Egypt, Take 2 – Part 4

Saturday was Paul’s and my last day in Egypt (R, D & L stayed an extra day) so we tried to cram in as much as possible in by 2pm when we had to leave our hotel for our flight. We booked a driver and guide through our hotel the previous night to take us to Memphis and to see the pyramids. We asked the hotel when we booked them if the guide would speak English, to which their response was “of course, what else would you expect?” Ha! Our guide was a far cry from the awesome tour guide we had in Luxor (granted, there was a steep price difference—I guess you get what you pay for). He did speak English, although it wasn’t great and I think I understood more of what he said than the rest of the group because he kept intermixing French words into his English.

A typical scene on our drive to Memphis (and in Luxor)

Our first order of business was to get some breakfast. We had him tell the driver to take us to somewhere we could get some pastries, etc. for breakfast on the way down to Memphis. We stopped at a roadside stand and D & I got out to pick out some goodies for the group. We didn't really know what we were getting, but we just ordered a few cheesy bread things and about a dozen pastries filled with a date mixture. When had our guide translate how much it cost, it was 60 cents! When we got in the car and the group almost devoured the food by the time we got to our first stop, R kept asking why we didn’t buy more.

Breakfast!

It was surprisingly cold in Cairo/Memphis. We were all bundled up in our jackets and scarves and still cold that morning, so that probably didn’t help our patience with our guide who seemed to just be taking his time telling us about things we didn’t really care to hear as we walked around the open-air “Memphis museum.” It was interesting to see the mummification tables and the different “canopic jars” where the various organs were kept. We also got to see the alabaster sphinx and the massive statue of Ramses II (about 30 feet long) which was carved out of limestone.

The Memphis Museum

Paul being mummified

Alabaster Sphinx

Statue of Ramses II

Our next stop was Saqqara which was the first stone pyramid and was built around 2620 BC. We were concerned about time, so we didn’t end up getting close to the pyramid or going inside, but we did stop for a photo op.

1st Pyramid ever built - Saqqara

Then we did a quick stop by a papyrus shop where we saw a demonstration of how papyrus paper is made. Egyptians started writing on papyrus around 2700 BC.

 Papyrus demonstration

Illustration of a farming family on Papyrus that I bought

From there we headed to the final destination—the Pyramids of Giza & the Sphinx! The 3 great pyramids at Giza were built around 2500 for Khufu, his son, and his grandson. This was the period when the Egyptian practice of mummification began which aimed to preserve the body for life in the next world. We decided to ride camels to make the experience that much more special and that way we could get far enough out to be able to see all 9 pyramids at once.

The first Great Pyramid which was built by pharaoh Khufu is the largest building ever created by man. St Peter's Basilica in Rome, St Paul's and Westminster Abbey in London, and the cathedrals of Florence and Milan could all fit within its volume. This is also the pyramid where it looks like there’s a cap on the top. That’s because in the Middle Ages the outer stones were taken to build Cairo.

The Great Pyramid... you can see where the outer layer of stones were take from the bottom 3/4 of the structure

After we rode the camels around the pyramids, we stopped to go into one of the tombs. The passageway down was small! Definitely felt a little claustrophobic. But, we did have a staff member repeatedly telling us to “Watch your head. Watch your head.”

What your head!

Then we rode the camels down to see the Sphinx.

After that we headed back to our hotel where they made us falafel, foul (basically Egyptian-style refried beans), and egg sandwiches in pita bread. We played a few rounds of cards and then Paul and I took off for the airport. It was a bit of a journey back and we didn’t get home until about 4:30am—needless to say it was a little rough getting up for work 2 hours later, but it was definitely worth it.

It was really cool to actually get to see the only one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World that is still in existence today. I think we would all recommend Egypt as a great place to go to see all of the historical sites, but not a choice destination for any sort of relaxation.

Paul wasn't too impressed with this quote from our President (billboard in the Cairo airport)