I was so tired last night that I didn't get around to writing so I have two really full days to report.
First of all, we are still struggling with jet lag. Steve and I go to sleep around 10pm local time but then wake up at 12:30 and our bodies think we have had a nice nap so we can't go back to sleep until 3:30 and then sleep to 10am. The time difference is 8 hours ahead. Last night we thought would be the night that we would sleep, but no. Same thing. Maybe tonight...
Friday morning we had to be up early to meet our driver that was going to take us to all the sites south of Cairo. Mahmood took us to Dahshur, Saqquara, Memphis and Giza.
In Dahshur we went to the Red Pyramid-the oldest pyramid of traditional shape-and we got to climb inside it. There were no steps, just a ramp with wooden rails place every foot or so. The opening was only about 4 feet high so we had to stoop as we walked down this ramp. It was very long too, about 100 feet or more. When we got to the bottom it opened into two chambers. The smell was terrible but as we were walking through a man said "Wait until you get to the next one." We had to climb some wooden steps to the next chamber and he was right. It was so bad I had to put my scarf in front of my face. I don't know why it was like this except for maybe stale air. We then had to climb out of the pyramid, so back up that ramp we went. Tate made a video of the climb and it is funny.
Behind this pyramid we could see the Bent Pyramid, but couldn't go there because it is in a military zone.
From there it was on to Memphis. Once the capital city, it is all gone now but a few monuments remain. We got to see a huge fallen statue of Ramses II there but other than that, a way for the govt. to make money from the tourists. Speaking of tourists, the number of large tour buses here is amazing! In a way, it would be nice to climb back on a comfortable bus after a day of walking around all over, but I really think the people doing that are just getting a very sanitized view of Egypt. They don't deal with the money or the people that stop you on the street to get you to go to their shop or eating in a restaurant where you can't read the menu. But then again, I'm betting they don't have the problem we have of still not figuring out a way to get from Luxor to Taba.
But I digress. On to Saqquara. There we saw the Step Pyramid. The oldest stone monument in the world. They are still doing a lot of excavation work there so it was hard to tell what some of the outbuildings were. I found out later some were pyramids that had crumbled.
After that we were dropped off at a papyrus shop and lotus oil factory. Tourist trap! But our driver said he had to go pray so what could we do. I figured the praying thing was a ruse, but we did hear the call to prayer (you hear it all over the city 5 times day) and he came back right when it was over. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt there. We did see a very good explaination of the making of papyrus and explainations of two important egyptian historical hyroglyphs so it actually turned out ok.
From there we were taken to a restaurant "very good-very cheap" Ha! It was a tourist trap too, but the story makes me mad so I would rather just move on.
We got to Giza about 2pm and it was crazy busy with people. All kinds of stories they told us about having to go here or give our tickets there, but it was all false. We bought our tickets and went inside and starting climbing the road to the Great Pyramid. I guess because I was so tired and worn down by the people trying to cheat us (that was still going on as we were walking up) I just felt let down by the Giza pyramids. They were large, but so were the first two we had been to and there were no people there. There were camels and camel dung everywhere. People constantly asking you to do this or that. It was not a calm experience. I don't mean to downplay the whole thing, but I much prefered the other sites we had been to. We did see the Sphnix too. That was cool. A lot smaller than you think but good nonetheless. It was cloudy, windy and cool the day we were there as well, but the sun peaked out a few times so we have a lot of pictures that make it look like we were warm and happy and the children are sweet angels that never argue with each other.
Today we slept late and left for the Egyptian Museum around 11:30 or so. The museum was very crowded with tour groups, but as people on our own we were able to get around them pretty well. We saw all of the cool Tutenkahmun stuff that I have been looking at in books for years, we paid a lot of money (extra) to go see the royal mummies--worth it--and basically just saw all of the stuff that the French and British were not able to spirit away. The museum reminds you of a warehouse, however. Not much is labeled and it is just sitting here or there. There is little organization. As Steve said, maybe it is good that some of these things are out of Egypt. Overall, the kids did very well and we were able to stay until we were done, as opposed to when Tate reached his highly-obnoxious point.
Now we are resting at the hostel but will go out exploring tonight and stay up late in hopes that we can sleep a full night. Tomorrow we go to Islamic Cairo and the famous Khan al-Kahili bazaar. I'll check back in before we leave Cairo.
