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Published: April 9th 2010
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An Obelisk
Ancient chariots line the entrance, & ruin tourist photos. The Pyramids.
We grabbed a cab & ask to go the Pyramids, ... of Giza. Thought I’d better make it clear as there are 90+ Pyramids in Egypt. Off we go. I knew the price from the guide book (20 EG pounds ~ $4) He takes us to the Hotel Pyramisia, about 10 mins away. We tell him again. The pyramids of Giza, he stops & asks directions from a pedestrian who can translate. Off we go......again. The gates we arrive at are not the main entrance, but for the tour buses. There are few signs in Egypt & even less in English. I get in a Que for the tickets, take the tickets to the gate & I find I have bought tickets to enter the second Pyramid! There were no signs to tell you what to buy or which que to buy them from, or cost etc. So back to the ques - for the entrance I pray, and we’re in! Accosted by camel drivers & youths giving us gifts of tiny turquoise scarab beetles & a white head-scarf, “for free”....... now give me backsheesh! I give back the scarf, & he insists on the return of the scarab,
The Hanging Church
It's now braced & held together with cables as the excavation around it & Roman water Gate are underneath. but I refuse & when he realizes he’s not getting it back, drifts off to continue pestering elsewhere. We wander around the Pyramids (I’m not giving an archeology lecture here - if you want that, watch a National Geographic video) But I will say they are huge, and the second pyramid’s remaining granite coating at the top gives a hint of the grandeur that once was. The Sphinx is smaller than I imagined..We venture into the second pyramid, at the top of the 45 degree shaft the heat & humidity of tourists is stifling. It’s not that far, down 50m, across10m & up 20m, it’s hard work at a squat with two way traffic. The burial chamber has a stone sarcophagus, they don’t let you take photos down there, but there’s not much to see anyway. It’s not worth the money. We get coffee at a café over looking the Sphinx outside the gates, & take it all in. Great view, all over in 90 mins! (Honestly - watch the Nat Geo Video)
The Agricultural Museum.
Another cab ride, the driver knows where it is, he turns on the digital fare meter & a little blue digital horse starts galloping
Inside the Dome
Interior of the Hanging Church. Coptic Cairo. to show we are moving. We head South - good. Then do a U turn - not good. The blue horse slows to a trot, then stops. He rings a friend & hands the phone to me & I talk to someone & give the specifics, hand the phone back & we’re galloping away again. We end up on the right street - Good, get dropped off at .........The SHOOTING CLUB! What the......... We find the Museum & follow about 60 - 8 YO school kids in. It costs less than 5 cents to get in, but we find we have to pay 5EGP (~$1) to each curator to get into the side rooms which hold the best exhibits. There is a sad collection of stuffed animals, birds, deer in life like settings. Wax examples of many types of fruit, grains & grain mills. All in dusty glass cabinets, and dust all over the exhibits, it would have been something special about 25 yrs ago. There are types of everything fish, sheep, goats, chickens. Snakes preserved in Jars. I found a framed B&W photo set of “Types of Fisherman” ; Just different guys in Turbans.
The 60 kids sound like
Cafe
Local smoking a "Sheesha' 600 in the huge halls, stone walls & marble floors . Another curator is greased 5EGP & we enter a life size plaster village set in Pharonic times. With sheep & goats, people sewing textiles & thrashing grain. A street seller weighing what looks like Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) to a woman & child. But I found it funny; the plaster caster found the need to have the vendor smoking a cigarette! Did they have Marlboroughs in Pharaonic Egypt? The walnut faced curator, in his turban, scarf & long robe is ever-present. I’m looking at the exhibits, at the curator, back at the exhibits, at the curator. Why exactly do these kids need this recreated village? They can walk into any back street of Cairo.
Coptic Cairo
We are pleased to find this area is a clean & well kept area of “Old Cairo”The Churches & Synagogue area is built upon thousands of years of occupation. (Excavations show the multitude of layers.) These are still used by the congregations, great frescos & domes are open to the public. You can wander around the narrow streets to the monastery, convent, churches & the Synagogue. The Museum with manuscripts, textiles, stone & wood
Marlborough Man
Things haven't changed in 4000 years aparently. (well maybe the Brand) carvings. Very well organized & laid out exhibits - the best we’ve seen so far. The area is walled off & has a cemetery, kept immaculately in comparison to outside the gates. The hanging Church (named because it is suspended on top of the water gate of Roman Babylon) is very impressive. Inside it’s Dome, a painting of Jesus lit by shards of light, the wooden roofed Aisles & tiled floor have a distinctly Islamic feel about it.
The Metro is an easier option to return to Cairo & cheap at 3EGP (~60 cents)
All for now - hope it's interesting!
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