Two questions that have plagued mankind since the dawn of time... ok, fine... two questions that have plagued Chris since yesterday:

1. What should 4500 year old dust smell like?
2. What would a mummy taste like?

1. I've had the opportunity to climb through two pyramids, one yesterday and another today. You always hear about how they're not for the claustrophobic. Granted. What I've never heard about before is the smell...

First of all, there is no unique pyramid smell. The Red Pyramid yesterday had such a potent dust in the air, it almost had a biting quality to it, like ammonia. Climbing down, down, down, it slowly gets stronger and stronger. Finally, the burial chamber is bearable for at most a couple minutes. I guess in this early form of architecture, they did not really worry too much about ventilation (the interred pharoahs being more than happy with the 'none' variety... well at least I've never heard about them having filed any complaints).

Today's pyramid, the pyramid of Khefre (the second Pyramid of Giza), was somewhat easier on the nostrils, although was more exercise for the back. Being bigger (and thus allowing for a burial chamber deeper in), meant you had to climb down and down, but then also back up for a while before reaching the end. The stillness and staleness of the air was still quite palpable... I'm guessing the different smell, though, is because they used a different type of rock when they started building the Great Pyramids at Giza.

2. Today, after Giza, we also visited the Egyptian Musuem in Cairo. There we had the opportunity to see the famous Royal Mummies. The most impressive and most exposed (many were shrouded in linen to reveal only the head and feet) of them was that of Rameses II. As I've been learning, and as I hope I'll have a chance to share in future posts, this guy made sure everything attached to his name was ridiculously impressive, so it's only fitting that his mummy should be no different.

Anyway, as far as the mummy itself, how to describe it... let me just say I'll never look at smoked and cured meats quite the same way again.