November 6, 2006 Cairo, Egypt

November 6, 2006
Cairo, Egypt

We woke up this morning at 6:00 and were unable to get back to sleep. We puttered around our room until 7:15 and then went to breakfast with our group. At 8:00 we started our journey to the pyramids of Giza. A local guide, Ollah, accompanied us on our journey.

First, we took a super crowded metro for about 15 minutes. I found it very interesting that the cars were separated into male and female compartments. Had we not been accompanied by our guides I am pretty sure that B and I would have gone in the first car (for females) and gotten in some sort of trouble.

The next leg of our journey was totally crazy. We stood on (sometimes in the middle) of the street and waited for a bus to the pyramids. There were hundreds of people and tons of busses. Many of the busses even had a lot of people hanging out the door! Eventually, we managed to squeeze on a bus and get toward the pyramids.

To my surprise the pyramids are located right next to the city! I had always envisioned that they were in the middle of the desert, surrounded by sand. I was amazed when we walked around a building and the pyramids came into view. There is even a golf course in the shadow of one of the pyramids…


Even so, it was an incredible experience. We visited each of the pyramids in order of size. Our guide attempted to explain some of the areas history to us. Unfortunately, I found her voice very annoying and was not able to pay attention for more than a few minutes…

My favorite was the second largest, which still has part of its original limestone top. As it happens, this was also the pyramid we were permitted to enter. The passageway into the pyramid was very, very small (3-4 feet!). Everyone had to hunch over in order to get inside and descend the steep walkway (maybe Dustin or Ben could get by without ducking…hehehe). Inside, the pyramid was very stuffy. Anyone suffering from any type of claustrophobia could not handle the experience. After a 20 minute crawl into the heart of the pyramid we arrived at the tomb. As with all of the pyramids in Egypt, all of the gold and decorations were stolen long ago. As a result, the room was totally bare, except for a small tomb at one end. NOTE: No pictures allowed inside the pyramids.

Once we got back into the sunshine we had another lecture from Ollah. Still unable to pay attention, I spent most of the time taking some photos. When she was done we made our way down to the sphinx. It was another incredible sight!


After exploring the area around the sphinx and taking a ton of photographs we met back up with our group and then walked back into the city. We passed by a KFC and Pizza Hut (each of which have a view of the sphinx and pyramids) and went to a local eatery. Im not quite sure what we ate but it was very good. It consisted of tons of different types of food mixed together.

When everyone was done eating (13:00) we jumped in a couple of vans and went to the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. The museum is home to more Egyptian artifacts than anywhere else in the world. The highlight of the collection was the artifacts from King Tutankhamen’s tomb. The gold mask (11 Kg of gold!) and inner sarcophagus (110 Kg of solid gold) were the most impressive! NOTE: No pictures in the museum…

Once our guided tour had concluded (led by Ollah) B and I spent a few extra minutes in the museum. We visited an exhibit on animal mummification. The Egyptians mummified everything from dogs and baboons to crocodiles and impala. It was crazy to see some of the stuff.

We left the museum shortly after 15:30. The walk home (without a guide) was quite an experience. First, we had to run across a busy street. Picture the hardest possible level in Frogger…We thought we were going to have to repeat the experience a few minutes later but the police officer stopped traffic for us to stop. Apparently, one of the main jobs of the police here is to look after tourists. After getting lost for a short time in an automotive district we found our hotel.

We spent the next couple of hours packing our things and cleaning up.

The plan for the rest of the night is to get some food, use the internet, and catch a night train to southern Egypt. We will be leaving at 23:30 and not arriving until early afternoon tomorrow!

NOTE: I had to walk around in boardshorts and t-shirt today because all of my stuff was being washed. Unexpectedly, Egypt is quite cold right now! The high today was only 69°. Ohh and also, one of the Australians just walked into our room and he is wearing a Kobe Bryant 81 point shirt!!