Pyramids on my mind

By Al S. Mendoza

“SEE the Pyramids along the Nile

“Watch the sun rise on a tropic isle

“Just remember, darling, all the while

“You belong to me…”

Those are the first lines of the classic ditty, “You Belong To Me,” popularized by the iconic Jo Stafford in the Fifties.

They’ve been on my mind days since my beloved, the writer-journalist Sol F. Juvida and I (together with the lovely couple Senen & Jay Glorioso), arrived only a while back from Egypt, where we had probably taken hundreds of shots of us while seated/standing at the foot of the Great Pyramid in Giza at nearby Cairo.

It is the Great Pyramid because it’s the tallest of all the 104 or so Pyramids built in Egypt.

It was an experience that will remain unmatched in our lifetime.

The Great Pyramid was erected by Pharaoh Khufu some 4,500 years ago.

That was more than 2,000 years B.C. (Before Christ).

No cement was used to construct it like the 103 other Pyramids—an architectural wonder up to this day.

How the Pyramids were built is one of Egypt’s—and the world’s—biggest mysteries.

Pharoah Khufu began the first Giza Pyramid project in 2550 B.C.

The Pyramids were built as burial places and monuments to the Pharaoh (King). 

As part of their religion, the Egyptians believed the Pharaoh needed certain things when he dies and is expected to become God in the afterlife.

Massive Pyramid tombs were built for themselves to be filled with all the things each ruler would need to guide and sustain himself in the next world.

Khufu’s Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza sitting by the biblical Nile River and towered 481 feet (147 meters) above the plateau. 

Its estimated 2.3 million blocks each weigh an average of 2.5 to 15 tons.

His son, Pharaoh Khafre, built the second Pyramid at Giza in 2520 B.C. 

It was him who built the Sphinx, a mysterious limestone monument with the body of a lion and a pharaoh’s head—with the Sphinx serving sentinel for the pharaoh’s entire tomb complex.

We’ve seen it—and oh-lala! Overwhelming!

The Pyramids remain architectural wonders that scientists can’t be sure how they were built.

Tomb art inside the Pyramids includes depictions of ancient farmers working their fields and tending livestock, fishing, fowling, carpentry, costumes, religious rituals and burial practices.

Almost any subject you want to study about pharaonic civilization is available on the tomb walls at Giza.

Pharaoh Khufu’s Great Pyramid needed 10,000 or so workers to build.

To maintain their energy and strength, they were fed with 10,000 pounds of meat daily from cattle, sheep and goats.

Do you know how many years it took to finish Khufu’s Great Pyramid?  Thirty years!

Enough for now. 

And to finish Jo Stafford’s “Pyramid” song, here:

“See the marketplace in old Algiers

“Send me photographs and souvenirs

“Just remember when a dream appears

“You belong to me.

“I’ll be so alone without you

Maybe you’ll be lonesome, too, and blue.

“Fly the ocean in a silver plane

“See the jungle when it’s wet with rain

“Just remember when you’re home again

“You belong to me.

“I’ll be so alone and without you

“Maybe you’ll be lonesome too, and blue.

“Fly the ocean plane in a silver plane

“See the jungle when it’s wet with rain

“But remember darling, till you’re home again

“That you belong to me.”

*                *                *                *

PLEASE say a prayer for my Kuya Vicente, who had passed on to the Great Beyond….

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments