Wednesday Aug. 11th Great Pyramids:
Today we got to see the Great Pyramids, the only remaining of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. Seeing the pyramids in person is numbing. It is so hard to look at the pyramids and imagine people building this HUGE structure completed in 2750 BC which means it has been around for over 40 centuries. The structure contained About 2.3 million limestone blocks with an average weight of 2.5 tons. How in the world did they stacking these huge blocks almost 146 meters in the air without the use of modern technology. The builders had to be pure geniuses. To mathematically layout the pyramids to be built is amazing. No computer guided programs. What is also amazing was seeing the boat that they found almost 50 years ago. This boat was use to bring the mummies to the pyramid. To think about it being made almost 4,000 years ago is amazing. The Egyptians who built these pyramids and many of the other structures that we have seen this week were pure genius. It is hard to put into words just how amazing it is to stare at the Pyramids right now. Our hotel has an amazing view of the Pyramids from the roof and after switching rooms to day, our hotel room. It look and wonder how these were built is very hard to do. The human brain struggles to logically figure it out. To bring these huge blocks to the site alone was amazing.
After seeing the Pyramids, the boat, and the Sphinx, Kristen saw camels running in the desert outside the Pyramids. Tourists were taking rides on the camels and checking out the views of the Pyramids. She got very excited to try. We were able to talk the guy down from $30 per person to $10 per person. We still over paid. Kristen got on the camel first and after standing tall, it decided to go down on its front legs, she just about lost it. J After it brought the back legs down, I jumped on. We did not consider the fact that I had shorts on. HOLY COW, Burlap does not feel good on bare thighs. We caught some great pictures though. The camel took us for a “jog” on the way back, which I thought was better, because it meant that relief from the burlap would come faster. Kristen decided it was more fun to watch the camels run than be on the camel while it was running. All in all, another “experience.”
Today is the first day of Ramadan, so a lot of the restaurants were closed for lunch. Supposedly it will be interesting to watch everyone come out to celebrate sunset tonight as everyone will be allowed to eat, drink, and most importantly smoke. Our guides have said that most of the people try and lay low during the day to conserve energy if possible. The one restaurant we tried to order lunch from would not serve us as they were preparing massive amounts of food for tonight.
Tomorrow morning we are leaving Egypt to try out Turkey for a week. It is nice to not have anything going on this afternoon, so we are just relaxing at our hotel, starring at the Pyramids, and making Istanbul plans.
The overnight train again was not a pleasant experience. The electricity went on and off all night, so the air conditioning was hit and miss. The trains are not built like European railways as they are very bumpy. The door kept rattling waking me up. That being said, I am glad that our Egypt train experience is over. I am glad to have tried it as it saved us a lot of money, but I highly recommend anyone traveling to Egypt to save an extra $200 before you leave and fly to and from Aswan/Luxor.
Cairo is a city unlike anything else I have experienced. The traffic and driving here is significantly worse than New York City. I bet a driver here in Cairo pushes their horn at least once a minute. I am dead serious. We are on the four floor in the hotel and it is 10:20 pm right now and there is continuous honking and by continuous, I mean multiple horns honking at the same time non-stop. I knew it was going to be bad, so I bought earplugs just for Cairo. Wish I would have packed those. It will be interesting how well we sleep tonight.
As for Cairo, we went to the Egyptian Museum first thing today. This is one of the coolest yet unorganized museums in the world. There is literally stuff everywhere and some stuff not labeled just on display. However, they have the most amazing stuff on display. We saw the treasures from King Tutankhaman. I am not going to explain the treasures from his tumb, but google and it check it out if you are unfamiliar. We got to see the coffins which are made from pure GOLD. Something like 100kg of gold! We also got to see his gold death mask (11kg) which is one of the most amazing things to see in person. What is more impressive is this stuff is 3,000 years old! Think about that. Think about how things deteriorate after 20 years, 100 years. The Egyptians were amazing at preservations. We got to see the mummy room which was also breathe taking. They preserved these bodies, some with hair and nails from over 3,000 years. It was fun to go to different temples and tombs on the cruise and finally get to see the actual kings’ bodies. We had a guide who was great and able to show us the highlights and explain different things for us. It is just amazing to see all of the artifacts that they found in King Tut’s tomb. He had the smallest tomb within the Valley of the Kings. The other tombs were robbed, so the artifacts are lost. It is only imaginable what was in some of the other King’s tombs.
