I was surprised at how caustic and downright hostile Henry David was toward the pyramids (and the pharaohs). Here’s what he has to say in WALDEN: “As for the Pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs.”
For once, I can’t agree with him though the pyramids may be the greatest monuments in history to the wealth gap.
I have never been to Cairo, so I haven’t experienced them first hand. No doubt, they are magnificent monuments, but to what, beyond the ego, I do not know. Human ingenuity perhaps? I remember reading an essay once on human evolution as viewed from the perspective of burial rites. I would say we have come a long way from the Pharaohs in that respect.
Other than that, it’s a view that reminds me a bit of a conversation I had with some people at Jacobs Lake campground, while waiting for my permit to hike into Grand Canyon. We were talking about the kinds of tourists who spend an average of twelve minutes at the South Rim and other places, such as Zion. The impression they would take away would be little more than “big ditch” or “big walls.”
http://bonalibro.us
I think you got it time–human ingenuity. I’ve been to Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, and to the lesser-known but still-impressive pyramids south of Giza. They may have been built for the wrong reasons, but they are astonishing. So is the Sphinx!
As I am sure many respect Thoreau’s writing. One does have the right to disagree. Although, I must admit I do agree with him in the sense that I do not believe that these magnificent structures should have been built for the purpose of the safeguarding and shelter of corpse…. Considering an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 workers built the Pyramids at Giza over 80 years.
On the other hand, if they had not been built for that purpose, we would not have had the opportunity of perpetuating the beauty of Egypt.
I usually agree with Thoreau, not this time. I do, however, agree with your summation. And I learned a little more about the pyramids in the process!