We'd
always dreamed of one day traveling to see the Great Pyramids of Giza,
but never thought we'd get the chance. We actually decided to come to
Egypt on an invitation from my friend Kim, when we realized we could
add the flight into our One World RTW ticket. Our traveling pace has
been so fast that we haven't had the chance to do our pre-reading on
Egypt and to truly understand the history behind all the mysterious
temples, tombs and pyramids. So we decide to start with the Egyptian
Museum, in hopes to better educate ourselves before we hit the actual
pyramids. Stepping into the museum, we're still not sure we're
actually at the museum; there's no big sign on the building that says
"museum." We proceed in through the security screen, metal detectors
and baggage scan, and then back out again to stash our camera at the
entrance of the ticket office. One thing we've noticed, in addition to
no sign-age, is that there are also no clear set of instructions at
sites... so we end up going back and forth several times, at nearly
every attraction here in Egypt, to finally be granted entry. We
finally enter the museum, and are overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of
statues, relics, artifacts and displays. It's like entering a pack-rat
garage, there are so many pieces. They haven't had time to even
identify and label many of them. We could easily spend a whole day
here and still not scratch the surface of seeing and understanding the
thousands of years of history held within these walls. One thing is
clear to us, however, that accumulation of wealth and things existed in
the extreme here in Ancient Egypt, but much had remained stockpiled and
unused until death. People of Ancient Egypt believed that the more
grandiose their pharaoh's burial chamber, the better off all their own
afterlives would be. The amount of gold, jewels and ornamentation that
bodies were adorned with after mummification is unbelievable. King Tut
had gold face masks molded to fit over his head, and gold clothing
adorned his tightly wound mummified body. The caskets, or sarcophagus,
are intricately designed with carvings and paintings depicting stories
and protective goddesses all aimed to see the pharaoh into the
afterlife. Another interesting bit we've learned from our museum tour,
is what they do with the internal body organs to preserve them - during
the preparation process for mummification, they actually leave the
heart in the body, and often they discard the brain after extracting it
through the nose. Also stored in the tomb are 4 small vase like
containers made from alabaster called canopic jars, which are used to
store the liver, lungs, and stomach.
We
also learned that it was believed the pharaoh would be transported from
death to afterlife in a special funerary solar boat. An actual solar
boat had been discovered on the Giza plateau near one of the pyramids
just recently- in the mid 1900's. We spent the afternoon rummaging
through relics and still feel like we only have a tiny understanding of
this great ancient culture and the history behind it.
To
see the Pyramids, we hire a driver and car, which makes it much easier
to get around, especially in the extreme heat. We'd always pictured
the Giza Pyramids to be way out in the desert. What we find here, is
quite contrary to our thinking. The city of Cairo has literally
engulfed the Pyramids and developed around them. So while there's
still desert around the Pyramids, they are still in the city of Cairo.
The
Pyramids are a majestic site. Built over 4500 years ago, To stand here
at the base of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the Pyramid that is the one
considered one of the 8 Great Ancient Wonders of the World, they
believe originally measured at 146 M high (before the top came off), is
to be totally humbled. To think that these were built before the
invention of the wheel... How they carved up each stone, transported
them (some say nearly 2.3 million stones), and to have a team, so
efficiently build such an orderly, massive structure in unimaginable.
We try to get into the Great Pyramid to crawl down the long narrow
tunnel, but apparently the tickets are "finished." So we settle for
walking around it. We get half way around and are halted by a heard of
camels and their nomadic riders. They stop us, wanting to sell us
camel rides. We learned, however, from a trip several years ago to
Rajastan, India, that camel rides are painful - especially for men. We
tell the camel guys "la shokran" (no thanks), but cave under their
persistence, and opt for a photo opportunity on a camel, especially for
my nephew Tyler, who absolutely loves animals, and is closely following
our picture journey around the world. So we ask "how much" for the
photo on the camel, and they reply, in typical Egyptian fashion, "Money
isn't important, just take the photo and be happy." Our biggest
learning in Egypt is that you're not supposed to ask "how much."
