Pyramids and The Sphinx
Giza is a "suburb" of Cairo and is very near the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx and I guess that's why we stayed in Giza the first two nights.
When I used to think about the pyramids and the sphinx I always though they were waaaayyy out of town in the desert and they probably were when they were built but not any more.
The folks who live in these apartments can see the pyramids out their window anytime they like.
First thing in the morning of our very first full day we have to all go to a meeting where our guide, Aziz, gives us the rules. Every person visible (except Aziz) is an Aussie. We were the only Canadians on this leg of the trip. In Jordan we picked up a couple more. Front seat hoggers they were too.
So this is the Great Pyramid of Giza. There are lots of pictures and info on the internet so I'm not going to put too much in here. Needless to say it's pretty impressive. There's a lot of good info on this Wiki page.
The main entrance to the pyramid is shown below pretty much in the middle. They don't use this entrance though..why?...I don't know. They use a different entrance pretty much below the main entrance. You can see some people crowded around the secondary entrance. I don't think they've even opened up the main entrance.
They charge a few bucks to go in and climb to the burial chamber. So I went in. Christ ... if you come all this way you have to go in...right?
The first part is well lit.
This gal was looking at me suspiciously.
And then you get into, what I suspect, is the real deal leading to the burial chamber of Khufu.
Parts of it are really low and some of these fuckers need to start taking more regular showers....BO was a problem in there.
Anyway it was a pretty good climb. You finally get to the burial chamber and it's a pretty good sized room but really low light so it was impossible to get a good photo. If you're interested click here.
From another angle: The Great Pyramid of Giza is the one on the left. It's actually smaller now than the one in the middle due to wind / rain erosion over all the centuries. Both pyramids are over 4,500 years old.
The pyramid with the snow on top is the Pyramid of Khafre. He was the son of Khufu, the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid.
Apparently all the pyramids used to be covered with limestone like the top of the pyramid below. As impressive as they are now imagine what they looked like then.
Everywhere we travel I am reminded that people are the same. They want pictures with their friends taken in interesting places.
So a couple shots of the good ol' Sphinx. Impressive but nothing like what exists in my memory.
He's getting an overhaul I guess.
This is our first day here and the one common thing that we'll encounter at just about each and every tourist sight that we'll visit in the next 20 days is the tourism gauntlet that we have to go through. Sometimes on the way in, sometimes on the way out and sometimes you enter and exit through the tourist shops. Another disappointing thing we found is that all the stuff they're selling is cheap, mass produced crap. We looked high and low for some genuine items to buy but didn't see any.
Another interesting stop we had on hs first day was the Sun Boat Museum.
In 1954 they discovered, next to the Great Pyramid, a pit in which the pharaoh's boat had been placed apparently to take him to the afterlife. Below is a scale model of the boat.
This is the pit.
Below are various shots of the actual Sun Boat....over 4,500 years old.
Below is some of the original rope that was used to bind the boards together. It is amazing that it still exists.
In the evening we were taken to a light show that was kind of hokey. They lit up the pyramids and projected a face onto the sphinx and Omar Sharif narrated a story.
On the way back to our hotel I was amazed by all the people just sitting in the grassy strip between the lanes. I guess their apartments are too small and/or too hot to hang around in the evening so this is what the do instead. There were hundreds of them every block.
Done.