Advertisement
Published: February 19th 2008
Edit Blog Post
The Great Pyramid of Cheops
Also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, this was the tallest building in the world until the 19th Century! Escaping sub-Saharan Africa without getting caught up in Kenya's political strife, we arrived in Cairo after a brief stay in the very modern and luxurious city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (everything there looks brand new as the city is constantly under construction).
My first impression of Cairo was of a noisy, dirty, busy city full of smog, traffic and cars from the late sixties and early seventies - basically an Arabic version of Delhi or Mumbai. As we arrived late in the evening, we secured a taxi and headed straight for our hotel and bed - even this took some effort as our driver told us he knew where our hotel was and then proceeded to ask everyone he saw how to get there - we soon learned that this is "best practice" for taxi drivers in Egypt.
The next day we took it "easy" to give Janice some time to recover from her flu; tried to find somewhere (without success) to get tested for malaria (as we found out that 15 people of the twenty we'd left back in Arusha had been tested positive) and in the afternoon headed out to Giza for a first
look at the Pyramids and Sphinx.
I have wanted to see the pyramids my entire life so I was very excited on the way out to Giza and quite annoyed when some young local guy jumped in our cab close to the entrance to the Pyramids and tried to offer us his "guiding" services - after yelling at our driver to take us where we wanted to go, we got rid of our "guide" and made our way into the pyramid complex. Little did we know that it was almost closing - it was about 3.30pm - so it was fairly quiet as we made our way around - unfortunately I didn't experience anything like the sense of wonder that I was expecting - Machu Picchu was much more impressive at first sight. Anyway, we walked around for about an hour and after we realized that we were being yelled at by the tourist police for being there after closing (which made it easy to get photos without other tourists in them) we headed down to the Sphinx to see the famous Sound and Light show.
While very touristy, I really enjoyed the show as it told a
The Great Pyramid
Once this was completely covered in smooth limestone; now just rough hewn blocks of stone. good story about the pyramids and some of the effects were quite well done. The next day it absolutely poured down and we wandered around downtown Cairo for a while before returning to the warmth of our hotel.
The next day with the weather a bit nicer, we headed out for a visit to Islamic Cairo - first stop was the famous bazaar of Khan al-Kalili built in 1382. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that Sunday is still considered part of the weekend (even though the holy day for Muslims is Friday) and much of the market was closed. Nevertheless, it was fun to wander through the tiny alleyways and get out of the main tourist trap and observe the shopkeepers go about their day-to-day lives - there was a lot of mopping up going on as the rain the previous day was unusual for Cairo. After a brief stop at Fishawi's, a 200 year old coffee shop, we headed off to wander the streets of Fatimid Cairo, full of Mosques, Palaces and Ottoman era houses. Later in the afternoon we visited the Citadel, founded by the famous Muslim leader and nemesis of Richard the Lionheart, Salah ad-Din (Saladin). This
was quite an impressive complex and offered some fabulous views over the city, which for a change was only partly covered by smog.
Then it was time to head back to the hotel and meet up with the group with whom we would spend the next couple of weeks traveling around Egypt. Our tour guide Dave was a Kiwi (but still seemed like a good guy) and there were also a few Australians, English and Canadians in the group - the usual countries were all represented.
Our first "official" excursion on the tour was a guided visit to the Pyramids and Sphinx with an Egyptologist - this time the "WOW" factor I had missed the first time was there in spades. The only surviving member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - the Pyramids and Sphinx of Giza are truly amazing. Built over a period of just one hundred years almost 5,000 years ago they are a testament to the engineering, artistic and project management skills of a highly advanced civilization.
Seeing the pyramids with an Egyptologist certainly made a huge difference as she was able to put everything in context and really describe why
these structures were so important to the Pharaohs and to the commoners that built them - who contrary to popular belief were not slaves, but highly skilled builders and artisans.
In addition to walking around the pyramids, we also entered the Pyramid of Khafre - descending through a narrow tunnel into the heart of this massive structure was an interesting experience - while it was quite cold outside, once we were in the burial chamber it was hot and stuffy. Empty, except for a massive stone sarcophagus, the burial chamber was huge - at least 25 feet high and probably 15ft x 30ft in area. Unfortunatley all the great treasures which would once have adorned the walls and floors were gone....
With our visit over, we reboarded the bus and headed off for our next stop - the city built by Alexander the Great as his capital when he conquered Egypt in 332 BC - Alexandria!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.181s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 23; qc: 93; dbt: 0.1329s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Craig Goldsmith
non-member comment
Fantastic stuff! :)
You found Fishawi's Coffee Shop, Dave was looking for it but we couldn't find it!