On our second full day in Egypt, I woke up feeling decidedly not amazing. Fortunately, I had plenty to distract myself with, because our itinerary for the day was a visit to the Great Pyramids! We left the hotel by 7:30 am and as it was Friday (the Muslim equivalent of sabbath), traffic was mercifully light. By the time we finished at the pyramids, it also meant many, many locals had come from near and far to appreciate their heritage.
There was quite a bit of security going into the Giza plateau. Because we had checked out of our hotel and planned to go straight to the airport after our day of sightseeing, we had brought all of our luggage with us. Unfortunately, this meant we had to haul all of our suitcases out of the van and through the equivalent of airport security (x-rays, metal detectors, and such) at the entrance to the pyramids. This was a minor hassle, and the screener took major issue with the bottle of Moet we had picked up at the Cyprus duty free, which had been safely stowed in Sev’s bag. “No whiskey!!!!” she kept telling us, and I was momentarily afraid that my 30th birthday champagne toast on the Nile would not be realized (I know, I know, first world problems). Fortunately our guide jumped in to assure her that no, we would not be desecrating the pyramids with our “whiskey.”
With our selves, bags, and champagne through security and safely stowed back in the van, my first reaction was: Wow.
The guide said that most people who visited the pyramids are either surprised or disappointed by their size. I was definitely in the former camp– they were WAY bigger and more impressive than I expected.
I had also braced myself for being hassled to death by various people trying to sell stuff or otherwise get our money, but fortunately with a guide we were relatively (if not completely) undisturbed. And also, it was hard to pay much attention to anybody while our jaws were on the ground ogling the size of these things. The Pyramid of Khufu was built in 2560 BC and is 481 feet tall. It was the tallest structure in the world for 3,800 years until the Eiffel Tower was built in the 19th century!
We walked up the entrance of the pyramid, but did not go in– we had heard it was hot, claustrophobic, and relatively undecorated inside, so we passed. Here’s a shot of people milling about below the entrance.
Here is the second of the three big pyramids, belonging to Khufu’s son Menkaure. Menkaure’s pyramid is smaller, but because of the way it is sited on the plateau, it appears bigger than Khufu’s pyramid. The polished casing of the pyramid at its apex is still clearly visible. What must the Ancient Greeks have thought about this place when they first saw it– ancient even then, built a full 2000 years before they lived? Truly incredible.
A shot of them all together– here you can more clearly see how Menkaure’s pyramid (second from left) seems bigger than Khufu’s (first on the left):
The third pyramid belongs to Khafre, and alongside it he has three small pyramids for his wives. Some of the stones of their pyramids have been carried off for other great works:
While at the pyramids, we availed ourselves of the chance to ride camels and visit the Solar Boat Museum (more on those later). Our last stop was to see the Sphinx. By the time we got there, it seemed like half of Cairo had showed up, so while it was quite impressive, we didn’t linger for more than a few snaps.
We finished up our time in Giza with a stop at a government-run papyrus shop. The papyrus shop lady spoke so fast, I barely understood what she was saying. I didn’t see anything I was completely in love with, beyond a beautiful tree of life. Since I had already bought a tree of life motif at the tentmakers’ street, and Severin was not a particularly huge fan, I practiced self-restraint. Severin bought a small one and my mom and Tom bought several large, beautiful pieces. We also stopped briefly to have some cartouches made, which are small necklaces with your name written in hieroglyphics. Since my name is half As and kind of long, I didn’t get one with my whole name– just A, S, and a lotus flower.