The pyramids

Happy Leap Day!! Let’s start off the day with some omissions from yesterday’s slightly jet lagged whirlwind. First, it was 27 degrees yesterday, the warmest we will have in Cairo. Second, we did get our first peek at the pyramids last night. The city of Giza has totally surrounded them now.

Our river boat, the Scarabee was docked right beside the massive Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Cairo, not far from the Hotel Nefertiti where we stayed in 1978. The whirling dervish we saw, despite originating in Turkey, is very culturally Egyptian. They are believers of a mystic form of Islam called Sufism and the whirling is an effort to get closer to God. They do not spot to avoid dizziness. They look inward.?

Cairo has grown exponentially since 1978 and like I said, the pyramids are no longer on the edge of the desert. Along the major highways you see clusters of funky little mini vans stopped with people milling about them. From our perspective, this is slightly suicidal given Egyptian’s maniacal driving tendencies. This is actually public transit and people are finding the right ride. What you don’t see anymore that we did in 1978 is people hanging off buses trains, boats even though all the vehicles are packed with people.

Our hotel - Hilton - is super secure with guards and metal detectors at every entrance. Our bags go through x-ray when we enter. Now on to today. Following up on my earlier discussion about security we had a police escort with us all day. They are trying to convince everyone that it is safe to vacation in Egypt since tourism is such a large part of their economy. Our first destination was the largest of the 3 pyramids. This impressive tomb goes back to 2500 BC. The covering stone, still visible on the second largest pyramid and intended to hide the tomb entrance, is long gone. The main stones are 1X1,.5x1.5 metres in average.

There is now an additional charge to walk to the centre of either of the two largest pyramids and only a few opted for the second pyramid - not us. We found the street merchants here very aggressive and did not care to hear “ no”. We were taken to a vantage point for a good view of all 3 pyramids. We also had a camel ride at this location. By camel ride I mean they took us 50 metres into the desert and then brought us back.

Finally we walked to the sphinx for some more great photos.

Lunch was near the pyramids. The food so far has been good - not remarkable but certainly edible. We made a quick stop at a papyrus shop before heading off to the original capital of Egypt, Memphis.

One of the first notable monuments here is a sphinx made of alabaster.

Next was a large statue of Ramses the second. This one dates to about 1200 BC and is made of red granite.

Finally there was a very large statue of Ramses lying in a building. Most of these pieces at this museum are lying where they were found. That was it for the afternoon. We had a few moments of respite back at the hotel before setting out for our evening trip back to the pyramids for the Sound & Light Show.

The sound and light show started at 7 o’clock and ran for about 45 minutes. We got a wonderfully graphic history of the pyramids. It was a cool night and by the time we got to the end of the show everybody was pretty chilly from the breeze.

Back at the hotel it was finally time for dinner. Then a shower and to bed because tomorrow is another long day.