We finally are starting to feel like we are getting on the right time zone – more normal times for bed and more normal times for getting up in the morning. It’s an exciting week this week because we get to spend time in the place that drove Egypt making it on our Top 20 list of places to see during this initial phase of our global journey – the Giza Pyramids! But before we get there later in the week, we have other things to do.
We were up around 9am on Monday morning and I watched some of the Broncos versus Patriots game that was played while we were sleeping. We had bananas and cereal and then took the metro to the Opera stop so that we could do our four-mile run along the Nile corniche. It was a nice morning out and the corniche isn’t busy at all, so two full out-and-backs along the path by the Nile gave us our four miles.
We took the metro back to our neighborhood, and I went to do weights at the gym. It is so great having it such a short distance from our apartment – a two-minute walk. We had our Greek salads before trying out a different grocery store, which is called Royal House. It is a 12-minute walk and is larger than Seoudi Market, but Seoudi is right across the street from our apartment. Sandy did laundry when we got home and made chili. The chili was a little spicier than usual, but it was delicious and we get to have it again this week because she always makes enough for two meals. Our AirBnB host, Yarem stopped by and we we had a nice chat with him – great to be able to meet him. Before bed we watched another one of Taylor Swift’s Eras documentary episodes and an episode of Frasier.
I’m not going to write too much about Tuesday because there will be a separate blog post in the coming days. The main objective on Tuesday was to extend our Egypt visa and we couldn’t find complete information that would have helped our process, so we plan to document our process in a stand-alone post in case it will help others who may do an internet search and find our information. We need to wait until we have our extended visas in hand before we post the information to ensure that what we explain actually is a successful approach.
UPDATE: We now have our six-month visas in hand and the process we followed is explained here: Egypt Visa Extension Process – Mike and Sandy Living New Experiences
Other than the visa process, we had dinner at Tres Bon – I had spaghetti and Sandy had penne, we shared a green salad, and each had fresh juices. We had weights that we both wanted to do, so we walked over to Nox Fit and did those – we were home at 9:45, watched Frasier, and went to bed.
Wednesday was Pyramid Day. After breakfast, we grabbed an Uber at 8:45am and arrived at the visitor center around 9:30. Again, Ubers are quite inexpensive – this trip, including the tip, cost $5.88.
The visitor center has several displays that give a great introduction to the history of and the building of the pyramids. The overall complex is connected by a very good shuttle system. Our first stop on the shuttle was at the Panorama overlooking the three large pyramids at Giza.
There are smaller pyramids around them also that were tombs for the kings’ queens. The three larger pyramids were built as tombs for three different kings not far from each other in lineage. We finished at the Panorama and then took a shuttle to the smallest of the three pyramids. This one is called Menkaure and is roughly 4,500 years old. Menkaure was the son of Khafre (he built one of the other pyramids). This one is about a third the size of the Great Pyramid. It is open for visitors to be able to “crawl” down the descending corridor to the burial chamber – the corridors inside the pyramids are sometimes only as tall as around four feet and you have to crouch down for a hundred feet or more to navigate the corridors.
After Menkaure, we took the shuttle to the next stop, which was Khafre’s Pyramid. This one is just a little smaller than the Great Pyramid. This pyramid is distinguished by its preserved casing stones toward the top, which shows the smooth texture that would have originally adorned the pyramid when built.
We could not enter this one, but it is surrounded by an extensive funerary complex and when you follow the causeway away from the pyramid you arrive at the Great Sphinx. Yes, it’s a bit surreal to be walking amongst these structures that I’ve read about and seen in plenty of pictures. Khafre was the son of Khufu. A sphinx is made up of a lion with a human face. The lion was a regal symbol and explains Khafre’s desire to have a sphinx leading to his tomb.
After The Sphinx, we made our way toward the Great Pyramid with a brief stop at the Meres Ankh III’s tomb. It’s found amongst several other tombs and not many people make their way to it. Once inside, the relief carvings on the walls and the frescoes are impressive. I mean these places are 4,500 years old – just crazy. One of the king’s daughters is buried here and she was also likely the wife of a king.
After the Meres Ankh III tomb, we made our way to the Great Pyramid or Khufu’s Pyramid. It’s big at 454 feet tall and each side is roughly 750 feet long at the base.
We were able to go inside all the way to the burial chamber, which contains an empty sarcophagus.
This one requires a much longer journey to the center than did Menkaure’s. It’s still extremely narrow and we walked down the first corridor not having to crouch like we eventually would. We reached a point where it was even more narrow, you had to crouch and make your way up an ascending corridor. Well, the people at the front of our line didn’t think there was enough room to continue while people were coming down the corridor, so we stood there for a long time. Finally, the line behind us must have backed up to the entry because the ticket agent came rushing in exasperated that the line wasn’t moving. He was yelling “two-way, two-way, go, don’t stop.” We were happy with him getting us back on track. It was pretty cool to be inside the center of the Great Pyramid, but I have to say that one time is good – it’s not an experience that I need to do again. I’m not sure Sandy feels like she even needed to do it once. It also may help to head straight for this pyramid when visiting the complex and getting it done as early as possible when there may be less people. It was very hot inside and quite the workout with the crouching while ascending and descending and trying to navigate around all the people. For lunch, we went to Mulliri Café and had a couple of sandwiches and delicious chocolate cake. The prices there are tourist prices, but the food was good and you are sitting on a patio overlooking the pyramids. Nice. We had hoped to see the light and sound show that takes place nightly, but it is currently under renovation. Lastly, there are plenty of opportunities to ride horses or camels through the complex. We were pestered with offers all day long and we opted out. I don’t know if we’ll ride camels again or not. We had the experience in the desert of Morocco, and it was great, but there just isn’t a strong pull to do it again for either one of us. We left around 3:15 and traffic was heavier, so we were home around 4:15 and the Uber trip back cost $13.49. We ate the rest of our chili for dinner and then finished Taylor’s docuseries from the Eras tour. Those were six excellent shows to see so much of the behind-the-scenes aspects of a tour of that scale.
