Dec 27, 2010

Day 9

Up, and breakfast. Oh Nescafé, your watery, instant-packet nature makes you an unsuccessful replacement for our Swedish Löfbergs Lila.

Getting to meet our tour who are mostly Australians, a pair of Kiwis and a Canuck, we feel like we can afford to be “less Swedish” than we had been on our own while in Hurghada. Maybe we’ll be honorary Aussies.

Giza’s a regular Cairo neighborhood... but for this one bit of real estate you might have heard of. Besides a glimpse form the plane coming in yesterday (totally cool), our first shot of Cairo’s main claim to fame was between views of apartments and convenience stores. While our egyptologist ramblingly debunked alien intervention in the construction of Egypt’s monuments we were left gawking at how there the Pyramids were. Indeed, even walking up to them from the parking lot one is struck by the thereness of the Pyramids. My heart quickened. I was in awe, and we joined the dumbfounded throngs and tried to shove off the touts. “You look Egyptian!”

Uh huh, we did that. For Mandy.

  

Yup, I clambered on the bit they let you on.

Nope, Pyramid 1 & 2 were closed, no King’s & Queen’s Chamber. But we did slide down into the belly of Pyramid #3, the claustrophobia-inducing burial chambers in little guy to the right. The shorter Pyramid of Menkaure would be huge in its own right if it weren’t for comparison. They’re incredible. 2500 BC.

Our group’s spirit was cemented by a “Toyota Jump” in front of Khafre, and we were off to the Sphinx. Mysterious, masterful, and grand, the biggest riddle to me is how it survived. Wondering and marveling at it, we had to pinch ourselves to believe we were really before such unmistakable landmarks.

Next, we completed our education at the Egypt Museum which was over-whelming and a bit out-dated in presentation. It wants for a dump of curating money. But we saw Tut’s mask and sarcophagous. We saw statues, and statues, and statues. I particularly liked the scribes with folded yoga legs. We saw mummified crocodiles and cats and cattle. There’s really so much stuff! A highlight was Akhenaten and then Hathor (Golden Calf?). We breezed through the much newer gift shop (funding?) and searched for our group. Rally point? “The Garden”. It’s huge. The trip home was a treat of rush hour Cairo. What a day!