“The pyramids and temples of the Egyptian Old Kingdom (early-mid-third millennium BC) are testament to an epoch of global significance in the evolution of monumental stone architecture. The basalt quarries of Widan el-Faras and gypsum quarries
“The pyramids and temples of the Egyptian Old Kingdom (early-mid-third millennium BC) are testament to an epoch of global significance in the evolution of monumental stone architecture. The basalt quarries of Widan el-Faras and gypsum quarries of Umm es-Sawan (…) were key production sites in the foreground of this transformation to large- scale stone quarrying.” – Elizabeth Bloxam and Tom Heldal
We finally spotted the twin peaks marking the ancient basalt mines that we were looking for. This is the place they call Widan al-Faras (Ears of the Mare) in the Northern Fayoum Desert, some 80 km away from Cairo. We now had to find something extraordinary, something that we had only seen in photos and that none of our safari friends had ever explored: the World’s oldest surviving paved road. Just like the World’s oldest pyramid and the world’s oldest zodiac, this road –too- had to be in Egypt. The story is an interesting one.
It’s the 26th century BC in Egypt. The great Pyramid Builders of the IV Dynasty (Old Kingdom) are literally making history in the form of huge pyramids, impressive funerary temples and beautiful basalt sarcophagi. The basalt for the temples’ floors and walls and for the sarcophagi had to come from somewhere, and this somewhere happened to be Widan al-Faras. Problem: how to move basalt blocks all the way to the site of the Giza Pyramids? Solution: a quarry road to the ancient Lake Moeris (bigger ancestor of the present-day Lake Qarun) some 11 kms away, and floating the basalt from there to Giza during the flood season as the water rises (the Lake was connected to the Nile, see map below). Sounds simple? Wrong guess.
Building an 11-km road in the desert and having it equipped to move massive basalt blocks was anything but easy. The Ancient Egyptian workers had to use not only slabs of limestone and sandstone, but also logs of petrified wood to stabilize the road. Moreover, the landscape is not plain and the desert sand seemed to cover everything. As we finally approached the road, and following the initial thrill, thrill eventually gave way to awe. Over 4,000 years after it was built, some stretches of the road are still –almost- intact and clearly visible against the dramatic backdrop of the distant twin peaks. As we traced the quarry road further away towards the Lake, we stood on a cliff and saw it vanishing into the horizon, like a road to eternity.
The road is a about