We woke up at 5:30am in order to leave at 6:40. Our tour bus was the first one at the pyramids of Giza.  We actually had to wait a few minutes for it to open.  The first thing we noticed (besides the giant pyramids) were all the dogs.  There was actually one high up on the Great Pyramid.  I have a picture of it, but you might have to zoom in. 

We got our tickets to go inside the pyramid and our tour guide got tickets for us to enter the complex itself.  We walked over to the pyramid and went inside right away.  My husband and I were the first people inside that morning.  It was pretty chilly outside with the wind, but not so inside the pyramid.  We first walked through some carved stone archways and then we got to the cramped area. 

We had to bend over and walk up a steep ramp that had boards nailed to it like steps over a 100 feet, which was crazy.

Then we got to an open area with another long ramp. We were sweating and out of breath when we got to the top.  

Then we had to crawl through a small space to get to the burial chamber.  

As you can see it is unadorned.  Our guide told us it was not very exciting, but it was really cool to be there.  

The people guarding it told us to line up on the walls and be silent and feel the power of the pyramid. They even shut off the lights.  It was pretty cool.  I must say though that it did smell like pee.  I couldn’t imagine try to climb or go down that small space when other people were also going up and down. We were very lucky and only met one couple on the way down.  It was amazing. Our guide said that people pay $10.000 to do what we did before it opens or after it closes. We got it for the normal price!  It was well worth waking up at 5:30am. 

After we came down the same way we went up, we cooled down outside of the pyramid and took a walk around the perimeter.  There were not many people around at all.  Only one guy tried to get us have him take our picture, so we were really lucky.  

We met everyone at the bus and drove up to see the panoramic view of the pyramids.  Unfortunately it was a pretty smoggy day and we could only see the ones right where we were visiting. Our guide told us there were 14 other pyramids and you could see a bunch of them on a clear day.  I was still happy with the view we got. 

We rode the bus down by the Sphinx and we all wanted to get out and see it up close.  We walked through the temple area where they did the mummification.  The stones are all granite and there is no mortar between them.  

The Sphinx is owned by the son of Khufu (the king that was buried in the Great Pyramid), Khafre, who is buried in the pyramid next to him.  The Great Pyramid has no point on the top, Khafre’s pyramid has the point as well as some of the original polished stone.  The Sphinx is the protector of the tombs.  It was built by one solid piece of stone.  In the picture you can see the different blocks, those are modern ones built around it to protect the original work.  You can see on the face that there is still some point.  That is 4,000 year old paint! The Sphinx was mesmerizing to me.  I loved looking at it.  

While we were at the pyramids I noticed this guy in a shiny suit was going with us everywhere.  I thought perhaps he was someone paid to escort tour buses around the Giza Pyramid area.  Then he got on our bus and came with us to the next stop and after lunch we all noticed he had a large gun strapped to his side.  I guess we had a body guard for the day. My friend told me most tour groups have one.

After leaving the pyramids of Giza we stopped briefly at a papyrus store.  They showed us how they make papyrus from the plant.  The also demonstrated our durable it is.  It was really neat.  Then you can shop around the store and buy a hand painted scene on papyrus.  I have one from when one of my former students, Laura, went to Egypt and bought me one with an Ankh and my name in a cartouche.  I wanted something small and found this one with just the depiction of judgement at death.  The gods have scales to weigh your heart against a feather.  I think it’s a cool story and I like the god Anubis. 

We had lunch overlooking the Sphinx, which was amazing.  It was similar to last night’s meal ,but it tasted better.  I also had mango juice where they basically squeeze a mango and give it to you.  So delicious! 

We drove to the Egyptian museum over in Cairo. The traffic was not too terrible, so we got there quickly.  By this time I was very tired, but the guide told us so many cool stories about the artifacts.   He showed us how the walls were decorated poorly, such as this relief that once was filled but all of it fell out and now it looks terrible.

The more impressive decorations are painted in bas relief.  I really loved how intricate this false wall was done. The hieroglyphs are all from the Book of the Dead.  

We also saw the oldest hand painted wall which depicts geese, but in such detail that you can even see their tiny teeth!  There are only three sections that they could find. 

This tiny statue of Khufu (remember he was the king that was buried in the Great Pyramid) is the only one that has been found. This is very odd for a king and they believe it’s because he was very mean and the people destroyed all likeness of him.  He even looks mean on this tiny face. 

This life size statue is of his son, Khafre, (owner of the Sphinx and interred in the smaller pyramid of Giza) was found in the temple area in a hole.  It is made from the strongest stone they had and no one knows how they cut into it, since it the strongest material they had.  And look at the polish and detail! It’s amazing.  The god of Horus is hiding behind his head because pharaohs were representations of the gods and this shows the relationship. 

We went upstairs and were able to see the solid gold coffin and gilded gold coffin as well as the death mask of King Tutankhamen. We were not allowed to take any pictures, but it was incredible to stand in front of those items.  

They have already taken some of Tut’s artifacts over to the new Grand Museum, so we didn’t see as much as I would have liked.  I really enjoyed his golden throne that has his original name, Tutankhaten.  They also had the game he enjoyed playing, both original and travel size.  His canopic jars are incredible, as well as the case that they were housed in.  We also saw King Psusennes’ sarcophagus, which was solid silver (very expensive back then).  His tomb was also found intact, but it was in 1940, so it has less attention paid to it than Tutankhamen, even though the find was just as incredible. 

This statue of a scribe was important because they were very important people back then.  If you wanted something written for your tomb, you needed a good one. This guy has a bit of a sneer, showing he knows how important he is. 

This wooden statue is of a mayor. It’s interesting because he is not trying to show how athletic he is. He is proud of his dad bod.  They had to restore this statue quite a bit and if you zoom in on his face you can see the wooden nails where they held in his eyes. 

This king and queen have such a solemn look that when tomb excavators found them, they refused to continue working. They were rattled by newspaper reports about curses and thought these two were an omen.  I think they are amazing.