Our stay in Egypt – Pyramids and the Sphinx

To say the least, the last two days have been amazing…and full. It is Saturday afternoon here in Alexandria as I type, and we just got back from the tour today. I will give some highlights of yesterday first.

We left the port at about 0830 in a big fancy bus and headed for Cairo, a 2-3 hours ride. Our first stop there brought us to the base of the Great Pyramid. I do not think I can do it justice in words at this point.

The entire environment around the Great Pyramid and a lesser one was chaos. Buses, tourists, men on camels wanting us to take a ride. We were warned beforehand that it would be cheap to get ON a camel – “only one dollar” – but we would not be able to get OFF until the price was right. We chose not to ride a camel here. In addition there were children, men and women aggressively hawking things from necklaces, bags and carvings to postcards and scarves. I will admit that the atmosphere took away a bit from the experience, but I also wonder if a bazaar in the part of the world is often like this any time. From there we boarded the bus and drove up the road a bit to a place with a better vantage point. It also was a place where tour operators had already negotiated with camel owners to give rides for a set fee. Jan decided to take advantage of that. I chose to take the pics.

 

From here we could see the three main pyramids clearly, as well as quite a few unfinished ones and a number of smaller ones in the distance. All of this was with Cairo in the background.

We boarded the bus again for a short ride down the hill a ways to the Sphinx. Again, the “bazaar” atmosphere was in full force. We had to be assertive at a new level in order to move around the area. It was hard to take in that we were in the presence of structures that had been about 4500 years ago. As we drove around Cairo after seeing the pyramids, their presence could be both seen and felt from quite a distance.

More later....