The World Famous Pyramids at Giza

Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Cairo
February 2nd 2008

Published: February 26th 2008

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Jason and Tracey Louis

The Giza Pyramid just before sunset

We decided that it would be a huge shame to miss out on the Giza pyramids, especially when flights to Thailand were much cheaper from Egypt than from Greece. So we flew from Athens to Cairo on February 1st, excited to see the famous pyramids, but also bracing ourselves for the aggressiveness of the people pushing to sell their products and services (trust us, we learned our lesson in Morocco).

It was interesting flying into Egypt, because while you’re over the delta area, it is all a lush, pretty green. Then suddenly, it just stops and then there is nothing but sand as far as you can see. The airport was a nightmare. Our hostel offered free airport pickup, so we had a ride arranged, but our flight arrived early so we were sent into the gauntlet of taxi drivers and tour guides who were extremely eager to harass the most recent arrivals to Cairo. We were pestered constantly, with the most obnoxious guys following us for several minutes and just wouldn’t take no for an answer. We were finally rescued by the hostel’s pick up service and taken to our hostel downtown. We were very close to the Nile

Statue of Ramses II

at the Memphis Museum

River and the Egyptian Museum, and a prayer microphone and gathering place were right outside our window, so it was interesting to see all the men congregate during the prayer times.

The first day, we just kind of walked around and got our bearings. We almost got had once by this guy in the street who seemed like some nice, normal guy just trying to help us find our way. He saw us looking at our map, nicely told us the name of the street we were on, and started making small talk. Then he said, “I have a perfume shop, if you’d like I’ll give you my card and you can visit my shop, let me just stop at this hotel and get a card for you.” Well, the “hotel” turned out to be his shop, and we could tell right away this was going to be a repeat of the Moroccan carpet mart, so we quickly left even though the “good Samaritan” was trying to guilt us into staying saying we were rejecting his Egyptian hospitality (same line, different country). No thanks, been there and got scammed before, not again.

The next day we booked a

Jason and Tracey in Front of "Baby Sphinx" at Memphis Museum

tour to go to the pyramids. Unfortunately, a lot of the “tour” included various stops (or attempts to stop) at different shops and markets, even though we had said many times we weren’t interested in buying a bunch of souvenirs (ironically, our guide and driver’s names translated to happiness and satisfaction!). We did agree to go to a papyrus shop because they also show how the paper was made (the world’s first paper), and that was interesting to see. We also stopped at the Memphis Museum where there were a bunch of ancient statues, the most notable of Ramses II.

With all the detours, including a VERY overpriced lunch, we finally made it to the pyramids in the afternoon. The pyramids are surprisingly close to a nearby town, walking distance. It certainly doesn’t look like the movies with pristine sand dunes in the distance. The amount of debris and trash on the trail was surprising. After haggling with the camel ride shop, which tried charging way more than we’d heard the camel tours should be, we finally got on the camels and headed toward the pyramids. While the experience of riding a camel was definitely interesting, especially getting on

Giant Statue of Ramses II

This statue, even though he's missing his legs and can't stand verticle anymore, is huge! At full size, it would have stood as high as a small building.

and off the camel while it kneels down in a three-step process (Tracey almost got bucked off once), we felt pretty bad, because they are clearly mistreated. The poor camels were whipped across the back of the legs constantlywith a wire, and once the guide whipped one of the camels across the face when it didn’t do what he wanted it to. On the positive side, going by camel did seem to mean less crowded paths, and we got some cool pictures of us on the camels in front of the pyramids. We didn’t go inside the pyramids though…they charged an additional fee to go inside, and we heard from a lot of people that everything that used to be inside was stripped out and placed in the Egypt Museum. The pyramids were pretty amazing to see though, especially when you think about how hard it must have been to build them! They quarried the stone from far away, brought them by barge up the Nile river and then used oxen and men to bring to the stone to the site, which is all sand. That is where the real appreciation for the pyramids comes from, is seeing the environment

local kids riding donkeys at the pyramids

and the difficulties that had to be overcome to build them, and then to see how long they have endured the punishing wind and sand. We unfortunately arrived rather late in the afternoon (after all the detour stops to buy, buy, buy!), so we didn’t get as much time as we would have liked, especially at the Sphinx. It was super crowded in front of the Sphinx, and its actually pretty deteriorated (the “restoration” that was attempted was pretty laughable, because the misaligned bricks just made it look worse and looked nothing like the original craftsmanship!). Nonetheless, we now have been to the world famous pyramids and sphinx, so that is exciting.

