Soaring high into the sky, paragliders are used to enjoying fascinating aerial views of some of the world’s most famous ancient landmarks. But the landmarks don’t usually have dogs hanging out on top of them.
While flying over Egypt’s famous Great Pyramids at sunrise earlier this week, US paraglider Marshall Mosher and fellow paragliders spotted the unexpected sight of a stray hound also taking in views around the summit of one of the ancient wonders.
“We noticed something running back and forth on top of the pyramid,” Mosher “One person thought it was a mountain lion.”
The adventurers quickly grabbed their phones and zoomed in to the top of Khafre, the second tallest pyramid — which is off-limits to humans — only to find a dog seemingly chasing some birds at the summit of the 448-foot-tall (136-meter) structure.
Mosher recalls feeling a bit concerned. “Maybe he WAS? stuck up there,” he thought. But his worries soon faded.
“If he got himself up, he can get himself down unless he found some secret portal that helped him teleport to the top of the pyramids,” he joked.
The next day, curious to see if the dog was still there, they flew over the pyramid again, with no luck. However, a fellow adventurer shot a video of what appeared to be the same dog safely making its way down the pyramid.
It’s unclear whether it was the same animal, since hundreds of stray dogs roam the Pyramids complex, some often seen close to the base, Mosher explained. The paraglider says he is actively looking for animal shelters in Cairo to help these strays find safer, less adventurous homes.
The videos of the dog quickly went viral on social media, with Mosher’s first post getting millions of views on Instagram overnight
Although Mosher has been creating content for a few years, he was surprised by the wide interest in the dog’s adventure. “I thought the opportunity to fly over the pyramids was decently interesting news, but no one cares about that,” he said.
Some online commentators have drawn a connection between the dog and Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, often depicted as a man with a jackal head.
Mosher regularly paraglides over the Great Pyramids of Giza as part of an annual flying event organized by SkyOne Egypt, which offers a unique way to explore the iconic site.
The interiors of all three pyramids of Giza are open to visitors, but each requires the purchase of a separate ticket. Although tourists were once able to freely climb the pyramids, that is now illegal. Offenders face up to three years in prison as penalty. In 2016 a teenage tourist was banned from visiting Egypt for life after posting photos and videos on social media of his illicit climb.
The pyramids of Giza were royal tombs built for three different pharaohs. The northernmost and oldest pyramid of the group was built for Khufu (Greek: Cheops), the second king of the 4th dynasty. Called the Great Pyramid, it is the largest of the three. The middle pyramid was built for Khafre (Greek: Chephren), the fourth of the eight kings of the 4th dynasty. The southernmost and last pyramid to be built was that of Menkaure (Greek: Mykerinus), the fifth king of the 4th dynasty. It is 218 feet (66 meters) high, significantly smaller than the pyramids of Khufu (481.4 feet [147 meters]) and Khafre (471 feet [143 meters]).
The pyramids of Giza are mostly solid masses of stone with very little to be found inside. Like many ancient Egyptian pyramids, those of Khafre and Menkaure have passageways at their base that lead to small subterranean burial chambers underneath each pyramid. Khufu’s pyramid also has underground tunnels, but the burial chamber is located in the centre of the structure, accessible via a climb up a tight interior passageway. Contrary to what one might expect, there are no hieroglyphic texts, treasures, or mummies in any of pyramids of Giza. Decoration inside pyramids began several centuries after those of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure were constructed. Moreover, any treasure would have been plundered in ancient and medieval times—a fate that likely affected the bodies of the kings, which have never been found.
The question of how the pyramids were built has not received a wholly satisfactory answer. The most plausible one is that the Egyptians employed a sloping and encircling embankment of brick, earth, and sand, which was increased in height and length as the pyramid rose; stone blocks were hauled up the ramp by means of sledges, rollers, and levers. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, the Great Pyramid took 20 years to construct and demanded the labour of 100,000 men. This figure is believable given the assumption that these men, who were agricultural labourers, worked on the pyramids only (or primarily) while there was little work to be done in the fields—i.e., when the Nile River was in flood. By the late 20th century, however, archaeologists had found evidence that a more limited workforce may have occupied the site on a permanent rather than a seasonal basis. It was suggested that as few as 20,000 workers, with accompanying support personnel (bakers, physicians, priests, etc.), would have been adequate for the task.
in April 2013 Two self-styled amateur archeologists from Germany, who filmed themselves scraping off pieces of Egypt’s Great Pyramid in hopes of proving that the ancient wonder was built by people from the legendary city of Atlantis, are now facing possible criminal charges in their home country.
During a trip to Egypt in April 2013, Dominque Gorlitz and Stephan Erdmann, along with a German filmmaker, were granted access to parts of the Great Pyramid at Giza that are normally off-limits to the public. They smuggled their samples back to Germany with plans to produce a documentary.
The Art Newspaper says that in November “a self-posted trailer on YouTube for a documentary detailing and revealing their exploits, drew almost universal condemnation and angered Egyptian authorities. After the controversy broke, the German embassy in Cairo released a statement emphasizing that neither Gorlitz nor Erdmann were associated with the embassy or the German Archaeological Institute.”
In addition to the three Germans, six Egyptians are being held in connection with the case, including several guards and inspectors from the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry who allowed the men into the pyramid, Live Science says.
The Art Newspaper writes:
“Most scholars date this mark to the pyramid’s construction in around 2500BC, while alternative theorists, including the two German researchers, have long claimed the cartouche to be a fake, painted by its discoverer, Colonel Howard Vyse in 1837 to help him secure further funding for his explorations. To prove their claims, Gorlitz and Erdmann allegedly smuggled the pigment samples from Egypt to Dresden University for further study; by proving the modernity of the pigment, they hoped to raise the possibility that the Great Pyramid was constructed by a civilization much older than the ancient Egyptians.”
