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Published: March 22nd 2007
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Dan & Lisa
Dan & Lisa at the Pyramids of Giza. The only remaining ancient Wonder of the World, The Pyramids of Giza are almost 5000 years old. It's hard to imagine how many people have travelled to this site to see them, perhaps millions and millions, and today, Lisa and I joined the club. It's not a very exclusive club, mind you, but it's a club. There are no handshakes, no secret passwords, no roster of it's members. However, I would argue that since the pyramids were made and people made long treks to see them, we all share a bond through the experience.
First and foremost, the pyramids command your attention. You have no choice but to stop in your tracks and utter something like "wow". Even with 5000 years of wear, pitted surfaces, and rough edges, they still have incredible power and perfection of form. It's hard to not be excited about seeing the pyramids since they are such an icon of ancient endeavours, maybe THE icon. It's like meeting a celebrity and finding out for yourself what matches expectations and what doesn't. The pyramids didn't disappoint. We had heard over an over that the Sphinx was much smaller that you'd expect, and that was certainly true.
Pyramids of Giza
This is looking northeast at a Pyramid of the Queens, the Pyramid of Menkaure, and the Pyramid of Khafre. Our first order of business was to secure a ticket to get inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu as we had read that they only sold so many a day. Gates open at 7am, and we were there closer to 10am, so we weren't sure if we'd get one. The ticket booth had no line, so as we approached we thought we might be out of luck, but the staff eagerly sold us our tickets for 100 Egyptian Pounds each, roughly $20 US each. We reluctantly surrendered our camera at the opening of the pyramid (no cameras allowed) and entered.
We had heard that you'll get pretty dirty going into the pyramid, and that even someone with the tiniest bit of claustrophobia shouldn't attempt it. We found that both were a little exaggerated. While some spots were certainly tight and you had to crouch down, we didn't find that you would get very dirty. The rocks have been worn smooth by many travellers and the dust is mostly what has been tracked in on shoes. Since neither of us suffer from claustrophobia, the tight spots weren't bad at all. We were expecting tight corridors where you had to
The Sphinx
The one and only Sphinx. squeeze by, but it was mostly low height passageways about 3 feet high that were the problem. One portion has you going up and incline with a ceiling of around 4 feet and a width of around 6 feet. Once you climbed about 40 feet, the passageway opened up impressively -- the width was about 10 feet across and the ceiling must have been 30 or 40 feet high all the way to the top burial chamber. The king's chamber was very impressive, but only because of it's simplicity and the beautiful granite. The king's chamber sent chills down the spine -- perhaps it was claustrophobia kicking in a touch or the humid heat, or simply the fact that you knew that you were in the center of one of the oldest man made structures on earth.
The touts, beggars, camel drivers, and staff will no doubt annoy even the fairly thick-skinned travellers. Each has refined their play, their routine, their art of extracting money from a visitor. Without being asked to, guards would pose for pictures with camels, guns, or people, or they would stand in the best locations for photos and beckon people to take shots from
Camel Rider
Give me baksheesh! their stakeout. If someone took them up on their offer, they would immediately ask for baksheesh -- a tip. When we first arrived at the pyramids, we had several men on camels pose for pictures saying "take my picture, it's free! No money!" We avoided a number of them, but we came across a seated camel with it's owner and were begged to take a picture. We suspected the guy would want money, but didn't mind so much. We snapped a shot of him and his camel, but declined to pose for a picture even though he strongly insisted. As soon as he knew we weren't going to budge, he immediately rubbed his fingers together as asked for his baksheesh even though he told us it was "free". While we were getting money out he was mumbling things like "give me 10 pounds, give me 20 pounds" -- he got one Egyptian Pound.
Even our taxi driver, Saad, who brought us from downtown Cairo to Giza tried to steer us in the direction of a camel tour of the pyramids. As we were just a 50 yards from the entrance to the pyramids, our taxi driver pulled up in
Pyramid of Khafre
The Pyramid of Khafre in the background, and the corner of the Pyramid of Khufu. front of a shop and mumbled something about his friend -- our scam radar started beeping. A smiling gentleman approached the car and greeted us through the window. He made quick small talk and proceeded to tell us that we will come inside so he can show us a map of the pyramids area. Our radar is now beeping pretty quickly. We tell him that we have a map. The gentlemen then starts using the word "government" to describe his shop and the services that he'd like to offer us, which doesn't make much sense. The radar beeping wildly. He then says that he wants to give us a camel tour since the area is "so big, 11 km". We say thank you, no thank you many time with as much of a smile as we can provide, and he finally gives in. Our once happy and chatty taxi driver then drives us around the corner and gruffly pushes us out of his car. Thankfully we were now on the doorstep of the Giza plateau and it really didn't matter to us.
After touring the pyramids for almost three hours, we headed back to Cairo. This was probably one
Stone Carving
This beautiful carving in a large piece of granite was laying like rubble in front of the Pyramid of Khufu. of the more hair-raising taxi rides of the trip so far. The driving in Cairo is complex and hard to describe. It's a laid-back balance of aggressive positioning, frequent but polite honking and headlight flashes, high speed, and a never ending obstacle course of badly parked cars and hordes of pedestrians walking in and across the streets. Traffic lanes are irrelevant and ignored. We almost hit a dozen cars, and seemed to barely miss being hit a dozen more times. A pedestrian was crossing a street that resembles a highway and wasn't able to make it completely across, and he stood in the middle of the road while our taxi and another car passed him on either side of him while doing around 50 mph. We weren't planning on driving in Egypt and that ride made the chance of us doing so much more remote.
To finish the day we went to a Korean BBQ restaurant for dinner called Hana with our very generous friends and hosts, Jack and Kaddee, and it was a treat. Kaddee works for the American University in Cairo (AUC) and they have a HUGE and very nice apartment in a large building that is
Pyramid of Khafre
A look at the top of the Pyramid of Khafre. a mix of student and faculty housing. Jack and Kaddee's neighbor had an AUC ex-pat get together and we joined in for some pastries (apparently the quintessential item to bring to a party in Cairo) and very tasty margaritas. It was a great way to end the day.
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