my first view of the pyramids
The Pyramids of Giza
Today was a very exciting morning because we went to the pyramids. The Great Pyramids are much larger than I had expected. It was pretty hot there at 10 am.
We were hassled terribly to purchase goods from the locals. They put things into my hands and onto my head. The only way to get ride of someone is to throw the item on the ground and keep walking. "no" means nothing here. I've gotten the hang of haggling when I do want to buy something. I ask other tourists what they paid for the item, then, cut that price down further and approach a seller. We’d argue about a price and then I’d walk away from them and they’d come running after me, agreeing to my price.
We went inside the 2nd Great Pyramid, which involved bending nearly in half to walk through to the tomb chamber. It was dark and stuffy inside. As we saw people exiting, they’d breath a huge breath of fresh air and were visibly perspiring. There are in fact many booby traps and false doors in the pyramids to prevent tomb raiders.
I heard the muslim call to prayer for the first time today, and saw a number of men sporting some serious rug burn on their foreheads (bruising) - dedicated muslim men of prayer.
I've since learned that I was supposed to have tipped the toilet paper man in the Pizza Hut washroom. Washrooms require payment. No money means definitely no toilet paper.
The afternoon was spent at the Egyptian museum. Tonnes of statues and really old egyptian stuff. it all seems like more of the same after a while. Perhaps not my thing, but still it was something to see. It is quite something to consider what famous king wore those sandals with golden bottoms or held this golden cane, etc. there was quite a large section devoted to King tut.
For those who may wonder, the pyramids were there long before Joseph and the Hebrews lived in Eygpt. It makes me wonder if one of the reasons Joseph wanted his bones taken back to the land of Canaan is so that he wouldn't be embalmed. We learned quite a lot about the process for the burial of a King.
We are spending 6 days with a Gap Tour Group. We have a neat mix of people. There are 2 australians, 4 brits (2 of which are traveling for a year), 1 british german, 1 american woman who has been travelling for 9 months already, 2 hungarians-americans and a swedish family with 2 boys ages 11 and 14. Our tour guide is an egyptologist. He’s a 30 year old with many years of university. His english is close to perfect and he’s a facinating guy who gives us lots of history and information.
Even in big city Cairo we saw men with large groups of sheep and goats, right beside zooming streets.
Many locals today asked me where I was from, and when they hear it’s Canada, they say “AH, Canada Dry, very good”
They don’t have any squeegee kids here, but they do have women on busy street corners trying to sell motorists kleenex boxes at red lights.
Now we're sitting in a coffee shop, waiting to take the13 hour night train to Aswan
We were hassled terribly to purchase goods from the locals. They put things into my hands and onto my head. The only way to get ride of someone is to throw the item on the ground and keep walking. "no" means nothing here. I've gotten the hang of haggling when I do want to buy something. I ask other tourists what they paid for the item, then, cut that price down further and approach a seller. We’d argue about a price and then I’d walk away from them and they’d come running after me, agreeing to my price.
We went inside the 2nd Great Pyramid, which involved bending nearly in half to walk through to the tomb chamber. It was dark and stuffy inside. As we saw people exiting, they’d breath a huge breath of fresh air and were visibly perspiring. There are in fact many booby traps and false doors in the pyramids to prevent tomb raiders.
I heard the muslim call to prayer for the first time today, and saw a number of men sporting some serious rug burn on their foreheads (bruising) - dedicated muslim men of prayer.
I've since learned that I was supposed to have tipped the toilet paper man in the Pizza Hut washroom. Washrooms require payment. No money means definitely no toilet paper.
The afternoon was spent at the Egyptian museum. Tonnes of statues and really old egyptian stuff. it all seems like more of the same after a while. Perhaps not my thing, but still it was something to see. It is quite something to consider what famous king wore those sandals with golden bottoms or held this golden cane, etc. there was quite a large section devoted to King tut.
For those who may wonder, the pyramids were there long before Joseph and the Hebrews lived in Eygpt. It makes me wonder if one of the reasons Joseph wanted his bones taken back to the land of Canaan is so that he wouldn't be embalmed. We learned quite a lot about the process for the burial of a King.
We are spending 6 days with a Gap Tour Group. We have a neat mix of people. There are 2 australians, 4 brits (2 of which are traveling for a year), 1 british german, 1 american woman who has been travelling for 9 months already, 2 hungarians-americans and a swedish family with 2 boys ages 11 and 14. Our tour guide is an egyptologist. He’s a 30 year old with many years of university. His english is close to perfect and he’s a facinating guy who gives us lots of history and information.
Even in big city Cairo we saw men with large groups of sheep and goats, right beside zooming streets.
Many locals today asked me where I was from, and when they hear it’s Canada, they say “AH, Canada Dry, very good”
They don’t have any squeegee kids here, but they do have women on busy street corners trying to sell motorists kleenex boxes at red lights.
Now we're sitting in a coffee shop, waiting to take the13 hour night train to Aswan
I went inside Pyramid #2
even 20 years ago, people were still permitted to climb the pyramids
Beautiful photo's!
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