Cairo/Giza Pyramids

Hatsheput as a Sphinx The woman who became a man to be Pharoh

Day two of our Egypt land trip started before dawn as in 4:30 wake up call and 5:15 on the bus. Our day would start in Luxor, then time in Cairo/Giza, fly to Hurgado and then a bus back to the ship around 8pm - a long day!   The bus took us to the Luxor airport which was dead at that time of the morning where we went through security and then a bus to go out to our charter plane for Cairo.  There are 40 of us doing this land tour - 2 groups of 40 so we got our own plane.  The plane is from Petroleum Air Service and is a turbo prop.  We get to Cairo airport and while we walked through a quiet area when you get out of that it is a busy airport to say the least.  We hop on our buses, and we go to breakfast at the Cairo Ritz Carlton.  The food was fine, but not nearly as nice as the one in Singapore.  Now that we are fed it is time to walk to the Egyptian Museum (old one).  The new larger museum has not yet opened.

Top right shows demarcation of Sahara and Cairo
Bottom Left is a large Church in Cairo
Bottom Right is the Egyptian Museum

Egyptian Museum

The museum is very pretty /colonial from the outside - oh it is large.  We go in and Mustafa walks us around some describing key points telling us areas we should explore on our own and making sure we all go in the King Tut room.  In the King Tut room, you see the gold hammered head covering and his 2 very ornate tombs think Russian dolls these tombs often had tombs within tombs. 

We also saw a husband and wife that had been mumuified and were still in excellent shape.  We saw more Ramses statutes (living King statute always had the left foot forward and something in their hands) and lots of sarcophagus.  After an hour or so in the museum it was time to head to Giza and the pyramids.

Right Living King
Left Dead

Top right is a feather fan that has survived the centuries

Giza Pyramid Complex (Giza Necropolis) 7 Wonders of the Ancient World

The Giza Pyramid plateau is huge and borders the Safara desert.  We quickly notice that the top of one of the pyramids looks different like it has a coating or something.  Seems that originally the pyramids were built with huge stones and then covered in alabaster and the one still has some of that coating up at its top section.  There are different sizes of pyramids, and we learn that kings/pharaohs had bigger pyramids than the queens.  We discuss how they got built and Mustafa believes in the ramp and pulley theory.  He also tells us that they have found burial grounds from the workers who built it - took over 100,000 to build these pyramids.  They have also found proof that the workers were not slaves but well-paid Egyptians in that they know there were assurances like education for their kids and other benefits.  The pyramids were meticulously built so that their tips all point to a specific spot and all of them are aligned with the North Star.  

Then it was time for us to wonder around the outside of them.  Unfortunately there were no tours inside, but we could go up to them on the outside and it was even okay to touch them!  The bus took us to a couple different part of the Giza plateau so we could see different views and wander in areas.  Some of our group took camel rides in one area, but Jeff and I declined.  Oh I should point out that as I said this is called a plateau and yes there are hills here and then suddenly sand which we are told is the Sahara which isn't flat either.

Note the Alabaster at the top (King Khafre)

How did they cut and move these massive blocks

Last stop in Cairo is to see the Great Sphinx of Giza and it is big.  And I do mean BIG.  This one was partially buried for years by mud and sand, so the head is now a different color than the feet, but it is quite impressive.   It is the key part of another temple which they did not realize exited until a donkey fell in a hole and digging to get him out they found columns for a building.  Like the pyramids it is made out of stones that were tightly stacked together to give the shape.  Oh sphinx have human heads and body of a lion.

The Great Sphinx appears to be guarding the Pyramids

Then off to the airport to start our trip back to the ship.  Being a tourist in Egypt is a unique experience which someone on the ship had warned us about.  All of our buses had the front seats reserved for a military/police person which was never used but we always had a police car with its lights flashing behind us.  There are also people called "fixers' that were always with us.  A fixer got us through security and in front of lines so at first, I thought they are just a tour guide person of some sort.  Then on the second day I realized our "fixer" had a handgun on him, so I think he was there to get us quickly and safely through the sites.  At Cairo airport in the afternoon, it was a mob scene in that there were tons of people with large suitcases everywhere since this is the only international airport in the country.  Our fixer stopped the flow of people in one area to the airport terminal and we walked right in and through level one of security then we went to a terminal/gate area that opened just for us.  The two airports in Egypt were the easiest airport experiences I have had in a long time.  Fixers are nice.  It was back on Petroleum Air Services and onto Hurgada.  When we arrived in Hurgada which was a new spot for us, our bus from Luxor was there with the suitcases we had left behind and Mustafa told us a little about the city.  Jeff and I had noticed while flying that there was some very pretty water below us and assumed it was the Red Sea - think pictures of pretty islands with light colored water.  Well turns out that was Hurgada and it is well known for diving and snorkeling so there are several very nice resorts along the beach which brought back a vague memory of hearing of nice beach resorts on the Red Sea.  The pictures of a couple of them in the airport did look quite nice.  After our hour bus ride, we were back at our ship and going through Egyptian immigration for one last time.