The Mysteries of the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza—10/3–4/2023

Upon my return by train from Alexandria, I again stayed at the Holy Sheet Hostel for the night before joining up the following afternoon with the Intrepid Tours group at the Pharaohs Hotel with my first view of the Nile River from our hotel room.

I met up with my roommate Dan from Toronto, and we joined the others for the introduction and orientation with Mohammed, nicknamed Hady.  I met the others in our group: two are from Canada, Andrea from the British Columbia area, and Kasia from Toronto. There was a couple from Germany, Thorsten, and Sabine, and a couple from the US, Katrina and Nick, who had been traveling for a year around the world. Nick from the UK and Matt from Australia rounded off our group.

Their work backgrounds included a global banker, an investment advisor, two HR people, including me, a corrections officer/winemaker, an ER nurse, a carpenter, a university marketing person/filmmaker-screenwriter, a telecommunications person, and an aerospace engineer.

After the orientation, we drove to the Khan al Khali Bazaar and passed by the Cairo Tower landmark.

At the bazaar, we first had dinner, and then wandered about the bazaar area, including a stop for some Egyptian coffee. My dinner was Kofte--broiled ground meat and eggplant with the everpresent pita bread.

The following morning, we headed out to the Giza area of Cairo where we saw several pyramids, and the Sphinx where Nick-UK and I rode camels.

What an amazing sight to see several huge pyramids as we came up to the visitor area. The first pyramid we visited, was the Great Pyramid of Khufu. It was both the largest and oldest of the pyramids here. It was completed about 2670 BC and the wind and weather reduced the height by 9 m to a current height of 137 meters--450 feet.

Groups of people are clustered at the entrance of the tomb for the long, steep, narrow climb up to the tomb area.  I was joined by others in our group including Sabine and Thorsten shown in some of the pictures below.  As we ascended, it began to feel like we were in a sauna and some people freaked out and turned around.  

When we got to the tomb area by crawling on our hands and knees through the last 10-foot passage, we were universally disappointed with how plain the room and sarcophagus were.  

We understand that most of the antiquities there had been removed to the Egyptian Museum.

Some of us decided to climb inside the pyramid to view the tomb area. It was a steep climb up several areas that had low ceilings, and the temperature continued to rise as though we were in a sauna.  

Just before we entered the tomb area, we had to crouch down very low to get past the final passageway.  There wasn’t much to see other than an empty rectangular box that looked like it was made of concrete.

After that, we headed over to the second largest pyramid called Khafre, which was covered at the top, with inscriptions and a sheathing of limestone.  From there, we went to the nearby panorama, where we could see several pyramids along with the camels, waiting for the tourists to ride them.  Only two of our group decided to ride the camels out into the desert-- me and Nick from the UK. The mounting and dismounting was the most exciting part of the ride. 

And I thought this camel ride was supposed to be fun. Nick-UK was following me.  Others in our group chose not to ride camels.

It was then off to see the Sphinx which ended up being large, but much smaller than I had imagined it to be. I was able to frame myself between the Pyramid and the Sphinx.  When I saw the man standing in front of the Sphinx, I realized that it was actually huge and that the two Pyramids in the background were enormous--a monumental engineering feat for all time.

We then visited the Egyptian Museum in Cairo which had some amazing relics from the pyramids and other historic places--no pictures allowed of the King Tutankhamun's collection.  We wandered through the halls filled with from the Pharoah's era to the Roman era. It included halls filled with mummies and other treasures.

Following that, we visited a Papyrus store, where we got an orientation on how they made the papyrus sheets that they used for artwork to sell.

After a long, hot day in Cairo, we returned to the Pharaoh's Hotel where we refreshed with a hot shower before we boarded the sleeper night train to Aswan— about a 13-hour ride.

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