The Great Pyramids of Giza

We both slept well but could have slept even later had we not set an alarm on my cell phone. After getting so little sleep on Sunday night we were happy to get a full night on Monday.  The seven hour difference in time between Cairo and Eastern US time made it challenge for us to adjust.

When we looked out of the window of our room at the Steigenberger Hotel, we were surprised to have a balcony looking out over the Pyramids of Giza. We didn’t realize how close our hotel is to the pyramids.

We met Mark and Cindy in the dining area of the hotel. There was a good mix of traditional Egyptian and western breakfast items. We enjoyed the cooked cereal grains and fresh fruits for breakfast. We had only a few minutes to come back to the room to get ready for our outing for the day. We were to meet our guide, Eman, before 8 am to hold a preliminary group discussion before we board the bus. We thought we were going to have to have the hotel open the guest room safe for us, but we managed to enter our code and retrieve our cash for the day. When I asked the clerk at the front desk about the safe, I thought she said that “Michael League” would be up to check on it.  It was only later in the week when another hotel employee said that Michael League would be up to get our luggage that I figured out that they were saying “my colleague” would be doing something.

We had a short meeting with the trip leader to learn more about the plans and expectations and to meet the other participants in our group. There were four clusters of people: a group of seven from the Albany, NY area, the four of us, three ladies from Southern California and a couple from Montreal. Everyone seems very nice, although like some other trips we have taken, we are the youngest people on the tour. We ran to an ATM at the hotel to change some US dollars into Egyptian pounds as soon as the meeting was over.

We boarded the bus at 9 am and met our bodyguard for the trip. We took the short ride to the area of the three large pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx of Giza. Eman purchased our passes, and we passed through security to enter the grounds of the pyramids. We heard about the history of the pyramids, the pharaohs and the people who built them. We learned that the builders were not slaves but were well paid and had benefits. We saw evidence of the mud ramps that may have been constructed to allow the large stone blocks to be transported up the pyramids.

We were able to go up to the pyramids and even climb up on them a short distance. The close tolerance of the individual blocks was impressive since each huge stone was individually carved to fit a certain spot in the pyramid. We learned that there were four areas of a pyramid complex: the ramp, embalming area, the funerary area and the burial pyramid. The ancient Egyptians didn’t believe in death but that the body and spirit would be temporarily separated until the spirit returned to the body and restored it. Since Eman was educated in archeology and was a former student of Dr. Zahi Hawass, the well-known Egyptologist and former Egyptian minister of antiquities, she was well versed to educate us on the history of the area.

We walked around several areas of the pyramids and took a lot of photographs. We found a few places where we could stand and have great views of the Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.  There were a lot of vendors trying to persuade us to buy trinkets, books or other items. Others tried to get us to take pictures for a tip of few dollars. Eman advised us to not purchase anything from street vendors but to get mementos from reputable shops that have items that may cost a little more but will be made in Egypt rather than China.

We went to an area near the pyramids and took a ride on camels out to the pyramids. The Dromedary (one hump) camels kneeled for us to mount using a single stirrup. The camels raise their hind legs first followed by the forelegs. It is a very unsteady feeling, especially when the animal is tilted very far forward before the forelimbs have raised. My camel, Casanova, was very well behaved and took my commands well. The camel livery man didn’t have me stay in the string of camels but allowed Casanova and mw to ride around a bit. The camel herders took photos of us on our camels then started us back to the rental area. The four of us really enjoyed the camel ride, although many people in our group were anxious over being on such a large animal. I didn’t get the feeling that anyone else in our group had ever ridden a horse before.

After we returned the camels, we took the bus the short distance to the solar boat museum that housed the 143 foot long boat that was constructed to carry pharaoh Khufu into the afterlife. Actually, this is one of five identical boats for that purpose. Five were built so there would be backup boats in case some were discovered or destroyed. This boat is built entirely of cedar wood imported from Lebanon over 4500 years ago. Many of the cedar planks are gigantic in both length and width. The boat was discovered in 1954 in a stone enclosure that was covered with 22 large stones forming a cap to the container. The boat was remarkably well preserved with all of the wooden pieces intact and reassembled. Even the ropes made of twisted grass fibers that hold the oars in place were in good shape. Only one of the 12 huge oars was damaged. Most wooden and rope components look as though they could be made seaworthy easily. Not bad after being buried for over 4500 years. Like most places we visited in Egypt, we had to pass through security including a metal detector and x-rays of our bags.  However, we also had to wear large canvas overshoes to prevent marring the floor of the museum.  We found wearing the oversized shoes to be comical making us look rather duck-like.

We then drove to the Sphinx of Giza. The area around the Sphinx was the quarry where stone was cut for the construction of the pyramids. While the Sphinx appeared small when compared to the Pyramid of Khufu, it is actually 66 feet tall and 240 feet long facing directly west to east. Because the limestone of the Sphinx is not very durable, it has been badly weathered. In addition, there has been damage from vandals and robbers for thousands of years. Like many of the other features of the area, the Great Sphinx was built around 2500 BC.  We walked around and took photos before boarding the bus back to the Steigenberger Hotel.

We had a nice lunch at a private area on a sunny deck at the hotel. We had fresh flatbread with tahini and other spreads, grilled chicken, shish-kebab beef and seasoned ground beef called kofta. For dessert we had a large cup of diced local fresh fruits topped with ice cream.

We feared that we would just fall asleep if we went back to the room, so we went out for a walk near the hotel. The main highway was very noisy with motorists constantly blowing horns. There were all sorts of cars, trucks, donkey carts and all other means of conveyance that made the walk deafening. Because of the noise we cut our walk short and came back to the room where Mary and Cindy played cribbage until time for our evening speaker.

The speaker was in the meeting room space next to our hotel. He a geology professor at American University at Cairo who is an authority on the Nile River. His shared his knowledge on the history of the river and the importance of the river to the economy, history and culture of Egypt. He also discussed the changes that came as a result of the Aswan High Dam and other methods to control flooding of the Nile. He was a very interesting speaker, but we were so tired that we didn’t get to be as attentive to his talk as we otherwise should have been.

We got to dinner a little before 7:30 and had a good assortment of Egyptian meal items and good tea before heading into bed.