First of all, we are still struggling with jet lag. Steve and I go to sleep around 10pm local time but then wake up at 12:30 and our bodies think we have had a nice nap so we can't go back to sleep until 3:30 and then sleep to 10am. The time difference is 8 hours ahead. Last night we thought would be the night that we would sleep, but no. Same thing. Maybe tonight...
Friday morning we had to be up early to meet our driver that was going to take us to all the sites south of Cairo. Mahmood took us to Dahshur, Saqquara, Memphis and Giza.
In Dahshur we went to the Red Pyramid-the oldest pyramid of traditional shape-and we got to climb inside it. There were no steps, just a ramp with wooden rails place every foot or so. The opening was only about 4 feet high so we had to stoop as we walked down this ramp. It was very long too, about 100 feet or more. When we got to the bottom it opened into two chambers. The smell was terrible but as we were walking through a man said "Wait until you get to the next one." We had to climb some wooden steps to the next chamber and he was right. It was so bad I had to put my scarf in front of my face. I don't know why it was like this except for maybe stale air. We then had to climb out of the pyramid, so back up that ramp we went. Tate made a video of the climb and it is funny.
Behind this pyramid we could see the Bent Pyramid, but couldn't go there because it is in a military zone.
From there it was on to Memphis. Once the capital city, it is all gone now but a few monuments remain. We got to see a huge fallen statue of Ramses II there but other than that, a way for the govt. to make money from the tourists. Speaking of tourists, the number of large tour buses here is amazing! In a way, it would be nice to climb back on a comfortable bus after a day of walking around all over, but I really think the people doing that are just getting a very sanitized view of Egypt. They don't deal with the money or the people that stop you on the street to get you to go to their shop or eating in a restaurant where you can't read the menu. But then again, I'm betting they don't have the problem we have of still not figuring out a way to get from Luxor to Taba.
But I digress. On to Saqquara. There we saw the Step Pyramid. The oldest stone monument in the world. They are still doing a lot of excavation work there so it was hard to tell what some of the outbuildings were. I found out later some were pyramids that had crumbled.
After that we were dropped off at a papyrus shop and lotus oil factory. Tourist trap! But our driver said he had to go pray so what could we do. I figured the praying thing was a ruse, but we did hear the call to prayer (you hear it all over the city 5 times day) and he came back right when it was over. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt there. We did see a very good explaination of the making of papyrus and explainations of two important egyptian historical hyroglyphs so it actually turned out ok.
From there we were taken to a restaurant "very good-very cheap" Ha! It was a tourist trap too, but the story makes me mad so I would rather just move on.
We got to Giza about 2pm and it was crazy busy with people. All kinds of stories they told us about having to go here or give our tickets there, but it was all false. We bought our tickets and went inside and starting climbing the road to the Great Pyramid. I guess because I was so tired and worn down by the people trying to cheat us (that was still going on as we were walking up) I just felt let down by the Giza pyramids. They were large, but so were the first two we had been to and there were no people there. There were camels and camel dung everywhere. People constantly asking you to do this or that. It was not a calm experience. I don't mean to downplay the whole thing, but I much prefered the other sites we had been to. We did see the Sphnix too. That was cool. A lot smaller than you think but good nonetheless. It was cloudy, windy and cool the day we were there as well, but the sun peaked out a few times so we have a lot of pictures that make it look like we were warm and happy and the children are sweet angels that never argue with each other.
Today we slept late and left for the Egyptian Museum around 11:30 or so. The museum was very crowded with tour groups, but as people on our own we were able to get around them pretty well. We saw all of the cool Tutenkahmun stuff that I have been looking at in books for years, we paid a lot of money (extra) to go see the royal mummies--worth it--and basically just saw all of the stuff that the French and British were not able to spirit away. The museum reminds you of a warehouse, however. Not much is labeled and it is just sitting here or there. There is little organization. As Steve said, maybe it is good that some of these things are out of Egypt. Overall, the kids did very well and we were able to stay until we were done, as opposed to when Tate reached his highly-obnoxious point.
Now we are resting at the hostel but will go out exploring tonight and stay up late in hopes that we can sleep a full night. Tomorrow we go to Islamic Cairo and the famous Khan al-Kahili bazaar. I'll check back in before we leave Cairo.
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