It takes about forty minutes to walk through the desert at Dahshur from the Red Pyramid to the Bent Pyramid. Few attempt it, but it is a journey charged with a strong sense of the immediate presence of the past. The wind blows. Ahead stretches desert and, in the distance, a pyramid with its distinctive change of angle half-way up its sides. Behind you stands another. Both loom out of the dunes. And as you walk, you are passing over an unknown number of unexcavated tombs.
    For many years this area was forbidden to tourists but today it is one of the few accessible sites where the magic of the silence, the wind, the sand, and the sky, can envelope both pyramids and visitors in a common embrace, drawing us to a place so deep that we must stop our journey in order to find it.
    At least, it feels like that to me. And, I suspect, watching those who stood silently gazing at the unique vista, it felt like that to the others as well. Quite a group of us made the walk in the hot sun between the two pyramids, water bottles close to hand. It was only the third day since we had arrived in Egypt but we had all realised that this was a country to be experienced, not just gazed upon.
    This was the second Freemasonry Today readers’ trip to Egypt organised by HPB Travel in England and Quest Travel of Giza. The President of Quest Travel, Mohammed Nazmy, is as efficient as one could want. We were fortunate in having him accompany us, for his speciality goes far beyond making sure that we never had to carry our cases or worry about catching any plane, bus or boat on time, he excels in producing surprises: exclusive tours of sites normally crowded or closed.
    With Mohammed was Egyptologist Fathy Yehia el Dibh, a walking encyclopaedia of Egyptian history and mysteries. He had, for fifteen years, been the curator of the Tutankhamun exhibition in the Cairo Museum. So he knew a thing or two. As well as an endless succession of Egyptian jokes.

The Paws of the Sphinx

Three days earlier, we had begun the tour at sunrise between the paws of the Sphinx. The sun rose through a dusty April sky, the heat increased and Cairo rumbled awake in the background. We were all rather shell-shocked having only arrived the night before but Freemasonry Today likes to start as it means to continue: by arriving at sites early so that we might feel the grandeur, the sense of place; so that we can wander and feel. Fathy would guide a little, talk a little, point out some curious aspects and then leave us to search around for ourselves, wandering wherever the mood took us.
    One of the great controversies of the Sphinx involves its dating. It was, according to Egyptologists, built by the Pharaoh Khafre around 2500 BC. But there is no proof of this, no written testimony. Yet it was apparently so badly eroded that repairs were necessary before 2100 BC, leading to the suspicion that it was actually far older.
    Fathy pointed out the main evidence put forward by those who believe it older: the stone edges of the Sphinx enclosure show deep cuts of erosion. Not the horizontal cuts of wind-blown sand like the erosion on similarly aged stone on the Giza Plateau, but deep vertical fissures normally caused by water. The last rainy period in Egyptian history was around 7000 - 5000 BC. Could the Sphinx have been built then? Could these rains have eroded the walls? Each side of this argument has strong supporters.
    Later that morning the Great Pyramid was closed to the public in order that we might spend time in it, undisturbed. We first scrambled down the long shaft to the underground chamber in the solid rock far below the Pyramid’s base and then, like a masonic journey, left this roughly worked crypt for a journey upwards to chambers of finely wrought and smoothed stonework. We gathered in the Kings’ Chamber in the centre of the Pyramid, the lights went off and we chanted a very ancient Egyptian chant before spending time in silent contemplation. It is always a privilege to be able to do this in the Great Pyramid.
    In the evening, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass gave us a talk. He loves the Great Pyramid and goes there by himself to meditate whenever he feels overtaken by the stress of his work. He is a great showman and loves archaeology with a passion. While he holds an important administrative post he likes to remain involved with the basics of archaeology, he likes to explore, to dig and to discover.
    ‘We have made important discoveries which I am not going to talk about,’ he began, and then proceeded to talk about them anyway. He gave examples of unique finds discovered almost by accident: a foot of a donkey slipped into a hole in an Oasis in the Western Desert leading to the discovery of 235 mummies, most covered with gold. Often, local people build their houses over tombs. In one city he was approached by members of local families: ‘Give us a job and we will show you some tombs.’ He gave them a job. They showed him some tombs. Dr. Hawass stressed that many mysteries remain hidden in Egypt, even in the Great Pyramid. Here, he believes, the Pharaoh’s burial chamber remains, yet to be discovered.
    After visiting the pyramids at Dahshur and Saqqara we ended with an exclusive evening trip to the Cairo Museum. There, Fathy was able to take us around many of the great treasures on display, particularly in his former domain, the Tutankhamun galleries.

The Nile Temples

From Cairo we flew to Aswan where we joined our boat, rested, then visited the Aswan market which is always a pleasure: ‘Almost for free!’ proclaimed an earnest trader with a smile as he thrust armloads of coloured fabrics at us.
    Early next morning we made an exclusive visit to the great Temple of Isis at Philae on its island in Lake Nasser. This was the last working temple in Egyptian history, surviving until around 540 AD.
    We walked slowly through the vast entrance pylons, across the forecourt and into the shadowed interior to the Holy of Holies where we spent some time in silence. Inside the Holy of Holies two small windows high up on the east and west walls let in the light of sunrise and sunset. On our journey to the centre we noticed that the floor level gradually rose and the ceilings became lower - as if we were progressing to the heart of a giant megaphone. After sunrise, a small café by the Nile opened for us and while I gave the first of a number of talks, the group sipped tea or coffee.
    Last year Mohammed had surprised the group with a night visit to the Temple of Horus at Edfu - the most intact Temple in Egypt. This year he managed the same. But this was not the only temple we were to visit by night. Following our stay in Luxor, the ship moved down river to Kena where a bus took us to the temple of Hathor at Denderah - just as all other tourists were leaving. We climbed up the series of stairways to the highest roof and watched the sun set over the still countryside. Then, in a long line, we ritually stepped our way down the sacred staircase and across the silent temple to the strange crypt beneath the Holy of Holies with its enigmatic and unique carved images.
    We were certainly pampered by the exclusive access we were getting: in the Valley of the Kings the Tomb of Seti I, closed for many years even to archaeologists, was mysteriously opened for us. We were at the magnificent temple complex of Karnak before sunrise, several hours before it too was opened to the public. And we had the run of the temple of Abydos. But we were rudely reminded just how lucky we were when we visited the Temple at Luxor by night. The crowds were so great that entire groups were queuing to reach important carvings and images. It was like rush-hour and deeply unpleasant.
    Under such conditions nothing of ancient Egypt could be experienced and little of the remains could even be seen or the explanations heard. The entire group voiced their appreciation of Mohammed’s hard work in gaining us the time, the space and the tranquillity at most of the sites we visited so that we could learn something real of them. We felt not like tourists but like guests. Guests of an ancient family who were pleased to make us welcome.