Visiting the Pyramids and Sphinx

Thursday 10 May 2012  - Cairo and it’s gems

Day 28 and 131 to go

Our early morning wake up call came with a start at 730am. Having gone to bed so late I was still tired but we had a day of sightseeing so there was not time for laying around. After having a shower and putting on summer clothing (yay) we went to breakfast. The selection was many and varied so we made sure we got a good feed.

We returned to the room to gather our things and then we went to the lobby to wait for Muhammad who arrived just before 9 with our tour guide Asma. We got back on the crazy bus and joined the crowds in the traffic.

We were able to see a lot more this morning. I am not sure if it was such a good thing. Cairo is not a pretty city, too many ugly buildings, rubble everywhere, a swarm of people, 22 million alone in Cairo. Cairo has an unmistakeable middle-eastern feel. It is not pleasant and military tanks with machine gun armed men sitting atop does not provide a sense of calm or security.

We arrived at the Cairo Museum at 10am. We could take photos in the garden outside but no camera’s were allowed inside the museum. DISAPPOINTING! Our guide stayed with us for an hour. She pointed out the important pieces. Statues of the various Kings and Queens, a glass coffin inlaid with gold and jewels used for a king that was not liked. The glass did not preserve his body well.

We saw the Tutunkahmun exhibition this included his face-mask, his gold sarcophagus, jewellery and scarab beetles. It also included the artefacts placed haphazardly in his hastily created tomb, such as the 4 burial chamber boxes covered in hieroglyphs and gold leaf, ceremonial beds, canopic jars and the box they were in, chairs, clothing and foot ware, alabaster jars for essential oils. There were just so many things. So much of it was so intricately carved. It is just incredible that they were able to do this considering the material they were working with and the tools they would have had 7000 years ago.  Some of the statues are very large and yet they are so accurately measured and carved so smoothly. I couldn’t help but be amazed.

We had 45min to wander for ourselves. This was nowhere near the amount of time needed to see every thing they had on display. There were extra areas within the museum that you had to pay extra for but we didn’t bother. Instead we walked through the old, middle and new kingdom sections looking at the statues, bottles, writing and carvings on display.

We finished our wander at 11.30pm and found our guide. We had a drink first. One of the buildings next to the museum was well charred and all windows had been blown out. Apparently it was one that was attacked during the uprising.

We were then back in the van and on our way tot the pyramids. We continued to gawk at the traffic before stopping at a papyrus factory. We witnessed how the paper is made and checked out some of the different paintings they had before purchasing a few pieces.

It was back in the van and a few short minutes later we were in view of the pyramids and pulling up to the ticket office. We were told to ignore the many vendors with their camels, horses and trinkets.

Our guide gave us a rundown about the pyramids before we were free to wander. It wasn’t really free though as you are annoyed by the vendors. We had one camel rider in particular who just wanted us to take his picture, ride his camel, take our picture. We were quite patient but in the end we had to tell him to go away. 

The Great pyramid with 7000 tonne blocks of granite is massive. Getting up close and personal makes you appreciate the mammoth task they had creating this structure. Incredible.

On our way back to the van we saw a snake it followed the edge of the road before finding a hole to crawl into.
We were then taken to a lookout point that offered views of the 3 pyramids for the kings (Father, Son and Grandson), there are also 6 lesser pyramids for the queens.  Again we had to bat off the vendors. I found ignoring them and continuing to walk was the best option.

Back on the bus we were taken to the Sphinx that is in the same area as the Pyramids and was built to guard the Son’s pyramid. The nose is missing as the Ancient Egyptians did not like this king and wanted to erase his memory. They also destroyed all but 1 statue (we saw this at the museum).

We continued swatting the vendors like flies. I am sure if there had been many more they probably would have copped a bop on the nose from Paul.

We took the obligatory pictures before escaping for the final time to the minivan for relief. It was starting to warm up and was quite humid.

We arrived back at the hotel by 3.15pm and returned to our room. We had a drink and processed the day. Paul is not impressed with the people or the general look of the place. I have to admit if it wasn’t for the pyramids and Ancient Egyptian antiquities I wouldn’t be here either.

We went out to the pool for a swim and organised lunch to be brought up. The pool was cool and refreshing, just what was needed. It was nice to be able to lay back on the daybeds and feel like we were somewhere exotic not amongst the concrete jungle.

We ate our lunch before doing a lap of the pool area. From one spot you could see the pyramids. We returned to our room. I slothed on the couch loading photos while Paul watched TV before having a nap. We then packed up our cases ready for our 4am start.

At 8 we went to the Italian restaurant for a pizza. We had to wait ages for anyone to be seen in the restaurant and then to take our order. The pizza however was delicious.

We returned to our room and went to bed knowing we would be up super early tomorrow.

Unfortunately at 10pm we were woken by a room service representative wanting us to sign for our drinks from the restaurant. Impressed we were not. Paul told him to take it to reception for us to sort out tomorrow.

Believing we would be left alone we returned to sleep only to woken by the phone 15min later by reception saying we had a bill that needed to be signed. I had to say we were asleep in bed and they got the message and left us alone. Finally we could sleep. Well me anyway, Paul was still fuming. 

View Larger Map