The Famous Pyramids

April 02, 2010

The Famous Pyramids

Late night, early morning; it's how we do. Off to the step Pyramid in Saquara (the oldest pyramid known to mankind) Egypt is a great country to learn, but there are of course people trying to make money off tourist. Let's just say Egypt is 5-10x's worse. Our taxi ride to the first pyramids was a really dishonest taxi driver and Bren and I had been in Egypt for about 3-4 weeks at this point and roughly knew taxi prices; this man really rigged the meter. Really tired of all the Egyptian haggling, we tell the man we aren't paying according to the meter and we had seen him rig it. The man gets offended (That's his way of saying 'You caught me, but know I have to keep the lie going." Longer story short, we got out of the taxi mid road and at that moment the public bus was passing by and we hopped on, perfect timing.

The Step Pyramids was located in the middle of the desert with the sun beating down (really felt like we were in Egypt)

Next to the pyramid were many tombs with intricate carvings and intact color paintings.

We learned about the symbolism and what certain symbols meant. Re-curring symbols were the eye of protection and the key of life.

Our next stop "Pyramids of Giza." Before entering, we found ourselves some pretty camels that would take us around the pyramids. My mom is scared of heights and camels are pretty tall animals, so watching her get on the camel was really a funny sight. The very neat thing about taking the camels, apart from them being beautiful, the route the camels went, we felt like the only people out in the desert, amidst these large pyramids. How they got there is still a mystery, though there a few hypothesis, but still no certainty. After we checked out the Sphinx, which feels a lot smaller in person, although that could also be because it is next o the massive pyramids. We then headed over to the restaurant, Barry's; where we had a delicious dinner as the sun was setting and the pyramid light and sound show began. The light show can be a little cheesy with all the colors, but the way it lights up the enormous pyramids is purely spectacular. Wonderful way to end a great day!

Our guide was cool

Pretending to find some old ancient artifact

This picture almost looks fake. The carvings were so deep and the perfect. I wonder what they did when they messed up on a picture; kind of hard to erase a carving...