The Cairo sun Crept through our window which nudged me to wake up… Okay Bridget’s hurried push in the right direction may have been the real reason why I got on my feet to take a shower. Despite last night’s great idea to finish the whiskey, getting out to breakfast was seemingly easy.
When we arrived in Giza, fog blocked any view of the ancient pyramids. We bought our ticket to enter the pyramid ($20 or 1000 pounds), which surprisingly wasn’t part of our tour, only the entrance fee to the pyramid and sphinx gates were.
Our bus then took us to the entrance of the pyramid and our unlikable tour guide told us we had 30 minutes to spend here. Luckily we would get more time later to explore.
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The Pyramids
The large pyramid is a giant block of stepped stone. In fact up until the 18th century, it was the largest building in the world. The smooth limestone face that once skinned the pyramids can only be seen today on the top of the second pyramid, but you can easily imagine the awe this pyramid inspired in ancient times and even today.
We climbed a few stairs to make our way to the entrance of the great pyramid. As soon as we entered, the space then grew tight as we hunched through the cavern dodging the people who were trying to get out. Finally the narrow cave turned into a 30 foot high ceiling and the climb up grew much easier. In one area the cavern branched off and other areas showed air gaps which only made the imagination wonder.
Finally the climb ended into a stone room with dark walls, high ceilings, rivaling the size of the average living room. The only item in this room held an empty stone sarcophagus. This was the king’s chamber. I could only imagine this room being lined with gold and a mummified pharaoh thousands of years ago before the grave robbers took everything. We spent ten minutes soaking it in, and in the meantime, Rob did a back flip off the sarcophagus.
The Camels
The next stop dropped us off to ride the camels. This location was about a half mile from the pyramids, so we got a great view of the three from afar.
We took our pictures and then our director, Mostafa, assembled our camel rides. Riding a camel is quite fun, especially when you have the pyramids in the background. The camel sits down, and then you’re supposed to ‘lean back’. Then the camel picks up his back legs and then his front legs, and then your standing six feet off the ground.
The ride consisted of a few good pictures on the camels with a great backdrop, and then they took you back. The cool part was when the camel ran back to our starting point. And that was that. A little short but now riding a camel in the Sahara is off my list.
The bus then took us back to the pyramids for an hour where we could finally take some great pictures of the pyramids. Rob once again did a back flip off the great pyramid. But as we made our way around the pyramid, school girls would practice their English with us by saying “Hello” and “Would you like to take our picture?” with pretty decent pronunciation. It was kind of neat and friendly. I also ran into a security guard wanting to be our photographer. It was fun to have this guard taking my picture and coordinating my next shot…. “Sleep on the pyramid… Okay now eat the pyramid…” Entertaining to say the least.
The Sphinx
The final part of our Giza trip was visiting the Sphinx. You have the cliche shot that included both the pyramids and the sphinx. While even a bit smaller than I expected, the sphinx still is an amazing site to see. A few times I looked back to see the site of the pyramids and the sphinx, and each time It was as if I was looking at the monuments for the first time; it never got old.
We then left the pyramids and the lioness that guarded them. The rest of the day included smoking Sheesha later that night with the girls, but what we saw that day wiped us out, and we called it an early night.