Day 2, Part 2

Just outside the Tomb of Hemon

Just arrived and ready to tackle the Pyramids.


Notice the little graves. Over to the left is the Pyramid of Khafre and to the right is Khufu. The Tomb of Hemon is to out right, off picture.

So just off the Khufu pyramid are these little, what I presume are, tombs and graves and just outside the door of a much larger building called the Tomb of Hemon, stands a guard. So we take a look around and follow some people in, the guard gives me the stern "no photography" and I make a mental note to make sure no one is around me when I do. I get the no-photography of paintings, light damages them... but stone? Their photography rules are draconian around the Giza pyramids, no tripods either... which I'll get to later.

Anyway, there they are. The real deal. Hieroglyphics carded into the walls, none of which I understand but wished I did. I snapped a few photos, knowing that it would probably look like crap with the flash. But still, I mean, Hieroglyphics, you gotta get a picture of them, right?

I really have no idea what's going on in this picture, but it was the biggest drawing so it seemed best for photographing. A tour guide later told us they would put pictures of animals to be eaten in the after life on the walls, I presume this is what's going on here.

There was a little wooden ramp off to the side and it looked like it was meant to be climbed on, so naturally, we did. It took us up onto a platform, dimly lit by electric lights tied to extension cords. There's a 3-4 foot wall jut ahead, and poking out of the top were the two poles of a ladder.

"Wow... you can go down there?" I said and looked over the edge and down the rickety ladder at a good 8 foot drop. "I'm going."

I later found out that this particular shape of the stone was the sign that someone was buried behind this part of the wall. It was designed this way to allow the movement of the person's ka or spirit.


And there you get a sense of the color of the tomb... and James.


So I climbed down this ladder into a reasonably large room, lots of Hieroglyphics from the floor to the ceiling. I started taking pictures and checking the place out, James got his eye full and headed back up the ladder. Then he gave me the warning that the guard was coming. I wasn't entirely sure what would happen if I got busted taking pictures where I shouldn't but I didn't really want to find out. So I stashed the camera back int he bag and started the ascent out of the room. The guard pointed some stuff out, nothing of real consequence, and showed us the matching hieroglyphic symbols to some letters. Then, not surprisingly, asked us for a tip on our way out. For our money, he let me take a photo of the room. Yippee.

So then, upon exit, we found our driver and he took us over to the distant hill where you get a nice view of all three pyramids. I casually avoided the Bedouins and took to the wall which seemed the best place to take photos and also the most desolate. I had my tripod with me and it made me nervous to leave it standing there while I posed for a photo. I snapped a few and took an adventurous pose, one foot on the wall with my backpack slung over my shoulders and the pyramids of Egypt in the distance. It's one of my favorites from the trip.

From left to right: Khufu's Pyramid or the Great Pyramid, Khafre Pyramid and Menkaures Pyramid (the red granite one).


From the hill in the far back, we had started on the opposite side of Khufu's Pyramid (the one without the stonework on top)... good thing we took the car.



Love this photo.


After that, we hit the small pyramid of Menkaure. Though it was tiny in comparison with the two giants next to it, when it originally stood it gleamed red from the red granite that provided the finish layer of stone. Upon seeing the red stones (which my pictures don't convey so well), tumbled and on their sides at the base of the pyramid, I recalled the what I had read in Paul Johnson's The Civilization of Ancient Egypt; mentioning its uniqueness in contrast with the other Pyramids of Egypt.

Not surprisingly, the armed guard at the base of the pyramid offered to take our photo for us.. for an unmentioned fee. I counteroffered to take his picture with James at the pyramid, you know, cause he had that awesome assault rifle in his hands. Despite my continued requests, he politely declined.
The stone in the foreground is red granite, though the photos don't show it so well. Beyond it you can see the underlying stone structure that the red granite would have been positioned on.


Menkaure's Pyramid from the distance, to the right of it are the less impressive Pyramids of the Queens.


I may keep referring to it as the small Pyramid, but this ought to give you a sense of the scale.

Day 2, Part 1

So we woke up late. Though I wasn't sure that I wanted to complain... the trip had been exhausting and I didn't mind a few more hours of sleep. But after a few minutes I was ready to get out and see the pyramids. I'd travelled so far and finally I was going to see what so many and so few have seen. They were one of the great wonders of the world, some of the oldest and largest structures of the old world; a testament to the greatness and glory of a civilization long gone. I hoesntly couldn't believe I was going to see them and touch them. Maybe go in them...