After the museum, we got to visit the Khan al-Khalil which is huge market for shopping which has been around since the 14th century. It was located in Islamic Cairo which is full of mosques. It was not fun being in this area. We strayed a few blocks and it definitely felt like we did not belong. One kid told Kristen to “fuck off.” We quickly got back to the “tourist” part of the market where the crowds were INSANE. It was so insane that I did not even have a moment to pull out the camera. People trying to bargain with you and others trying to run you over all while you are paranoid that someone will try and pick pocket you. We got into foot traffic that took us to the “non-tourist” market where thousands of citizens were buying their normal goods. It was so chaotic and scary as we could not really control where we were headed. We eventually got back to the street and quickly took a cab home. We definitely enjoy getting into culture of the town and away from some of the touristy spots, but I do not feel that Cairo is one of those towns to do this. We will visit the Pyramids tomorrow and keep it pretty low key.
As for Cairo, we went to the Egyptian Museum first thing today. This is one of the coolest yet unorganized museums in the world. There is literally stuff everywhere and some stuff not labeled just on display. However, they have the most amazing stuff on display. We saw the treasures from King Tutankhaman. I am not going to explain the treasures from his tumb, but google and it check it out if you are unfamiliar. We got to see the coffins which are made from pure GOLD. Something like 100kg of gold! We also got to see his gold death mask (11kg) which is one of the most amazing things to see in person. What is more impressive is this stuff is 3,000 years old! Think about that. Think about how things deteriorate after 20 years, 100 years. The Egyptians were amazing at preservations. We got to see the mummy room which was also breathe taking. They preserved these bodies, some with hair and nails from over 3,000 years. It was fun to go to different temples and tombs on the cruise and finally get to see the actual kings’ bodies. We had a guide who was great and able to show us the highlights and explain different things for us. It is just amazing to see all of the artifacts that they found in King Tut’s tomb. He had the smallest tomb within the Valley of the Kings. The other tombs were robbed, so the artifacts are lost. It is only imaginable what was in some of the other King’s tombs.
After the museum, we got to visit the Khan al-Khalil which is huge market for shopping which has been around since the 14th century. It was located in Islamic Cairo which is full of mosques. It was not fun being in this area. We strayed a few blocks and it definitely felt like we did not belong. One kid told Kristen to “fuck off.” We quickly got back to the “tourist” part of the market where the crowds were INSANE. It was so insane that I did not even have a moment to pull out the camera. People trying to bargain with you and others trying to run you over all while you are paranoid that someone will try and pick pocket you. We got into foot traffic that took us to the “non-tourist” market where thousands of citizens were buying their normal goods. It was so chaotic and scary as we could not really control where we were headed. We eventually got back to the street and quickly took a cab home. We definitely enjoy getting into culture of the town and away from some of the touristy spots, but I do not feel that Cairo is one of those towns to do this. We will visit the Pyramids tomorrow and keep it pretty low key.
It has been interesting have Egyptian guides as we get to talk to them about the culture here. They are pretty open in that Egypt is very corrupt. Many of the citizens complain about the government and its corruption. Egypt is supposed to be a democratic country but the existing president has been in power for almost 30 years. He wins by a landslide during all of the elections. I do not know much more, but it definitely seem corrupt. There are police check points all over the place. There is a sense that they want to protect the tourists as it is a huge source of revenue for the country. However, it feels like you could pay off any worker to do just about anything for $20 USD. One quick example…at the Karnack Temple, there was a government worker who was supposed to be watching a certain part of the temple to make sure everyone stayed within the ropes and did not touch anything. We walked into the section and there was no one there. He waived us behind the ropes to take a few pictures just so he could ask for money. We fell for the tactic but got a few good pictures, but of course we did not touch anything. We then had to pay him ten Egyptian pounds which equates to about $2. It was a prime example about how these workers are working jobs that are just “fluff” jobs for appearance. I felt that I could have paid the worker $10 USD and he would have let me climb on top of the temple. That being said, it is hard to trust anyone here which is unfortunate. Everyone wants a tip; a tip to take your picture, move your bags, give you directions… That being said, today was awesome in the fact that we got to see amazing artifacts that date back over 3,000 years, simply amazing. But today was also sad when we realized that we cannot truly immerse ourselves in the culture.
Pictures posted: http://picasaweb.google.com/jacobmichaelthompson
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