At last! The Pyramids. The only one of the original "Seven Wonders" still around. It seems ridiculous that just four days ago, we were hiking along the Great Wall. Well, ridiculous and awesome. The Pyramids are big; it's really hard to capture them in a photo and convey their immensity. They were the tallest man-made structure until Medieval times. That's a record that lasted for almost four thousand years. They're still the most massive structure around (unless you count certain land fills...). Additionally, they are old. Really really old. Other than some random stone axes and whatnot in museums, the only man made thing nearly as old that I can think of is Stonehenge. I think they may just pre-date everything else (man made) we've seen by over 2000 years.
We woke up around 6am in order to catch a bus out to the Pyramids by around 7:30am, which should get us there before opening. As you can imagine, there are a lot of people that arrive later in the day, and it is also quite hot later; an early start is a good idea. We found the 'ordinary' (aka non-AC) bus at the bus station at the Antiquities Museum and rode until we could see the Pyramids, and walked around until we found the entrance. There was already a queue forming. We decided against visiting the interior of the Great Pyramid: we'd heard that it was anti-climactic, and it was somewhat expensive.
At 8am when the doors opened, we quickly walked past the largest pyramid (Khufu) to the most iconic (Khafre), which has some of its limestone cap intact. Did I mention that they're big?
Of course, we didn't want to miss the Sphinx, and we figured it would be less crowded early, so we walked along the causeway between the second pyramid and the Sphinx, looking at the back of his head along the way. The Sphinx is a lot smaller than the Pyramids, but it's also carved from a single block of stone. It's also way cooler. The Sphinx is currently undergoing restoration work; we have mixed feelings about that. In general, we approve of things looking new, so long as they look pretty similar to how they looked originally, as it enhances our sense of wonder, but it's really important to do a good job of it. We sat down and stared slack-jawed at the Sphinx for a solid half-hour. It took almost that long for it to sink in that we were really there looking at the Sphinx and the Pyramids.
While we were there, we sometimes had it to ourselves, and other times tour groups would show up, take a few photos, and leave, with most people stopping where they could first see the Sphinx, not walking the extra 10 feet for an excellent view with the Great Pyramid in the background.
Once we'd had our fill of looking and picture taking, we worked our way toward the smallest of the Great Pyramids. We went the back way, not on roads but among the “catacombs” of other minor structures, which have been partially excavated. For the most part these other structures had their entrances closed off by iron gates, but it was interesting to peer into them and fun to walk among them while looking at the pyramids on the one side and the rolling desert on the other. Aside from the occasional brightly clad Egyptian wondering by on a camel trying to sell us a ride, we had this area all to ourselves. When we got there, we had the crumbling temple next to the small pyramid basically to ourselves, where we sat in the shade taking it all in for a while.
Next we walked back to the Great Pyramid and descended into the tombs of the queens in the small pyramids along side it. It was pretty cool climbing down the 45-degree tunnels into the center of the pyramids, though the tomb areas were rather anti-climactic, being basically just tiny stone rooms. All the goods being, of course, long gone. We also went into another tomb that wasn't under any pyramid.
On the way back, we saw the Nile. You know, the river in Egypt.
What a fantastic day! I don't think there's anything else, except maybe Narnia or the Hundred Acre Wood, that I've wanted to see for as long.
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