Day #235 - Cairo, Egypt

Great Pyramids of Giza

Camels in the Sahara

Sakkara Pyramid

Hands over the Father and the Son pyramids

Limited leeping ability

My camel with a backdrop of the pyramids

The Sphinx

Belly-dancer on the Nile

Thursday, November 4th

Today was one of my most favorite days of the entire trip. It was extremely unique - I've never experienced anything similar in all my travels.

We met our taxi driver in the hotel lobby at 8am. He didn't speak English - but we had set the agenda with the agent last night. The driver would be with us all day - and would remain parked at each destination until we completed our tour.

First off, the streets of Cairo make downtown Manhatten appear like a small, country village. Wow! The other night, my fears in the taxi were irrational - largely created in my head. Today, I wasn't fearful at all - but I should have been. Our driver could easily have competed on the Nascar circuit. There is no way I can adequately describe what we witnessed on the way to the Pyramids - but I was laughing uncontrollably for about 15 minutes. Have you ever ridden on a really fast roller-coaster? If so, maybe you have experienced the uncontrollable laughing thing. Well - I wasn't in an amusement park - but it was just as fun.

We first made our way to the Sakkara Pyramid. This is known as the "Step Pyramid" - not as famous as the Great Pyramids of Giza, but much older. Really interesting. It is made of 6 steps. It's said to have been the burial place for both kings and queens. This is different than the Pyrmaids of Giza - as they have smaller pyramids for the queens. We had to drive to a nearby area and were allowed to walk into one of the burial chambers. I've seen this on TV specials. Reality is just as spooky. You have to bend over and walk down this narrow passageway that leads several meters underground. Once there, you could go into the different rooms by passing through these small tunnels. I struggled a bit (a couple days post marathon) - but I sucked it up for the team.

We were next brought to a picture shop. We were given some history on the pyramids. The Nile River separates the city of Giza (west) and the city of Cairo (east). It's like a Buda-Pest thing. The pyramids were constructed with stones that were brought to the Giza side of the Nile from Cairo when the river flooded. Cairo represents life, whereas Giza represents death. Greg and I negotiated pricing on a couple pictures made with authenitc paper from the area.

We were next transported to the take-home symbol of Egypt -- the Great Pyramids of Giza. Once there, we were led to this area to discuss our options for tours. After about a 30 minute negotiation, we opted for the long tour on camels. I think we held out pretty well, we paid $36 for our tour - down from the orginal price of $100.

We mounted these camels around 1pm to begin our 2-1/2 hour journey through the Sahara Desert. This may have been the most unique time I've had on my entire trip. These things were tall. Slow - but tall. I have a history with a horse on a midnight ride back in St. Louis several years back that has made me gun-shy of riding any animals. I had a death grip for about the first hour until I relaxed. It tuned out well - "all good".

We made our way up this mountain which provided a spectacular view. The Great Pyramids of Giza consists of 9 total pyramids. 3 large pyramids for the Kings - the father, son, and grandson. There were 3 smaller pyramids beside both the father and grandson. The 6 smaller pyramids were for the queens. Our guide took some unbelievable photos of us in this area - some of the best of the trip (see above).

We then made our way over to the Sphinx - the protector of the pyramids. The Sphinx is the staute with the lion body. Really impressive. Supposedly, the nose was taken by Napolean and brought to a British Museum (not sure why it wasn't brought to a French museum). The Sphinx was smaller than I had imagined. Reminded my of when I first saw the Statue of Liberty (smaller than you would think).

We rode back into town, dismounted the camels, and headed back to Cairo. We met back in the hotel lobby around 6pm. We had a cruise setup on the Nile. Interesting. Cairo is not all that impressive - unless you're on a boat on the Nile River at night. Then -- it's amazing. All the main buildings, and some great hotels, all line the river through the main city centre. We had a dinner and watched some belly-dancers. Very nice.

The night ended out at the hotel pool with a couple beers. Today was one of those 'bucket list' days. Everyone knows about the pyramids, the idea behind it. I can say, without question, that visiting Egypt was 100% worth it based on my experiences today.