The Trip of a Lifetime! (Day 13)

Wednesday, May 11th

The next morning we were presented with a magnificent breakfast spread.  It's a good thing we did so much walking on this trip because we sure ate a lot of great food!  They had actual honeycomb at breakfast...

This was the lobby of the hotel...

The entrance to the hotel...

 From our hotel we drove to the Citadel with the 

Muhammad Ali Mosque located inside.  This was what we saw throughout most of Cairo... 

The population of the greater Cairo area is 20 million.  There are some really nice and beautiful areas, but much of Cairo is very dirty and run down.  There were huge piles of garbage everywhere.  The driving was also pretty scary.  The lines on the road are just considered as guidelines.  They pack as many cars side by side as they can fit across the road.

Cairo is also known as "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture.  A minaret is a tall slender tower, typically part of a mosque, and is usually topped with a crescent moon, but not always.  It functions to provide a vantage point from which the call to prayer is made.  The call to prayer is issued five times each day: dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night.  Many people in our group complained of hearing the "call to prayer" over loudspeakers both here and while we were in Jordan.  Mark and I must have been too exhausted because we never heard it.

The Citadel of Cairo is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Egypt.  It has great views of the city and was fortified by the Ayyubid ruler Salah al-Din to protect it from the Crusaders.

It contains the Mosque of Muhammad Ali (pictured below).  This mosque was built between 1828 and 1848.  The mosque is the Tomb of Mohammad Ali and is also known as the Alabaster Mosque because of the extensive use of this fine material. Its two slender 270 foot minarets are unusual for Cairo.  From the arcaded courtyard, visitors have a magnificent view across the city to the pyramids in Giza.  Just off the courtyard is the vast prayer hall with an Ottoman style dome which is 170 feet above.

I loved the architecture of the doors and windows on this mosque...

Before we entered the mosque, in the middle of the courtyard was a marble ablution fountain with a carved wooden roof on columns. This fountain is where the faithful wash before going into the mosque to pray.  The fountain was beautifully decorated...

This is the prayer hall of the mosque.  It is 170 feet up to the ceiling...

The doorway of the mosque...

One of the locals helping at the mosque.  I thought she was so beautiful!

Upon walking out of the mosque we were approached, as we were at pretty much every site we visited in Egypt, by very persistent locals selling their wares. We stopped at this stand to buy some Egyptian headpieces and necklaces to bring home as dress-up stuff for out kids.  It took about 10 minutes of haggling with the owner to get the best price I could for what I wanted.  He didn't have a prayer.  As soon as one of our group got a decent price, that man couldn't sell it any higher for the rest of us - although he tried.  What started at $20 was eventually had for about $5...and so it went.

From the Citadel we drove to the Cairo Museum.  I didn't realize, until our guides pointed it out, that we would be going right to the heart of all the chaos that had been happening in Cairo.  The museum was across the street from the square where all the riots had been happening!  Right next to the museum we could see the burned out government building set on fire a few months before when the riots first started.  Did that make us a little nervous - yes.  There wasn't any ruckus going on while we were there, though.  They told us all the riots happen on the weekends, and during the week you never have to worry...we still worried - a little.

Some of the locals...

Another mosque we drove by on our way to the Cairo Museum...

When we reached the Cairo Museum we were told we could not bring any cameras inside, and if we tried to take any pictures, even with a camera phone, our phones and cameras would be confiscated...I left my camera, sadly, on the bus.

How I WISH I could have taken pictures at the museum.  They had so many amazing treasures absolutely crammed into that large museum.  One entire floor was filled with all the treasure from King Tutankhamen's tomb.  We saw mummies, Egyptian carved statues from tombs, coffins (sarcophagi), and King Tut's famous Gold mask, which rested over the bandages that were wrapped around the King's face.  The mask weighs 24.5 pounds and is made of solid gold.  It is believed to represent what the King's face really looked like.  What was great is that you can walk around and touch many of the artifacts in the museum.  The most valuable ones are obviously behind glass - but there is much that isn't.  To be able to touch artifacts that are 3,000 years old is amazing!

From the Egyptian Museum we drove across a bridge spanning the Nile River to the Giza Pyramids...

As we drove we began to see the three great pyramids coming into view.  I have wanted to see the pyramids my entire life.  I remember choosing a country to write a report on in elementary school - I chose Egypt.  I have always been fascinated by Egypt.  I was so excited to be here!  The pyramids were built over four thousand years ago and are the only remaining wonder of the ancient world.

