Pyramids of Giza

Today's excursion was to see the pyramids and sphynx. We left at 8:00 a.m. and made good time to the pyramids due to little traffic. In the U.S. 8:00 a.m. would be rush hour, but apparently this is not the case in Cairo. Basem told us that Egyptians like to sleep in, but maybe this is just during Ramadan when devout Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. They stay up very late into the early hours of the morning so they get their meals in and to pray. The stores and town closes up from 5:30 to 7:30 so everyone can go home and break their fast. They re-open after that and stay open until very late.

Anyway, we made it to the pyramids in record time and took a tour of the area. It was hot, but not bad because there was a very nice breeze! Yay, weather fairies!

Here's a couple of photos of our trip. One is of Lea standing in front of one of the pyramids, so you can get an idea of the size of the stones used to build them. Next is a photo of the pyramid. They're HUGE!




After touring the pyramids, we visited the sphynx. It was still early enough in the day that the lighting was still pretty good for seeing the face of the sphynx. Later in the day it becomes more shadowed and less photogenic. Lea mentioned, and is right, that this is the first time we've ever seen the sphynx with so little scaffolding around it. Maybe the restoration project is finally wrapping up. We hope so. It's so much better seeing it this way without all the scaffolding blocking the view.



We made it back to the hotel around 2:00 p.m., so it was a 6-hour trip from door to door. The group seemed to really enjoy it and were pretty perky for having arrived only late yesterday afternoon.

This afternoon some were lounging/sleeping out by the pool. I think people are thrown off a bit that they they don't have a Samuel meeting to rush to after a quick lunch. I hope they enjoy it and don't get used to it, because that will happen soon enough, once we get to Luxor and join up with the rest of the group that are flying in.

So far, everyone has been saying how much they are loving Egypt--especially the people!

Thanks for reading and I'll post more later!

Love,
Stuart