So we woke up quick, cleaned up and opened the door into the hotel. The first thing that struck me was that our room must have been the temperature of a meat locker cause it was pretty warm inside the hotel. Who knew how hot it was outside. We caught a complimentary breakfast from the hotel, which included some fruit, yogurt and toast. Nothing too big but that was alright, I expected to be on the move.

The lady at the hotel recommended we use their travel guides who would follow the hotel's recommended plan. It sounded decent, so we went with it and payed up front, so to ensure we didn't get overcharged by the taxi man. The taxi man was kind, gave us the usual spiel and had us on our way. James seemed to think that the driving was much calmer than our initial ride in, but I could see it was still quite crazy. Cars intermingled with donkeys and carts, no lanes and no laws.



The first stop after crossing the Nile and before arriving at Giza was a papyrus museum. I found it pretty interesting, they showed you how to make Papyrus and then tried to sell everything possible to you. Of which they were somewhat successful, I mean, I'm not going to leave Egypt without buying papyrus, right?

So then there they were. Between the dirty and blocky buildings were the pyramids of Egypt. Stuart had told me not to get too excited about them cause he found them quite disappointing, and I hadn't hyped them up in the lead up to the trip. I'd seen major historical monuments before, I've over hyped them and ruined the surprise and awe. That's the trouble of our society and this communication and information revolution we live in. It's easy to become desensitized to the grandeur of the world. But not this time. There it was in all its immensity, I couldn't even see the other two.


Now at the base of this giant four-sided work of art were countless Bedouins. I've dealt with them before in Jordan and Israel. They're a pain in ass cause they don't give up until they've sold you some inconsequential piece of plastic courtesy of the factories in China. Don't be rude, but be firm and walk away. Ignore their words. So I set about my buesiness of walking around and taking photos and no more than two minutes they've sighted us and headed towards James and I.

"Just keep walking and don't say a word to them." I said to him and I kept going.

But, poor James, he didn't listen and gave them the polite "No Thanks."

Big mistake, you're on your own now. I thought. So I kept on walking but tried to keep an eye on him just to make sure nothing serious happened. There he was, with a handful of trinkets and some goofy hat on his head, getting his picture taken with two Bedouins and looking a very false happy. So I sat down and waited until they walked away from him, having sold a load of junk to him.

He said to me, "I just bought a bunch of stuff I don't even want. But at least I didn't manage to get one of those tea towels."

I laughed. Everyone has to learn, sometime the hard way. I tell him to just keep on walking and that you're going to have to be a little rude because these people do not give up. It's not like England, the rules of commerce don't apply in Egypt. So I hoped he took a lesson from all that and we wouldn't have to deal with it again.

Day 1

The first day... James and I flew out of Heathrow which was busy as usual and found our flight had been delayed by about 3 hours. Not what I wanted to hear, but we coped with the free internet and usual lingering around the magazine isle at the nearest smiths. The previous night we had stayed over at James' Aunt's which saved us a long AM bus ride out of Exeter. With a full night's sleep, a3 hour delay was but a trivial matter. The plane ride was rather quick, about 5 hours, plus free meal and drinks. Not too shabby.

The lady who sat next to me was quite nice, she's from the UK and been to Egypt a boat load of times this year already so she seemed to know what she was talking about. She gave the typical warning of "Don't eat vegetables, careful with the water, and so on and so forth." To back up her argument she cited her experience a few years ago when she almost died from cholera or dysentery or something. The possibility that this trip might well kill me had made it all the more exciting...

We came down in Cairo sometime mid day and as soon as I exited the airplane I could feel the hot air immediately. But it's only sun so I brushed it off, I've had sun in Ohio and Atlanta and there it is muggy as well. Egypt ain't got nothin' on me.

At this point I'm starting to wonder if James is gonna be cool this whole trip... he's been to Uganda, so probably he'll be fine, but I've rarely made giant trips with another person to watch out for. I resigned myself to see what would happen and deal with it then. I had customs and a visa situation to deal with first. The Visa was pretty simple, it took up a proud page in my trophy book/passport and customs was a breeze. I had to get screened for swine flu before I could enter officially, no problems there.

After fending off 90 taxi drivers on our way out of the airport we found the pre-booked taxi driver at the exit and got ready to head into the city. On a scale of 1 to 10, this guys English speaking skills were about 2. I improved some sign language explaining that I didn't want my bag on the rooftop cause I know how people drive in the mid east and my underwear is gonna be all over Pyramid Boulevard. I threw the bag in next to James in the back seat who protested that it would be fun to have my bag on the roof... I told him he could put his own bag up there.

Once the car got moving I think he saw what I meant. He was pretty surprised with the car ride, the maximum speeding and weaving between lanes of oncoming traffic. Jordan with Aunt Mary Ann was pretty wild, but this was even crazier. We made it to our hotel in one piece though, checked in and decided we were going to scope out the city. The hotel was the Osiris Hotel, on the top floor of some dodgy looking building. The Don Corleone of the establishment (As James referred to him) gave us the tour and showed us the rooftop terrace. We could see the square outside the Nile bridge, Cairo tower and loads of rooftops piled with rubble and garbage. The Don showed us the landmarks which would get us back to the hotel, of which neither of us really listened all that well.

So we went out into the city, down tot he Nile and the various places around the square. The sun was hot, but it was already setting so it wasn't too bad. We took a short tour around, examining the shops and various sites. I was pretty enthusiastic about Cairo at this point. Sure it was dirty, they drove like maniacs and anyone who saw me wanted to sell something, but at this point in the trip it was character. We decided to head back to the hotel, regroup and go get something to eat... assuming we could find it. It then dawned on me that we had no idea where we were... we followed the street we believed we came up on, distinctively marked by a Pizza Hut. The problem was that we couldn't find the street that crossed it which lead to the hotel... furthermore we had no idea what it looked like. Sure, we saw it coming in, but the only thing we caught was that it was the lobby of an unmarked building. The onl thing that gave our hotel away was a little name tag on a plaque on the wall.

Then James had the idea to ask someone for directions... not the best idea. In Cairo, they see a white man who needs something and know how to attach a price tag. So the guy took us up and down, left and right all the while speaking of the plight of his family in Gaza. He stopped and held out his his for some cash with the catchphrase "I am a very poor man." So James coughed up 10 Egyptian pounds and he took off. After a few seconds of looking inside the various building lobbies, we came to the conclusion that the guy had no idea where our hotel was and dumped us off on a street corner.

Damn it.

So we wandered around for an additional hour, we were hungry and tired and had no idea where in Cairo we were. Then bam!, all of a sudden our hotel was there. Immediately we took a mental snapshot of where we were and all the distinctive features of it. I swore never again would I trapse the streets of Cairo looking for my damn hotel and I never did.


So at this point we sat in front of the air conditioner and waited until we could bear the hunger no longer. I figured, we'd walk the same way down to the square and grab some food on the Nile. The whole time I filled James' ear with how awesome Arabic food was and how much I looked forward to it. We stopped at some unpronounceable restaurant and grabbed a menu. We had a total of 3 servers, of which one barely understood English. We couldn't read the menu, so had to ask what was in each of the items. I gave up and asked for whatever the guy recommended and he gave my chicken on a skewer with chips... I was less than pleased.

So we paid the bill and the first guy came over to collect his tip with the all to familiar open hand. As soon as he left, another guy who didn't do anything but stand there and watch came to collect his. Then the next guy who recommended chicken and chips came to collect his. I was not pleased in the least. Half of them didn't do anything to help and the one that did produced garbage... plus, the pita bread was stale. You'd think a restaurant on the Nile would be pretty good...

So anyway, at least I wasn't hungry anymore. I hoped deep inside that the food would improve. In Jordan and Israel the food was awesome, but then I had people from around there that I could trust picking it out. Meh, just gonna have to be careful next time.

We found the hotel easy enough and booked a tour of the Pyramids for the next day. At this point, sleep and air conditioning was all that mattered. I was still looking forward to seeing some impressive stuff and enjoying the quirks and craziness. Tomorrow would be good.

Obligatory First Post

It only took me 4 months but I've finally finished touching up photos from my trip to Egypt with my cousin James. It's amazing how much that Dissertation sucked up my life... Anyway, its all in the past and I've got some photos to share. Enjoy!