Adventures in Africa: Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

We flew from Jeddah to Cairo yesterday, and spent last night more-or-less across the street from the sphinx! 

The sun was setting as we deplaned to the Cairo tarmac.

From the Cairo airport on the northeast side of the city it was about an hour cab ride to Giza, on the west side of the city. Given the notoriety of the Cairo airport taxi mafia, we opted to arrange a driver ahead of time for $23 USD. I would not be surprised if this ends up costing more than just negotiating with the crooks, but somehow feels well worth it to avoid having to deal with them. By the way, Sphinx International Airport is just northeast of Giza, so perhaps one day those attempting to visit the pyramids could fly into there and avoid crossing the city of 20+ million altogether; but I gather at the moment Sphinx is not used much for international travel. Our cab ride did allow us to "enjoy" Cairo traffic, however, and included highlights such as a small pick-up truck smashing into the rear end of the car in front of it, just outside my window. 

In Giza we are staying in one of the many small hotels outside the pyramid complex. Most of these are not especially nice, but very affordable and in our case nice enough. The highlight is the rooftop patio, where even after dark the silhouettes of the pyramids are an impressive sight. After dinner I was able to walk to a close by liquor store (I found the local neighbourhood fascinating) to grab a couple of Egypt's Stella beers to enjoy while looking out onto the pyramids.

This morning, literally four minutes after waking up, I was at the ticket wicket for the pyramids, as I had heard the line-ups can get crazy. It was no issue to buy a couple of tickets at 8:34, however, and I returned to the hotel for breakfast, served, of course, on the rooftop. For me, at least, nothing I have read or seen prepared me for being "face-to-face" with the pyramids. They are so big and so old and very much "everything I imagined and more."

Shortly after 9:30 we walked through the gates and up to the sphinx. We could see the sphinx from the rooftop, but he is much cooler up close. 

Although fairly small relative to the pyramids, the sphinx somehow really captured my imagination. There is speculation he was carved from pyramid "leftovers"!

Straight up the hill from the sphinx is the "middle" pyramid--both the middle one in the row and the middle in terms of height--the Pyramid of Khafre. It is particularly noteworthy because the upper portion retains some of the original limestone outer layer that is mostly lacking from the others. 

Here is what it looks like up close!

Given that people have died trying, you can no longer climb the pyramids, but it is easy to see why it is tempting!

Heading southwest from the pyramid of Khafre is the pyramid of Menkaure, plus the three queen pyramids to go with it (there are actually nine pyramids total at this site--the three great pyramids, plus three queen pyramids beside the pyramid of Menkaura and another three queen pyramids beside the pyramid of Khufu).

Menkaura's pyramid is quite a bit smaller than the other two, but very picturesque. By the way there are camels and horses throughout the site and the camels in particular add to the charm. What absolutely detracts from the charm, however, are the touts trying to get you to ride the animals. Still, we had been led to expect worse than we experienced, and were happy enough to walk around on foot. As you can see, while we did not exactly have the site to ourselves, it was relatively quite at this time of day. Most of the tour groups and tourists from Cairo come later in the morning and into the afternoon, so it was a good time to be here. 

Also, although it was already very warm, standing out here in the middle of the day must be very, very hot! You can get a sense of the sun's intensity in the photos below. 

We continued around Menakaura's pyramid and past the three queens' pyramids. These are much, much smaller, and overall have suffered more deterioration than the pyramids of the pharaohs. 

Our goal in walking back here was a ridge which is perhaps the one spot where you can see all nine pyramids at one. 

You also get to watch the camels trekking across the desert which is a pretty cool sight. 

The far three queens' pyramids are difficult to see in my photo, but you can at least appreciate that there is a really good view of the complex from up on the ridge. 

From the panoramic viewpoint, we walked back across the sands, to the largest and oldest pyramid, that of grandpa Khufu.

Over here we were close to the main gates, and the crowds were beginning to arrive. We circumnavigated the pyramid to the east side where the queens pyramids are. 

Here is some video from around this spot.

You can pay extra to go into two of the big pyramids, but I have heard there is not much to see and there were line-ups I was not interested in queueing in. I did, however, want to go inside a pyramid, so I took the opportunity to go into one of the queens pyramids. This one was fenced off.

But the Pyramid of Queen Meritetis I was open, so I entered and descended. Truly there is not much to see (and lighting/lack thereof such that there was nothing to photograph), but what I found most interesting was how far down I descended. I have always thought about the heights of pyramids, not their depths, but I assume the Pyramid of Queen Meritetis I might be as deep as it is tall. My wife thought going inside a pyramid was creepy, so left me to it. We met outside the compound, passing the Sphinx again as we exited. 

We picked a rooftop other than our hotel's for some cool drinks and lunch. Even after being up close, it was still completely wonderful to look out over the pyramids we as dined.

We did a little souvenir shopping this afternoon (which included a bargaining episode in which the souvenir seller started the negotiation with a total price higher than the sticker price! ["welcome to Egypt"]), but largely relaxed on the hotel's rooftop enjoying the view!

By the way, this is the view the opposite way, down the street into Giza.

As the tourist hustle and bustle quieted down, watching the sun set behind the pyramids was lovely to experience.

After dark it was time for dinner, so we walked a little ways to find a place that interested us. We ordered set meals which let us sample a whole array of interesting and (often) delicious things!

For my main course, I enjoyed a couple of pigeons.