Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Giza!!!!!

A quote: "You have come to the most fabulous and celebrated place in the world. Here on the Plateau of Giza stands forever the mightiest of human achievements. No traveler, emperor, merchant, or poet has trodden on these sands and not gasped in awe"

Today we went to Giza. Yasser's friend Mohab (my "bodyguard") came with us. We again took a cab to Giza, which was a fairly long trip. The first glimps of Khafre (Chephren) was over buildings, that's when the emotions started. I got giddy. We had finally arrived!

We went into some of the engineer tombs and then headed toward our horses and camels. I got up on a camel (yikes!) which is pretty rough. Those things are really, really tall. The camel leader led me up a path a bit and we waited for the others. I had no idea what was going on, only that I was on a camel, at Giza, and I couldn't see any of my friends. Camels are rough to ride and I couldn't figure out how to get comfortable, when I found out that we were going to be riding to the other side of the pyramids, which is about 11 km one way I changed my mind and decided I would rather ride a horse. The man in charge would not let me down, finally Mohab had to basically yell at him to let me down (see that's what bodyguards are for). I got off of "Sayid" and onto a horse named "Rahim". The four of us rode around to the other side of Menkaure (Mycerinus) and took some pictures and rode back again. The ride was fun, it had been 10 years since I was on a horse and here I was on a horse, in the desert, at the place I most wanted to be in the world!

We went into another tomb, where there is still paint on the walls and then walked over to Khafre. We stayed around it for a bit and took some pictures and stayed out a sand storm. We walked to the other side and saw Saqqara in the distance. Then headed down the causeway to the King's Tomb and the Sphinx, we didn't go close to the Sphinx because of the cost (a lot of money already spent today), but managed to get pictures from above.

We went back to the Great Pyramid. There is a fence around it so you can't get close. There is only one area to get close so I headed there. I touched it, felt it, soaked it in, 5000 year old stone, how many hands have touched that same spot, generations, worlds, the stories it could tell. It felt like plastic, it was amazing.

We didn't go into The Great Pyramid because (again) of the cost of the ticket, it's a lot to pay for torture... LOL it's tight and clausterphobic in there.

After that we went for dinner and this time had Egyptian Pizza which is very good (had a crust on top). We then took another scary cab ride back home to shower off the sand. Apparently to get sand on you from Giza is good luck. We were full of it thanks to the sandstorm. We ended up falling asleep early and slept through the night.