Lifetime Dream

When I was a young lad, we lived in Denver not far from the City Park, this park has a lot of memories for me, and my brother, Leonard. A rather large park, it had not only the large expanses of green lawn, but an excellent zoo, several lakes and a great museum; The Denver Museum of Natural History. With close proximity to the Colorado - Utah border where thousands of dinosaur bones had been found, the museum had one of the best collections of dinosaurs, but it also had excellent collections of everything from minerals, insects, eggs and a nice little Egyptian section complete with mummies. We spent many a day in the museum since it was free at that time and from the time of my first visit, I wanted to visit Egypt and the pyramids. Today I fulfilled that dream.

Egypt is a mixture of the very old and the new, on the outskirts of Cairo sit the Giza pyramids, a testament to man's ability to engineer and construct remarkable structures still standing after more than 3500 years. The pyramids are now surrounded by ordinary buildings, apartments, stores, and a cacophony of traffic, everything from large tour buses to donkey carts and pedestrians all sharing the precious land close to the life giving Nile river.

The noise of the traffic is overwhelming, everyone drives with their horn; there is no road rage as thousands of cars merge, weave, change lanes, and pedestrians simply walk into this maze of vehicles. Drivers use their horns to let other cars know they are near, not out of anger or frustration. Somehow the cars manage to get where they are going, the pedestrians cross the busy streets all with minimal signs and traffic signals.

We started our day with breakfast in the hotel which has several nice themed restaurants, everything from Egyptian, Iranian, and a British pub, unfortunately, because of the lack of tourists, only one of the restaurants is open. The terrace cafe serves a breakfast buffet, lunch and dinner, nice selections but nothing really fancy. We met our tour guide and driver then took off for the pyramids which is about a 30 minute drive under 'normal' conditions, the drive took us across the bridge where only two months ago tanks and soldiers were trying to put down a revolution. The people here are very proud of what they have done, they feel like they have taken their country back! We drove through residential areas, bridges, highways and roads with minimal paving. In the midst of the traffic, small donkey carts with fresh watermelons, huge piles of garlic, carrots, oranges are either in the middle of the road going somewhere, or on the side selling the fruits of their labor.

Upon arrival at the pyramids we paid 100 Egyptian pounds (about $16.48) for the opportunity to go inside the Great Pyramid of Cheops. During normal tourist season the lines are long and almost impossible to get into the pyramid, but with the recent revolution, just a few tourists have started to travel to Egypt, so we pretty much had the pyramid to ourselves. The pyramid is entered through a shaft cut cut into the pyramids around 500 AD, which then connects to the original tunnel that ascends to the main burial chamber. The shaft is about one meter square and ascends at a steep angle until it reaches the grand gallery. There are cleats set in a walkway with railing to make it easier, but the climb still requires a bit of effort and climbing in a stooped over position.

We were not allowed to take our cameras into the pyramid, but we did get a few photos with our iPhones that are decent. The weather was excellent, about 68 degrees, I can only imagine what it must be like in the summer heat, climbing up into the confines of the small passageways with many tourists. We were able to go experience this with only a dozen or so other people.

Next we drove around the opposite side of the pyramids to the "government' camel area, these camels and drivers are regulated and considered safer than the camels clustering around the front of the pyramids. We heard tales of people being given a price for the ride only to be taken out in the desert where the price changed. The drivers work in rotation so they all have a fair chance to make money. Our tour guide negotiated a price of 350 Egyptian pounds including tips
($58.70) for a nice trip into the desert behind the pyramids. The driver was very nice, spoke excellent English as opposed to our Arabic speaking ability, we got on the camels and off we went at a rather jaunty pace, one quickly realizes that riding camels across the desert is best left to Bedouins, not American tourists. But the ride was nice we had a great conversation with the driver and got some excellent views of all 9 pyramids on the plateau. The guide took our picture at several locations, and then we wandered back to the main area. He told us they had not worked for two months waiting for the tourists to return, gradually things are improving. We gave the driver a nice tip, we continue to be impressed by the friendliness and good will of the people here.

Our next stop was the solar boat museum, which is on the side of the great pyramid. A pit was discovered some years ago that contained the disassembled pieces of a large boat, the boat was placed near the pyramid so the pharaoh could use it for the journey to the next world. The boat was in excellent condition and was eventually reassembled and placed in a building built over the pit where it was discovered. Apparently there is a second pit that has yet to be opened at some time in the future.

I was able to go down into one of the queens pyramids to see the burial chamber, Barb was reluctant, but I felt adventuresome and descended into the tomb, the local tomb guide took several pictures and asked me to lay in the sarcophagus but I declined and instead climbed up to the top of the crypt in a very precarious position, had I fallen, the sarcophagus was waiting for me. Our final stop was to view the sphinx, according to legend the pharaoh Kephren did not like the large block of stone that hindered the view of his pyramid so he had the workers carve the sphinx. Still impressive with traces of the red paint that covered the sphinx are still visible. All in all a pretty eventful day.

After our return to Cairo we walked down the Nile and then over to Tahrir square where there was a minor demonstration going on. There was some chanting, pushing, shoving, the police waded in with truncheons and then everyone smiled, laughed and went back to the business of demonstrating. We walked by the Egyptian Museum and walked through the traffic back to the hotel. On Sunday we are going to spend the day at the Museum, with over 165,000 artifacts, there is a lot to see including gold, silver, mummies, statues, and a bunch of other really old stuff.

We would recommend travel to Egypt for everyone, the experience is wonderful and perfectly safe, probably much safer than most major cities in the US. On Monday we are back to Athens, then later in the day to Mytillini for a month.

Once in Mytillini we will put together a slide show when we have more time.

Chio!