Giza

I could bore you with a lot of very academic sounding stats on the pyramids regarding their size, their purpose, how many zillions of man hours it probably took to erect, and on and on, but I'm confident about my readers' Googling skills. These massive structures are no doubt amazing to behold, and at times dizzying, but the actual experience of visiting Giza is certainly less than picture-perfect. I wouldn't recommend going without a guide, and so with our guide to lead the way we had a very enjoyable day on the plateau.


It was so bright out there that the kids could hardly keep their eyes open!  Poor Dallin and his gap teeth, thank you palate expander!


Photography was very difficult here. It was so bright that I couldn't see my camera's LCD screen to check my images--eeek!


One of many camel guides




Up and away! Riding a camel isn't as easy as it looks--when he extends his legs, you better hold on tight!


Trev wasn't so sure at first, but it wasn't too long before he was enjoying the ride.




I think we would all agree that the camel ride was our favourite Pyramid experience. It was pretty cool to ride away from the tourist mobs into the face of the Pyramids, just us and the Pyramids for that one moment.


Dallin was in heaven riding solo!


Photography camelback isn't exactly easy. Camel riding is a very bumpy ride. I was tightly holding onto the camel as well as Madeleine with one arm while trying to shoot photos with the other. I was using a lot more muscles than I realized, and consequently was very sore the next day.




Looking up the Great Pyramid


It's enough to make you dizzy!


Great Pyramid


Great Pyramid


Great Pyramid


On the Great Pyramid. We had to pay a cop to get this shot. The amount of coruption in this country is worthy of its own post.




Sphinx


Sphinx


Sphinx

Day two in Cairo was an interesting mix. We spent the first half of the day here:

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is a world treasure. It has a massive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts. It is impressive! Sadly photography is not permitted inside, but I will never forget the King Tut rooms or the Royal Mummy room. The place is certainly from another era, and I was struck by the old-fashioned wooden display cases containing priceless ancient artefacts secured by nothing more than standard u-locks.


Our Cairo hotel was an oasis of calm in a crazy, dirty city.




View of the Nile from our room

The second half of day two is an experience I will never forget and thus deserves its own post, so stay tuned . . .