I am sitting here, fruitlessly attempting to describe a day viewing an indescribable thing. I don't even know how to start. I've seen some really crazy cool stuff and I've even blogged about it, so I am tempted to go back to those posts and see how I started them. Probably with a few bad puns. And there are really no good puns for this stuff either. We had a really great tour guide, Ibrahim. He holds two masters degrees, one of which is in Egyptology. He knew everything and I think he told us most of it. We could not have enjoyed this nearly as much without him. He pointed out worn hieroglyphs everyone else was walking right on by. He knew all the best photo spots and souvenir sellers. He even found us a good piece of quiet shade when the heat of the two suns of Tatooine overwhelmed us. Even on the drive from Heliopolis (northeast Cairo) to Giza (southwest Cairo) he was giving us a full story on every interesting building and area we passed. He was talking a mile a minute and I was taking random road video when he interrupted himself to say, "Okay, look to the left and there they are." I looked and I gasped audibly. Ibrahim has been guiding tours for over 20 years (this was his 7065th trip to the Pyramids) and he said he is floored every time. So I didn't feel weird about gaping like an inebriated baboon. Since we seem to have picked the hottest day imaginable to visit the Great Pyramid Complex, it was nice to take a look inside. It was shady in there. It felt great ducking through the dark passageways in the cool air. Then we got to a traffic jam of tourists and the main chamber where the Pharaoh Khufu was laid to rest. It was stuffy. It's also totally empty except for the stone vault where his sarcophagus would have been, so we didn't stay long. We also toured the Sun Boat museum, which is a small building housing the reconstructed boat that was built to transport the Pharaoh to the afterlife. It's pretty impressive, but I think I enjoyed just listening to Ibrahim go all history geek and tell us (several times), "...and when you see this part you will just go bananas!" Ibrahim and our driver, Achmed, took us up to the best photo spot and we spent quite a while with him lining us up for random goofy shots. He also likes to take a lot of group selfies or just pick out random Asian tourists and ask them to help. Then there was the Sphinx. It's smaller than I expected. That's all I have to say about that part. We had planned to ride camels, but it was just so hot we all decided to wait until we go to Luxor in November when maybe it will be only 90 degrees or so. But I enjoyed looking at all the various beasts. Most are bedecked in tassels and lively patterned draperies. They all have a sort of peaceful look on their faces. Not one spit, but I heard a lot of grunting that I thought was flatulence. I did a lot of backing up, just to be safe. Ibrahim found us a place to grab a quick lunch and we had some seriously amazing falafels. And very large bottles of water. Then we were off to Coptic Cairo. We had planned to spend a larger chunk of the day here, but we had spent so much time at the Pyramids that we had to cut it short. We saw the Hanging Church and a smaller church that is said to be built over a place where Joseph, Mary, and Jesus stayed when they fled to Egypt. Whether or not that can be proven, the church was beautiful, with some of the most amazing intricate inlay work and carvings I have ever seen. Getting out to explore and do something touristy was a treat we were all needing. See more on our photo gallery (here).
2 Comments
karen
9/12/2016 02:55:30 pm
IN.CRE.DI.BLE!
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Tammy Labuda
10/10/2016 09:51:24 pm
Sounds like you are having the time of a life time. If I ever travel to see the pyramids. You must put me in contact with your tour guide!
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