As we approached the pyramids our Egyptian guides informed us we would have the opportunity to actually go inside one of the pyramids to see the tomb lying at its center!  Wow!!  As we got closer the pyramids loomed larger and larger.  They are really big!

Pyramids were built in Ancient Egypt as tombs, or burial places, for Egyptian pharaohs, or kings.  The Ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife, so it was very important to them to protect the bodies of their pharaohs.

In order to keep the body of the pharaoh safe, the insides of the pyramids were like mazes with secret doors and dead-end passages.  The pharaoh would be near the bottom or even underground.  Other rooms contained things like jewelry and furniture that the pharaoh might want in his next life.

The biggest of the three great pyramids in Egypt is the Pyramid of Cheops.  It is in the foreground here.  Behind it is the Pyramid of Chephren.  The one not visible here, which is one we got to go inside, is the Pyramid of Mycerinus.

The picture below is our view from the bus of the biggest pyramid - the Pyramid of Cheops...

The Great Pyramid of Giza (also called the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in Giza, Egypt.  It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact.  Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek) over an approximately 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC.  Initially at 480.6 ft, the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, the longest period of time ever held for such a record.  Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface; what is seen today is the underlying core structure.  Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base.  There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramid's construction techniques.  Most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place.

The building date of this pyramid means it would have been in existence at the time of the flood in 2344 BC.  It is interesting that scientists explain that the erosion suffered by this pyramid could only have happened with a large amount of water!

Here, the Pyramid of Cheops is to the left, and the 

Pyramid of Chephren is to the right...

Next we saw the Pyramid of Chephren...

The Pyramid of Chephren, often called the "Second Pyramid", is built next to the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops).  Chephren is the son and successor of Khufu and Hensuten.  The top of the pyramid still has some of the limestone casing that once covered the entire pyramid.  There may have been a change in the method of positioning the blocks that has kept these pieces still intact.  It gives the appearance of a white cap on top of the pyramid.  The outer covering of this pyramid was originally very pure white limestone which would have shone like gold in the sun.

We got off our bus in front of the Pyramid of Mycerinus.  This is where we would actually get to see the tomb inside the pyramid!

Mycerinus was a pharaoh of the Fourth dynasty of Egypt (c. 2620 BC–2480 BC) who ordered the construction of the third and smallest of the Pyramids of Giza.  He was the grandson of Khufu.  His pyramid is much smaller and it's limestone is pinkish in color.  The three pyramids are said to be aligned to a constellation and Mycerinus represents the red dwarf star in that constellation.

There were many locals here very insistent on giving us a camel ride.  We were forewarned not to take them up on it.  Once on top of that camel they have been know to take tourists out into the Sahara desert and not bring them back until they have been paid a good amount of money (much more than they originally said when you agreed to the ride).  You are kind of at their mercy once that camel stands up because you are pretty high up off the ground.  There are no stirrups to help you get down once the camel stands up.  We took lots of pictures but were content with the camel ride we received in Petra at the start of our trip.

Entering the pyramid...

One of the boys on his horse at the pyramids...

A view of all three large pyramids...

This man was very persistent.  Mark and I wanted our picture together in front of the pyramids.  This man refused to get out of the picture.  He insisted we pay him $5 for the privilege of having him in our picture.  We kept telling him to leave but only until we were forceful about it would he go.

The Sphinx was located on the other side of the pyramids from where we were in the above photo.  It seemed smaller than I originally thought it would be, but still really neat.  The Sphinx is over 5,000 years old!

Recently, scientists have discovered that there is a chamber below the Sphinx!  Several, in fact.  Although only one room of this chamber has been opened so far, with nothing found in it, many more openings are scheduled to happen in the next two years.  No one knows what will be found in this chamber, although the most popular theory is that some sort of Hall of Records for the Ancient Egyptian society will be found.

This little boy was trying to sell me some trinkets.  He was so cute.  I started talking with him and he showed me some fun poses to do in front of the Sphinx...

From the Pyramids we drove to a Papyrus Museum where we could view and purchase actual papyri.  The Egyptians used the aquatic papyrus plant to make sheets which could then be used for writing or painting on and also for making rope, sandals, and boats.  We purchased a beautiful papyrus painting that is probably about eight feet long, and a man hand painted our last name in hieroglyphics at the bottom.  So neat! 

After leaving the Papyrus Museum we drove to the Cairo airport to fly to Luxor, Egypt for the next portion of our trip.  Tonight we stayed at the five-star Luxor Sonesta hotel.