cc99chick

One of the things that strikes me is how run-down most of the areas of Cairo look - there is trash everywhere, as well as dung. Cars share the road with buggies pulled by horses or mules. Camels are all over. Outside the city, there are areas where there are lush palm trees all over, and fields of farming - very pretty. We headed into the pyramid of Titi, which from the outside doesn't look like a pyramid, but instead a huge mound of sand and stone. This is one of the first pyramids to be inscribed inside. Inside we first went down about 20 meters and the first chamber is beautiful - light colored walls with two entire sides of the wall covered in hieroglyphics - simply beautiful. The second room has a ceiling full ... read more

Pictures were not allowed inside the Cairo Egyptian Museum, so none were taken while inside. So the pictures connected with this piece are from other parts of the trip, that I may not have covered indepth enough during my journaling to warrant a single entry. There are sites as well as books that have great pictures and descriptions of what is all in the museum. The official site for the museum is http://www.egyptianmuseum.gov.eg/news.asp. On a random side note, one of the interesting things about driving in Cairo is that the lane markers don't mean anything - as many cars that can fit - do. Hence, people constantly honk to let other cars know that they are there or being cut off. Outside the Cairo Egyptian Museum, there are a ton of statues and sculptures - all ... read more

The plane ride from NY, NY to Cairo, Egypt ended up taking less than 11 hours, so our arrival into Cairo's airport was around 5:15 am EST and 1215 in Egypt. Some people were able to sleep on the plane ride over - I was not one of them. The better part of almost two hours was spent unloading the plane, getting luggage, and getting the group to the bus in order for us to be transported across town to our hotel. After getting loaded onto the bus, we met our tour guide Mahmoud, who would be with us during our entire journey through Egypt (or as he corrected us Misr). During our bus ride to the hotel, the Le Meridien Pyramids in Cairo, we were given some basic information about Egypt from Mahmoud. For starters, ... read more