After the pyramid tour, we went on a Nile river cruise, which was supposed to have “world class food and atmosphere” as well as belly dancing, singing and entertainment. Stupidly, Tracey thought it would be a boat full of westerners (everything else had been), but not this time. We were ushered into a room full of very conservatively dressed Muslims. So Tracey was extremely glad to have brought a full jacket and scarf to cover up the short sleeve shirt and open neckline and end the stares

...of course they demand payment after the picture

...and here is Jason paying up!

coming from the women dressed from head to toe, head scarves to boot! Then the belly dancer came out…she immediately honed in on us, first picking Jason out of the crowd (it didn’t help that we were right in front of the stage, right next to the crappy speaker that was up way to loud). He didn’t know if it was more offensive to dance with a muslim woman who wasn't his wife or just stand there until the belly dancer got bored…so he picked the safe option and just stood there as she twirled under his arm. :0) Then it was Tracey’s turn, the one and only female she picked on the entire night (I wonder why), so Tracey politely moved around a little bit and was keenly aware of the eyes staring out at her from the rest of the guests. After the belly dancer finished a man in a bright yellow costume with a big, full skirt came out. He was fabulous! The skirt was a trick skirt, and he could remove layers at a time, making disks and parachute looking formations. The length of time that man could spin and not get dizzy or vomit deserves

Jason captures the Pyramid

a medal! We have never seen anything quite like it. Finally, it was time for the dinner buffet, which turned out to be the biggest source of entertainment all night. We were accompanied (it felt more like chaperoned) by one of the hostel staff, and he was really concerned about getting in line right away for the buffet. We thought he was just really hungry. Nope…he just knew that if you didn’t head up the soon-to-be stampede for the food line, you would go hungry! People literally swarmed the buffet table, pushing, elbowing and yelling their way to both ends of the “line,” reaching over heads for plates, thrusting plates through peoples shoulders in front of servers, and heaping an ungodly amount of food onto one plate, because it was obvious there would not be an opportunity for seconds. Whatever you managed to get the first time would be all you got the entire night! It was like feeding time at the zoo, and only the fastest and strongest wouldn’t go hungry!

The next day we went to the Egyptian Museum. The museum has scores of amazing artifacts…numerous sarcophagi, cannopic jars, papyrus scrolls, mummies, statues and much more. However,

The Valley Temple and the Great Pyramid

it was very disorganized and there wasn’t much information about the exhibits (even less in English), which is sad because it just shows that the money made from admissions tickets does not go back to the maintenance and improvement of the museum. The most amazing thing to see are the two mummies rooms. They have mummies over the course of several centuries, so you can see how the mummification process improved over time. You can’t take cameras into the mummies rooms, so sorry folks, no photos, but it was impressive to see people who had been dead for a couple thousand years still have hair, finger nails and skin. Some of them were so well preserved you really could see the likeness of the face. It was fascinating to see them, but you also feel rude and invasive. The mummies were people after all, ripped from their tombs to be put on display and gawked at day in and day out.

What really got us thinking in Egypt was the contrast between the present and the past. We realize we were only in Cairo for 2 and a half days, and were exposed to the common rip offs of

Tracey and Jason in front of one of the Pyramids

the tourist industry, so our viewpoint is quite biased. However, the stark contrast between ancient achievements and modern chaos we witnessed was quite startling. Ancient Egyptians accomplished amazing feats in architecture, art, written language, medical science and mummification. It was a society that accomplished so much. Yet walking around, seeing the reality of their descendents, you have to wonder what happened to all that knowledge, all that ingenuity. Brand new apartment buildings are put together so haphazardly, they look dangerously shaky and hardly up to modern living standards; trash and rubble is thrown onto rooftops; traffic lights and signs are practically non-existent as cars just thrust their way forward, safety be damned; people push and elbow their way through everything, whether on foot or in a car, and there isn’t orderliness and courtesy, just an every-man-for-himself mentality. How does a society that was the pinnacle of success, a place that inherited such a rich history of knowledge, descend into such a chaotic, unruly place that looks like it just barely gets by? It probably sounds harsh, but it is what we experienced. Truthfully, experiences like these where we do get to see and experience places completely different from our homeland

The Pyramids at Giza

are the best parts of our trip, even if it is stressful at times. We have certainly gained perspective about our own culture and country, and in spite of the problems in the U.S., we’ve also found a newfound sense of appreciation for being American.

We uploaded some videos to YouTube. They are very short because we running out of memory. Just cut and paste the link into your browser:

Riding a Camel to the Pyramids: