We had to be up at 7:00 am to get to breakfast. We both were a little tired, because we only had a few hours sleep. The breakfast in the hotel was great. We don’t know how much it was. I suspect that we will be surprised tomorrow when we check-out.
We met our guide, Salma Kassem . When I was here with the group of Penn State students, she was one of our guides. We were very happy with her and I’m glad she is the guide on this trip. Our first stop was the Egyptian Museum. It is a huge museum with an incredible amount of artifacts. When you walk in the door, there are many large statues and sarcophagi spread-out over the first floor. We could not stay long, because we needed to queue for the 150 tickets to get into the Great Pyramid, so Salma started us off with the treasures of King Tutankhamen. We recognized a few pieces as being like the ones we saw in the Atlanta exhibit last month. We saw the death mask of gold and precious stones that weighed about 22 pounds. There were two of the three sarcophagi from his burial. The jewelry and artifacts were incredible. Most of the exhibits were probably in the same display cases they were originally placed in a hundred years ago. We wanted to see the mummy room, but there was no time. She took us to some of the museum’s highlights on the first floor. We wish we could have stayed longer.
After a harrowing drive through the crowded streets to the pyramids, we arrived and were the first in line for the tickets. The great Pyramid was built by Khufu around 2570 BC. It is 146 meters (479 feet) high and was the tallest building in the world for around 3800 years until the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889. It is constructed of 2.3 million limestone blocks with an average weight of 2.5 tonnes each. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that still remains substantially intact. It is the only known pyramid to contain both ascending and descending passages. Inside there are three know chambers: King's Chamber, Queen's Chamber, and an unfinished chamber. It took 24 years to complete and contains 2.3 million stones some weighing as much as several tonnes. The Pharaohs believed that if their pyramid was finished before they died it was an omen of impending death. However, most Egyptologists are starting to accept that they were constructed by an ancient alien race who wanted to create a beacon for their future generations so they could pillage the Earth’s resources.
It was a mad dash through a lot of pushy vendors to get to the Great Pyramid. We almost made it though unscathed, but Kim let one of them give her a “gift”. That meant that we would be buying something on the way out. Once we entered the pyramid, it became very humid. As we started though the narrow, steep and low tunnel (we had to crouch on the way up to the Grand Gallery), it started to get hotter. We were sweating before we got to the Grand Gallery. It was a magnificent sight once the tunnel opened up to the Great Gallery. We wanted to get to the Burial Chamber before the crowds. It seemed hotter every step we took up the cramped make-shift ramp. We had to really duck to get into the Burial Chamber. Since I was here 9 years ago, they put a few lights in and we could easily see most of the room. We hated to leave, but it was extremely humid in the room and more people were starting to enter.
Once outside, our friend who made the gift was waiting! He was ready to sell us post cards and other stuff. He took our picture on the pyramids and gave us more “gifts”. He said: “Pay me what you like. Some people give me US $100 or $50, but you give me what you think is fair”. We gave him $3 and thanked him for taking our picture. He seemed a little insulted by this and tried for $10 and then $5. Kim gave him most of the “gifts” back and we left.
The next big stop was the Great Sphinx. Sphinx is a word given to the structure by the Greeks. The Greeks believed the Sphinx resembled one of their gods with a lion’s body and a woman’s head. She posed riddles, death would come to those that couldn’t answer the riddle. No one is exactly sure when or who created the Sphinx. It was created before Khafre, builder of the second pyramid, because his causeway to the mortuary temple is aligned differently than the others as it goes around the Sphinx’s pit. It is believed that the pit around the Sphinx was a quarry and the rock for the body of the Sphinx was left. It was then sculpted to its current shape. Over the years, it has been restored several times. One of the remodeling efforts didn’t adhere to the base stone and started to bulge out at the sides. People say that this makes the Sphinx look pregnant.
Our next stop was the Cleopatra Perfume Palace, the largest flower-grower in Egypt. The owner gave us a demonstration and let us sample some of the perfumes, was the grandson of the founder. He was very animated throughout the demonstration. He would select some for us and wipe them on different parts of our arms and hands. We tried lotus, because Salma recommended this scent. She said that they do not export this scent out of Egypt. One of the last regular scents he let us sample was one that he said would make a woman irresistible to men. He recommended that the woman not wear it to work, because it would drive all of the male workers crazy. He guaranteed the product. He said that if Kim wore it that night and we didn’t have sex, he would refund our money. I wanted to take that challenge! He pulled me aside and told me that the smell would make my penis hard! (Jon must have believed the sales pitch as he bought a lifetime supply of oils – what a dreamer!)
We then went to Tanis Papyrus to pick out some pictures for the house. We were given a demonstration of how papyrus and was then shown around the gallery. It was another expensive stop, but we are coming home with three nice pictures. Our guide, like all guides takes you to certain shops, they don’t tell you this, but they get a commission on everything we buy. I think we made Salma a happy woman today!
After we were dropped-off at the hotel, we decided to go out for a cheap meal. When we were at the Sphinx, we saw a Pizza Hut/KFC and we decided that we would go there. Since we were close to the pyramids, we decided to walk. Crossing traffic was more challenging than we originally thought. There were no traffic lights on this highway and cars were four lanes across. You have to jump in and weave your way across. We followed a local and found it surprisingly easy to weave through the traffic after getting over the fear of the first time across. We saw a sign with an arrow showing a turn for the Sphinx. The road we took was really a dead-end alley. Every step we took brought us deeper into a poorer residential area. We still thought that it would open up onto the main road at the Sphinx. When we finally hit the end, someone offered to take us down another alley to get a “good” view of the Sphinx. We quickly decided to turn around and retrace our steps.
We wisely chose one of the dining options at the hotel. We were treated to a window table with a view of the Great Pyramid. As the sun went down, we could see the stones change color. It was another awesome experience. A good Hefe-Weizen completed the evening!
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