Especially with taxi rides. Apparently, you are supposed to innately
know how much is a fair price, and pay at the end. They will argue
with you, even if you've fixed a fair price in advance, so you're
supposed to just get on with the service, and pay what you feel in fair
later - even though it often requires walking away as they argue, yell
and complain. We continue to fall into the our old behaviors, however,
of asking "how much" up front, and it's a completely useless strategy.
So, up we go in the camels, and while we're up there, the Egyptian
tourist police gallop over on their camels, trying to get all the camel
guys to leave us alone. They leave shortly, probably thinking that we
are the suckers who got on the camels in the first place and need to
accept full responsibility for our ignorant tourist actions. So while
the guys take our pictures, they also try to ride us off onto a longer
trip. We yell at them, telling them our driver is just over in the
parking lot and is going to come looking for us - that we do not want a
ride, and also mention that we have NO money for a ride, only for
pictures. They oblige, and we disembark the camels, which is by no
means an easy thing to get down. We must first lean way back, gripping
the saddles as the camel slouches all the way down, front lets first,
nearly sending us toppling forward. The camel let's out a loud noise,
and the back of it's legs collapse, lowering us to the ground. Whew!
We're down, off and safe, except having yet to escape the inevitable,
heated wrath of the camel owners payment discussion. They want to
charge us over 100 Egyptian Pounds for the 5 minute photo. We already
know that 100 Pounds is the cost for an hour ride, so we give them 20
Pounds and leave them griping for more.
We're
thrilled we actually get to go into the second Pyramid, which is a cool
experience. The engineering feat of digging these massive tombs far
below the surface, into rock and then constructing the long, narrow,
descending tunnel with fake burial chambers to throw off tomb robbers,
is quite an experience to feel. The tunnel is only maybe 3-4 feet high
and very narrow. Only one person at a time, single file, can fit,
crouched and doubled over. As I descend I can't help but to think what
if this thing collapses. But we make it down to check out the chamber,
and back up to breathe the oxygen rich air outside. Again, we ran into
extra special treatment for Americans. Cameras are not allowed inside
the Pyramids. After waiting in a long, hot, sunny line to get in, they
tell us that we need to stash our camera in our car (or tourist bus).
After turning away a bunch of other tourists, when she asked us where
we were from, and we said America, she happily said she would
personally hold and watch our camera while we went into the tomb.
While we thanked her for her kind offer, we said we'd take it back to
the car, not knowing whether we'd really see the camera again if we
left it with her.
We
shuffled off to see the last of the Giza pyramids and take some
panoramic shots. In the mean time, we must have handed out baksheesh
to a half dozen tourist police and others. The tourist police are the
worst offenders - they are supposed to be there to be helpful and
protect, but instead, they're out to get your money, pointing out areas
where we should stand for optimal photo beauty, or giving a little
history blurb. While we know people here are poor, and really need the
money, they are just abusing their power, and we start to steer clear
of them when we see them.
We
save the Sphinx for last on the Giza Plateau. It's like being at
Disney World... A gazillion tourists all snap happy, and we fit right
in with them all, snapping photos left and right, pretending like we're
on assignment with National Geographic.
We
sped off to see the Step Pyramids, which are a little less grandiose,
but the Egyptians have done a great job setting up this site as a
tourist attraction. It has it's own museum, very detailed with
historical commentary, no to mention air conditioning! The Step
Pyramids of Doojoser in Saqqara were built back in 2650 BC and have a
more step or staggered build to them. They have not survived erosion
as well as those of Giza have, but they are a bit more remote, and a
treasure to see. We also saw a bit of the countryside while driving
out to Saqqara. One very striking feature we tend to see out of the
cities, are girls or young women with lighter blonde/brown hair, green
emerald eyes, and bronze skin riding donkeys carrying the days harvest
from the fields. It's a striking departure from the very dark hair and
eyes we tend to see in the locals in the cities.
Today
has been one of those days we feel we're living in pages of National
Geographic. It's so amazing, there are far more temples here in Egypt
than we have time to see, we'll definitely be back again!