Yesterday took us back out to the same area, but this time we were spending the day at the Grand Egyptian Museum. The grand opening took place in November after 30-plus years of planning, financing, and building. And what a great job they have done. The way they have structured the displays to cover the ancient history of Egypt is wonderful. The highlight has to be the collection of artifacts related to King Tutankhamun. When we arrived at the museum, we beelined for King Tut’s mask first hoping to avoid the crowds later in the day. It wasn’t busy at all when we got there, and we checked back later in the day. It was busier (the whole museum got much busier as the day progressed), but it wasn’t all that bad as you could always get a good view of the mask. Right now, the museum is averaging about 19,000 visitors per day. Our exploration of the museum broke down this way. We spent just shy of two hours seeing the King Tut collection (his tomb complex in the Valley of the Kings is just a little less than 1,200 square feet and the burial chamber itself is approximately 20 feet by 13 feet). His tomb complex is considered one of the smallest tombs in the Valley of the Kings, but it stored around 5,400 objects. He died young and unexpectedly (the cause is not known), which may explain the small size of the complex and the rush that must have taken place to stuff the contents into the tomb. The picture below of a model shows the coffins and sarcophagi structure that was followed for King Tut’s tomb – like a nesting doll to provide protection for the king in his eternal life.
We spent around two hours in the main galleries that covered the history of ancient Egypt, an hour for lunch at one of the cafes, and then another two hours for the Grand Hall, Grand Staircase, Khufu’s boat museum, and hanging obelisk. This is a statue of Khafre – his pyramid was the middle size one that we saw yesterday.
The Grand Hall and Staircase are filled with more artifacts, including the Colossal Statue of Ramesses II – he was one of the most prominent rulers of ancient Egypt and the statue is roughly 3,200 years old and 36 feet tall.
The boat museum has a reconstructed boat that was found next to Khufu’s pyramid. It was preserved in a buried boat pit for thousands of years and the wood is still in shape to have been able to reconstruct this large boat that would have been used as transport during the building of the pyramids.
The Hanging Obelisk is the only one of its kind in the world. It has been installed at the museum in this fashion for several reasons, but one of the benefits is that you can look at the underside of the obelisk and see the hieroglyphics that you would otherwise not be able to see – they are an engraved stamp of the king who was responsible for the obelisk’s creation and in this case it is Ramesses II.
It was a fantastic day of exploring and learning. The cost of building the museum has been reported to be around one billion US dollars, and the cost of entry is a very reasonable $30. We believe the price is cheaper for local Egyptians. We took an Uber back to our apartment and had eggs, toast, yogurt, and blueberries for dinner.
After breakfast this morning, we went to one of the shops in Korba Square we have seen called Moustache. This is a men’s clothing store and was our starting point for deciding if we were going to go through the exercise of finding appropriate clothing to be able to go to the ballet. Well, it wasn’t just the starting point – it was also the ending point for my shopping. The owner happened to have just arrived, and he and his team took me through the process of finding the right new suit, shirt, tie, shoes, and having the pants tailored to my length – all in about 30 minutes and at a total cost of right around $90. For everything. Great, great experience. Mr. Moustache (he no longer wears a moustache) had one of his staff take us down the street to look for a dress and shoes for Sandy. She didn’t find what she wanted at the first store, but she talked to another customer who gave more insight into what would be appropriate. At the second shop we went to for Sandy, she found the perfect outfit for her cultural outing and then found a pair of shoes at another shop next door. Her total for her new suit (pants and jacket – she didn’t need a shirt because she already has one that will work) and shoes was $44. With our new outfits we went home to eat our Greek salad and then went to the opera house to get tickets to the ballet next week. With our new outfits, we also decided to see a second show – we are going to see and hear the symphony tomorrow night. For all four tickets to our upcoming two shows, the tickets totaled $26. When factoring in the cost of our outfits, each ticket cost $40 (an amazing price for top notch cultural performances). We are excited about these activities. When we are reading this a year from now and we want to see a picture of the clothes we bought, we will have to wait for the next journal entry because that is when we actually got all dressed up.
We headed home and went to the gym for our workouts. Then it was time to go back to Bob’s Bar for our Friday night burgers and beers. We were excited because we had a very full week and after our day on Tuesday with the visa process, we were ready for a beer that night. It was another great visit and this time we even got to spend some time with Bob. We had a wonderful conversation with him about his history and his dream of opening a place like Bob’s Bar, and his dream of travelling in the future. Just a great night and end to a fantastic week.
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