When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
On Tuesday we took a train from Alexandria to Cairo.
Here is the Alexandria train station:
And a view of a windowless adjacent train:
We were surprised at the “traffic” in Cairo. In addition to the cars, there are numerous donkey and horse driven carts, cattle and camels. We even watched a man herd his goats across 4 lanes of traffic in front of our hotel.
A few street scenes in Cairo:
Just a block up the street from our hotel (and on the sidewalk!):
Our hotel faces the Nile River and Cairo. We went up to the rooftop restaurant and looked the other way to see our first view of the pyramids past the many homes in Giza:
We took an evening stroll out through the streets of Giza. Here is an alley - not quite as picturesque as those we saw in Venice!:
We came across a cart with a guy selling the most beautiful tomatoes:
This kid chased us down on his bicycle to ask Debbie her name:
I think that blondes in his neighborhood are a rarity!
A political poster:
The view of homes from the roof of our hotel. Many have goats and chickens on the roofs of the homes:
On Wednesday we had a spectacular day of visiting the pyramids – and we haven’t even gotten to the three famous pyramids of Giza.
Our first stop this morning was at the Red pyramid - the second largest pyramid in Egypt:
Snefru built two pyramids – the “Bent” pyramid and, when that did not work, the Red pyramid. These were built between 2597 and 2547 BC – 5,607 years ago. The Red pyramid is so named because of the red granite used to build it – brought from 1,000 miles away near Aswan.
When we arrived at the pyramid we were lured to the far side by three police officers – one on a camel.
They proposed to show us a little-known “temple”. Once we got out of view, they proceeded to have us ride on their camel and pose for pictures.
When finished with that, the extortion began:
Leaving the “temple” we proceeded to climb the north face of the pyramid to the entrance.
The shaft to the lower chamber slants down at a steep angle and the height is only about 4 feet tall, so you climbed down the ramp at a squat.
Once in the lower chamber we entered a second chamber. This was the one used to fool grave robbers.
In the upper corner (accessible by wooden stairs) is a low passage into the actual burial chamber for the pharaoh.
Nothing to look at now, of course.
What is it like inside of a pyramid? Pretty warm (surprisingly) and with no air movement, so it is humid.
Heading out of the access shaft:
Next we headed over to the “Bent” pyramid. This was actually the first built by Snefru and is the first pyramid to ever have been built. Unfortunately midway through construction it was discovered that had they continued, the pyramid would have been much too tall. So they changed the angle for the top part.
We made a stop at the museum of Memphis to see a very large limestone statue of King Ramses II and the second largest sphynx in Egypt:
Our next pyramid was the Pyramid of Teti:
We also went through the shaft and into the burial chamber of this, smaller pyramid. This one was built in 2,350 BC. It is in bad shape on the outside because the stones were removed to build another pyramid. However the burial chamber is nice as it has star decorations on the ceiling and hieroglyphics on the walls.
Our next stop was the Tomb of TiTi. This was a private tomb of a high official and contains beautiful hieroglyphics with the figures in their original, non-faded colors:
The next stop was the Stepped Tomb, often incorrectly called the Stepped pyramid. This is the oldest known stone structure in the world. The Pharoah was buried deep underground and then a large base of stones formed the base over his tomb. Then another layer, and another, etc. This tomb dates to 2,643 B.C.
We finished our day by visiting a rug-making school. Here, children make the rugs. Their fingers are tiny and agile, so they can tie the knots faster than an adult. They work the factory until their fingers are too large to tie the knots. And, before you ask, yes, they are paid well. And they do attend public schools for half a day.
Here are some workers:
And one trying to teach Debbie to tie knots:
By the way, these kids are very fast. They tie 100 knots per square inch in short order.
Following the tour we got a “shopping opportunity” in the showroom:
A happy buyer and a happy seller:
On the way back to the hotel we followed this small truckload of beef:
The end of a memorable day – seeing a pyramid at the end of the block!
That’s it from Egypt for today. Happy Thanksgiving!
