Trip to Egypt - Day 2 - 24/12/2006

Sleeping was a scarce commodity made more rare by the religious chanting in the early hours of the morning. After a quick buffet breakfast it was time to see Egypt.

And what better way to start than with the the pyramid of Giza. The pyramids were definitely more impressive in real life. The pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) - standing 138m tall - the last remaining seven wonders of the world. Weighing (I think) 6m tonnes the thing took around 20 years to build and in around 2500BC.

It was once a great structure with a smoothed limestone surface but now a jagged surface shows made from the 1.5-2.0 tonne bricks used in its construction.

The pyramids were littered with locals either wanting to sell you something or have you take a picture with them in it. We were warned by our tour guide, Maged, not to indulge them as the picture was going to cost us money (even if they told us it was going to be free).

These people were persistent too, "no" must have been a word that someone forgot to explain to them. Feeling non-plussed by their persistence I turned towards Maria (our Italian connection) for inspiration. After being continually harassed by a local she stormed off telling the local to "forget about it!" just like Donnie Basco in the movie.

I decided then that all bets were off - rudeness was required to get these people to leave us alone. This was not a happy thing to do but it was getting silly.

Near Khufu's pyramid are three other pyramids, used for Khufu's mother and royal wives. We were able to descend into a nearby pyramid (Khafre's pyramid, I think). With many tourists flowing in out of its narrow passages there was a lot of patience required to see the thing.

(The picture beside shows our tour group, excluding our guide Maged who took the photo. From right it is Me, Caitlin, Barrie, Roy, Maria, Bridget and Andy).

The descent into its tomb was down a long plank of wood with rungs jutting out to stop one sliding down like a slippery dip. The experience was more a crouch while you walk given the low passageway. Inside the tomb it was warm and well lit.

At the end of our passage through was a rather high spacious chamber with an empty open tomb in it. Here one could stand back and marvel at this feet of human ingenuity. All this built to honour a king and prepare for his passage into the afterlife.

While I was not feeling claustrophobic it was time to go. Our next destination the Sphinx.

I was glad we got to see the Sphinx so quickly. The largest single stone statue in the world, with a height of 20m. Looking east, gazing upon the rising sun an object which the ancient Egyptians worshipped a great deal. We learnt that the Sphinx might deteriorate to very little in about 100 years if left without care due to pollution and erosion.

There was quick stop at a papyrus store to see how paper was made and to learn a little about the art drawn papyrus paper followed by stop at a kebab store to buy some food before moving on to Saqqara.


Saqqara is the site of the step-pyramid built almost 5,000 years ago and conceived by Imhotep (featured as the bad bald guy in the movie "The Mummy"). The step-pyramid was found well preserved with all its treasures because it was completely covered in sand until 1924.

We learnt that Imhotep was a very clever architect also 2000 years later he was to be honoured as a the god of medicine and healing because of his medical achievements.

Not far from here we saw the inside of Titi's pyramid which displayed hieroglyphics (a feature not present in all pyramids). The hieroglyphs were carved into stone all over the pyramid with the same pattern carefully repeated. The meanings to prepare the the deceased for his journey through the underworld.

Around the site we were shown walls with very fine intricate pictures and hieroglyphs caved into them. The amazing thing about all this is how well it was built considering it was 4,000-5,000 years old. Things like this are easy for me to take for granted if not reminded that all this was built in times long before I came into existence.