Egypt!

Sabrina and I had planned a trip to Egypt some time ago, and we were to stay with her colleague in Cairo whilst touring around the major sites.  As fate would have it, while we were planning our trip, this same friend was planning a conference in Cairo which Sabrina was then called on to attend.  Conveniently, the conference ended the day before our planned arrival.  So, Sabrina went off on Monday, and I joined her at the hotel Wednesday, and then we moved into his place Friday.  As the conference ended Thursday, I had one day to tour around by myself, which turned out to be... well, utterly useless.  Apparently I suck at playing tourist, as I spent one hour looking for the Arabian Music Institute, and failed, and then spent another hour waiting in a restaurant for lunch, which due to a language barrier, I had apparently never ordered.  That said, I did get one fantastic photo which sums up a staple of the Egyptian diet : pita!

 I've been told that this is such a necessary food, particularly for the lower class, that is in fact subsidized by the government, and sold for a penny.  Apparently they tried to raise it to two pennies, at which point there were riots in the street.  At any extent, I would gladly pay two pennies just to watch this guy ride around all day.  Particularly given the fact that Egyptian traffic is generally terrifying.  Lanes are simply suggestions, there are very few traffic lights, and everyone always has the right of way, as long as they are honking loud enough.


After my entirely unsuccessful day, Sabrina and I had a lovely early dinner at the hotel, and then joined her colleague and her colleague's husband (who is an Egyptian native) at a traditional Arabian music concert, which I thouroughly enjoyed, and hope to investigate further.  This same colleague's husband conveniently has a friend who is a registered tour guide.  His name is Wassim, and he proved to be the highlight of the trip, as he was our personal guide for three days.  He has studied Egyptology for several years, and is incredibly well informed. Furthermore, he is the nicest, funniest man in the greater Cairo area.
Over drinks in the lobby, we planned our weekend day by day, and agreed on a meeting time, which was early by necessity.  You have to get up early if you want to go INSIDE the Great Pyramid!

Day 1 : The Pyramids of Giza!
Due to body heat and perspiration, the Egyptian authorities only let 250 people inside the pyramid each morning in the winter and 150 people in the summer, so first come, first serve. Thankfully we got tickets, and made it up the 153m ramp inside a hot stuffy tunnel, eventually popping out in a room which is utterly ... plain.  While certainly worth the experience of being inside a pyramid, it's by no means visually spectacular.  It's a stone room, with an empty stone box (in which once lay an ex-pharoah), and that's it.  However, still worth the climb.
The only catch to arriving so early is that Egypt suffers from very foggy mornings at this time of year, so it took a bit of walking around before we got a good shot, but here it is!
The Great pyramid was built for the King Khufu, and also on site are the smaller pyramids for his son and grandson.  I didn't realize this, but pyramids were actually a common tomb or monument for kings, and there are more than 100 across Egypt. 

After the pyramids, it was just a short jaunt to Egypt's second most famous site, The Sphinx!  Once again, there are many sphinxes... sphinxi?... sphinxeses? all over Egypt, but there's one REALLY BIG ONE!









On the same site as The Sphinx is the Valley Temple, where the ancient Egyptians performed the extensive rituals involved in guaranteeing the deceased passage into the afterlife.  This was an excellent opportunity to observe some ingenious Egyptian engineering :

  

As Egypt is prone to earthquakes (or at least was 4000 years ago), certain measures were taken to ensure that structures created solely of stacked blocks didn't topple

Separate layers have occasional shifts, to prevent sliding

in a tremor.

Corners are made of one stone, not two meeting

The next stop was Sakkara, a necropolis from the third dynasty designed by the great Egyptian engineer, Imhotep.

This site includes the supposed "Step Pyramid", which our guide ensured us is in fact NOT a pyramid, just a tomb made of steps.  If it were a pyramid, it would be the oldest ever, but it's not.

Also at Sakkara is evidence of another interesting ancient Egyptian ritual.  They believe that life on earth was only temporary and should be spent working, while the afterlife was eternal and a time of leisure.  As such, one royal burial practice was the recreation of a King's palace. While the original palace would be made of mud bricks, the recreation had to be stone, representing the temporary and eternal dichotomy.





After Sakkara we had one more stop, Memphis, which is in fact the city for which Sakkara was the necropolis aka. cemetery.

Along with a variety of ancient relics, Sakkara hosts a massive sculpture of Ramses II, who we quickly learned was quite fond of himself, as there are many statues of him built during his life.  We know they were built while he was alive, because the straight beard indicates that the subject was alive at the time of the carving, while a beard curving out indicates posthumous sculpting.











So, that was day one, which was probably the most exciting in terms of "Holy crap I never thought I would actually be here!"

I'll post the next two days in the next two days... seems appropriate.