Giza Pyramids

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  Cairo, Egypt
Saturday, March 25, 2006

Having decided on the Metro, Cairo's underground train system, as the cheapest (75piastres = 7.5p) and easiest way to get out to Giza, we were well on our way to a good day until the taxi driver we picked up at the train station sneakily dropped us off in the wrong spot for admission to the site despite us repeatedly saying we did not want to take a horse or camel ride around the Pyramids. We realised soon enough what he'd done, bringing us to the area where all the horses and camels are avaialble for hire to ride around the site anyway hoping for commission from whoever we chose to go with. We however had no intention of doing this but thought we'd have a wander up the laneway to see what was going on anyway. All I'll say is that our impression that Egyptian's don't give a shit about their animals was confirmed a hundred times over. Horses with pieces of rope looped through holes in their flanks, dribbling fresh blood, horses that couldn't even get up or were so skinny their hip bones were sticking out along with their ribs, the list goes on really. I was so angry I almost yelled at some kid that was prancing around on his mistreated horse like he was king of the world, all the while trying to sell us a ride around the pyramids "Cheap price for you, cheap price for you". I have no doubt there is the odd operater who cares for their animals but they are few and far between. My advice to anyone wishing to undertake this particular tourist exercise is have some compassion for the animals and choose an operator accordingly, not just because they're giving you the barest bones price they can come up with by not caring for their animals.

Camel at pyramids

Well now that I've got that little animal rights speil off my chest!!!

We spent the day at Giza just wandering around taking it all in with no less than about a million other tourists, to make matters worse we were visiting on a Friday which is like Sunday for us and is a day when families go on outings, picnics etc. But not even the crowds and the ever persistent touts selling iced water and tacky souviners could ever detract from the mindblowing experience of being in the shadow of the Great Pyramids, the only remaining of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World.

We discovered pretty quickly that we could just walk out into the surrounding desert for a short way and we were enjoying the quiet with the Pyramids laid out before us. Awesome. Tramp went inside the largest of the three Pyramids, built by Khufu but I opted out as I didn't fancy going in tiny passageways with all that rock over my head!! A little claustrophobic for my liking.

The most impressive bit in his eyes was the fact that each and every stone was joined in such a way that when you ran your hand across the wall you could barely feel the joins, just smooth polished rock. Everything was so level for such monstrous rocks, 5ft by 6ft.

Khufu's sarcophogus is still located in the inner chamber. It is made from a single piece of solid black granite and was supposedly drilled out with drills that scientists say were spinning faster that our diamond tip drills of today do!! They have come to this conclusion from core samples of the granite found at the site. This inner chamber was also totally lined with massive slabs of polished black granite, floor, ceilings and walls, Again the rules are no photos!!

In the shadow of the great Pyramids sits the Sphinx which was much smaller than both of us expected and had a face covered in scaffolding due to ongoing restoration work, so he didn't get a lot of our attention, which doesn't do justice to the amount of mystery that shrouds his existence.

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Great pyramid of Khufu

Second pyramid

Sneaky photo inside Khufu at entrance

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