. Blog Update Egypt

We were up at 5am to catch a 8 am flight out of Athens to Egypt. Even on this short flight we were served free breakfast unlike our cheap air carriers at home. Our hotel sent a car to pick us up at the airport and the driver “Mohammad” was waiting for us with a sign. He welcomed us to Egypt and was very nice and answered our questions in English. The first thing that hit us was the number of minarets (the tower that is used to call the faithful to prayer at a mosque). He said that Egypt is called the land of a thousand minarets! As we drove through the City we were amazed how big it was, Mohamed said that the population was 19 Million! We drove by huge mosques that were hundreds years old, a fortress with forty foot walls, right in the middle of the city! We had read a weather report that said it was going to be 100 degrees, fortunately they were having a sand storm so the sky was overcast and kept the temps down to mid eighties while we were there. As we got closer to our hotel the Great Pyramid came into view and we were in awe. It’s just not possible to explain the feeling the first time you see the four thousand year old Great Pyramid. After seeing it in pictures and hearing about it all my life I expected to be a little underwhelmed, but that was not the case, I was just amazed to be seeing it up close and personal. We got to our hotel and the staff were falling all over themselves to make us feel welcome and answer questions we had. We got up to our room and had to take a look from our balcony, the website said it over looked the pyramids. They were not kidding, we were looking directly at the Spinx with the three pyramids in the background, see the pictures. We took a nap and then got up in the late afternoon. Out in front of our hotel is a little hard to describe. On the other side of the street was the fence and on the other side of it are the pyramid grounds. But on our street you expected it to be lined with five star hotels, but we had horses, dogs, goats, cars, motorcycles, people in typical Muslim dress, some men in full length robes, horse poop in the street, street vendors trying to sell you something or “help you”, it was a little overwhelming. There were horse and buggies running all around so we took one and told them we just wanted him to drive us around for an hour. The driver had his 9 year son along with him so I sang the “raw hide” song which he could not really understand but he did understand the “Head ‘em up, move em out, head ‘em up, RAW HIDE!”. He took us into some very poor neighborhoods and along places where camels, horses and donkeys are kept, not the sweetest smelling places. We do like to get off the tourist path and see what places we visit are really like. Tourism took a huge hit as a result of the Arab spring uprising and we were seeing the results of it. What money is being generated though tourism is definitely not trickling down to these people. It’s always fun for us to interact with the kids in places we visit, kids are the same all around the world. Later that night we had dinner on our hotel roof top restaurant over looking the pyramids. Every night there is a light and sound show. The pyramids light up in sync with the story and music being played. The sound is projected from the Spinx, so it looks like he is telling the story of ancient Egypt. The next day we headed out on our tour. We usually don’t do tours because we hate being herded like cows and prefer to do our own exploring. But we felt that for safety reasons we would use tours for our two days in Egypt. Our hotel set us up with a personal guide, Abdul, who was at the hotel bright and early at 7am. He was a little (an hour) early. We felt bad making him wait while we scarfed down our breakfast. So we were at the great pyramid before the crowds got there, which was his plan. After paying him for the tours he took care of all our tickets and fees. It was definitely the way to go, we felt like VIP’s. We headed right up into the Great Pyramid first thing. Going into a four thousand year old pyramid is again hard to describe, kinda like waking into to a very old church. We headed along a level hallway for about a hundred feet before starting up a three by three shaft that went up at a forty five degree angle. You had to hunch down as you ascend up the shaft for another hundred and fifty feet and then it opened up to a shaft that was fifteen feet wide and a roof that was twenty feet high with walls that slope inward as they reach the ceiling. This next part continued up again at a forty five degree angle for another two hundred feet and then level out onto a landing. A little man in a robe and turban led us through another short tunnel into the “Kings Tomb”. The tomb had smooth granite walls that reach up twenty feet and was about twenty by thirty feet square. At the end of the room was a solid stone vault that a sarcophagus would fit in. Alas the vault was empty, no gold or bones. The little guy asked for a tip and then herded us out ready for his next prey. Our driver took us to all the pyramids telling the history of all of them. Then he took us out for a camel ride. We had lunch in a nice restaurant and then headed back to go see the very first Pyramid built, the stepped pyramid. Followed by the bent pyramid. We visited an ancient boat that had been buried in a stone vault next to the great pyramid. It had discovered accidentally when some digging was being done around the pyramid. The wood had been preserved by the dry desert conditions for four thousand years. It was a hundred feet long and the boards that it was made of were tied together with rope rather than nails, as steel had not been invented yet. It had the typical up swept ends in highly stylized artistry. The oars were thirty feet long. Later we toured another sight that housed a statue of Ramses II. The statue had been found in a swampy area face down. The mud had preserved the front of the stature while the back showed the erosion of time. It took a very large crane to lift the statue out of the mud as it was thirty feet tall and weighed tons. It had been placed on it’s back and then had a building built around it which is today a museum. Amazing to think the Egyptians did not have big modern cranes and moved stuff like this all the time. We ended our day and made arrangements to get picked up the next day to go and see the Cairo Museum. That night we sat at the roof top restaurant of “Pizza Hut”, which was next door to our hotel and watched the light show again. The next day our guide was once again way early, but hey at least he is punctual! He first took us to the “hanging church” not as bad as it seems. It is a Coptic Christian Church, read Egyptian Christian Church. This in a country that is 90 percent Muslim so is a bit unusual in itself. The Hanging Church is named because of it’s location on top of an old Roman fortress in old Cairo. It’s central portion of the chapel is suspended over a passage such that it appears to float above the surrounding old city. It’s main theme is the arrival of Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus, fleeing from king Harrods order to kill all male babies, as he was told from a seer that the king of the Jews had just been born. Next we visited the famed Cairo Museum. Among the multitude of items housed there is the famous King Tut tomb treasure. Tut ‘Tutankhamen” became Pharaoh of Egypt at the ripe old age of 9 and died mysteriously at 19. His sarcophagus is amazing. First his mummified body was placed in a wooded sarcophagus that closely resembled his facial features, this wooded sarcophagus was the put in a golden sarcophagus that again closely resembled his features, then it was put in a solid rock vault (coffin), this then put in a large wooded box painted in gold leaf, then this put into a larger wooded box and painted gold and then finally this put into a giant wooden golden box of ten feet tall! Going to the Cairo Museum is a “you have to be there to understand” places. We next visited the largest mosque in Egypt which is situated in an old fortress with forty foot walls all around it. A massive structure and again a “you gotta be there to understand so see the photo gallery, but even then”. We ended our long day with another great lunch at our guides favorite restaurant (we think he got a piece of the action so to speak). We took silly pictures wearing Egyptian garb. The next day we were greeted by all the hotel staff so they could say goodbye (at 6am). We would highly recommend the people see the pyramids as it was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Stay tuned for Chrysalis Adventures.