area, but were cut 500 miles south in Aswan and then brought in some unknown manner (up the Nile, perhaps?) to Cairo. The final photo is - believe it or not - Anwar Sadat's summer home. (Obviously not any longer, since he was assassinated in 1981.) While it looks pretty hideous to my American eyes, it afforded him an "in-your-face" view of all three pyramids, and after what's more important than Location, Location, Location?
Next we drove a short way to between the other two pyramids built by Cheops' son and grandson. The white cap on the top of the one pyramid is actually a limestone coating that was scraped off (it used to cover all three pyramids). This occurred as well as the looting of the stones from the top of the Cheops' pyramid when the Muslims came into Egypt in the late 7th century. There seem to have been duel motivations: 1) the limestone had carvings all over it that were viewed as against their religion as images and 2) they needed the materials to build their own homes. The stones themselves are not indigenous to the area, but were cut 500 miles south in Aswan and then brought in some unknown manner (up the Nile, perhaps?) to Cairo. The final photo is - believe it or not - Anwar Sadat's summer home. (Obviously not any longer, since he was assassinated in 1981.) While it looks pretty hideous to my American eyes, it afforded him an "in-your-face" view of all three pyramids, and after what's more important than Location, Location, Location?
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