Last night my tour met at 6pm. My roommate’s name is Kristine. She’s from New Zealand and is travelling with her two sons. Overall, we are three kiwis, four aussies, one Swede, two Americans and five Canadians. Everyone seems really nice. Our guide, Mudi, seems great too. A couple from Melbourne are on the tour and when I asked which suburb they live in, it turns out they’re 1km down the road from Rob and I in the same suburb. Small world!!
We set off about 8am today and headed for the Giza Pyramids. Contrary to popular belief, Giza isn’t actually a part of Cairo. Giza is a separate governate and the pyramids are 9km out of the city.
On the way through we passed the site of the Grand Egyptian Museum. I can’t see how it will be finished next year as they’ve recently promised, but whenever it is finished it will be wonderful.
Our first stop was the Great Pyramid, Khufu’s pyramid. It took 20 years to build and was originally 152m high. Due to earthquakes, wind etc it is now 146m high. Its original limestone casings have come off, but we can see the huge blocks on display that were underneath. I got a picture next to one to show the scale. They come up to my eyes - huge!!
Most of us then paid the extra $30 to go inside the Great Pyramid. By Egyptian standards that’s very expensive, but I decided I am only here once so I may as well. This was different to the two pyramids at Saqqara that I went inside. For one, instead of going downwards, I ascended some very narrow pathways. This is because the chamber inside the Great Pyramid isn’t underground, but towards the middle of the pyramid. The other main difference is that there were not any hieroglyphics, treasures etc found inside this one. Mudi said it is hypothesised that this is because when Khufu was pharaoh he banned regularly people from being mummified like he would be. The people found this very upsetting, because the ancient Egyptians believed that mummification meant your spirit would go and live in the stars, before coming back to earth for the afterlife inside your pyramid. Mudi said that perhaps this meant people didn’t want to decorate Khufu’s pyramid inside. Who knows! But the hatred towards him does explain why the other day at the Egyptian Museum there was only one tiny Khufu statue ever found of him.
On the way up I found climbing very easy because I’m so small. But when we reached the chamber it was very hot inside, and on the way back down the long narrow path it became more crowded, making it quite difficult to descend. It was hilarious having Peter from Australia in front of me who is extremely tall. He struggled!! It was so cool being inside the pyramid, especially considering it was built in about 2550BC so it’s 4500+ years old. Just amazing!
Then we drove to a viewing area which took us past the second pyramid - Khafre’s pyramid. Khafre was Khufu’s son. His pyramid is 136m tall, and still has some of the limestone casing up the top. In my photos it looks bigger, but this is only because it was closer to where we were standing.
The third main pyramid here (there are many more as well) is the Pyramid of Menkaure which is 112m tall. It was built out of granite transported from Aswan, where we will be tomorrow. Aswan is famous for stone and comes from the word ‘sawan’ meaning tough stone.
I waited here and took in the view while some of the group went for a camel ride. I’ve been before and didn’t need to do it again so I was happy taking it all in and having a “wow, I’m at the pyramids!” moment. It was pretty funny seeing Chinese tourists screaming lots when the camels went up or down!
We then drove closer to Khafre and Khufu’s pyramids again and explored the surroundings. We saw the pits where solar boats were found and dig out (I saw one at the museum the other day). The sun was very important to the ancient Egyptians. No pyramids are found on the eastern side of the Nile, they are only found on the west. This is because the sun sets for the afterlife in the west. These boats were buried next to the pyramids to carry the pharoah across the river with Ra the sun god to the heavens. They may have also been used to transport the body to its place of burial.
Peter and I looked around some smaller pyramids nearby. There were three of them, and apparently these were for the main wife and children of the pharoah.
Our final stop at the Giza Pyramids complex was the Sphinx. Wow. This was special to me for a couple of reasons - 1) it’s so old (over 4000 years) and is somewhere I’ve always wanted to come and 2) the Anzac troops stopped and got a photo here on their way to Gallipoli. It’s so strange and special to think that Nan and Pa’s uncles stopped here before they continued to Turkey.
Khafre had the Sphinx built because when he found out that his father’s pyramid had been damaged/not decorated he announced that surely this must be due to wild animals eating mummies. So he decided to build a Sphinx out the front as a sort of protection. The Sphinx is part lion (to represent power) and part human (to represent intelligence). When it was found, it had been covered with sand. A temple was also found nearby and we walked through this before getting to the Sphinx.
In terms of size, the Sphinx was actually about as big as I expected. I think this is because most people say they find it small, so I already had that in mind. It was gorgeous. You could still see some remnants of the once beautiful colours on its face and head. I could of course also see the Pizza Hut in the distance (there is a famous funny photo online of the sphinx and pyramids as seen through the window of Pizza Hut).
On the way out, the Sky was beautiful. The clouds looked like they had been sucked towards us. I really enjoyed the Giza complex and this was a pretty way to finish.
We had a yummy lunch at a local restaurant featuring lots of different appetisers and mains. We paid a set price and lots of food was brought to us. I found it interesting watching the lady making our pita bread fresh.
Then it was back to the Egyptian Museum for the second time. Mudi gave us a one hour tour with him and then 1.5 hours of free time. Because I had already spent 4-5 hours with Ildi the other day, I felt very chilled out. This was lucky because fatigue hit me like a truck in here. I ended up sitting down every now and then to have a rest. Still yet to find a rude Egyptian - while sitting, many people asked me where I was from and struck up basic conversation. There were heaps more people around that on Tuesday. I’m really glad we went first thing in the morning on that day.
I of course went back to the King Tut room and took that all in again. It struck me while I was in there that even in King Tut’s time, the Giza Pyramids were already around 1200 years old. They were already ancient then - how weird is that to think about!!
I must have looked particularly good/friendly today, because a lady and her husband asked me for a photo. Then, as I was leaving, the security guard scanning my bag said “where are you from?” and I replied “Australia”. He said “welcome to Egypt - will you marry me?” and laughed. I replied “sorry, I’m already taken! Have a nice day!” We all laughed and I walked off. He was joking....I think! Haha.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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