Beth's Cruise Day 7

Jan 11
OH MY GOD!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I SAW THE PYRAMIDS!!
So... where do I start? The bus left at 8:45AM, winding through the streets of Alexandria, as our guide (Heba – an awesome lady!) explained how the modern city was built on top of the ancient (pointing out the ancient Amphitheater) as well as local cultural practices/beliefs. We whizzed through the countryside (recently reclaimed) approaching Cairo (which is actually made up of Cairo, Gizeh and Aswan) from the west bank which is Gizeh. We drove right up to a spot between the great pyramid (built by Pharoh Kyops 4650 years ago) and the slightly smaller pyramid of his son King Kaffrin. Kaffrin, however, was smart. He built his pyramid on higher ground and in the “foreground” such that his always APPEARS bigger. But it isn’t. The great pyramid is 137m tall. It used to be 146m when it was topped with a metal (electrum) point. The point was broken up and stolen.
We wandered about fighting off souvenirs, gifts, camel rides, marriage proposals and sleazy policemen who wanted tips for doing their job. All over, people tried to take our cameras to snap pictures of us for tips. We refused to be conned. I actually TOUCHED both pyramids! We also saw some of the smaller pyramids of the royal ladies and the funeral temple of both kings. A funeral temple is where the body was taken after mummification for the actual ceremony before being entombed in the pyramid. The third and smallest pyramid, built by Kaffrin’s son Mankereset, is small because, instead of covering it with high quality limestone like his fathers, he wished to cover his with the more difficult to obtain rock granite. He feared that if he made the pyramid any bigger it would not be completed in his lifetime.
We were then taken to the high point on the Gizeh plateau for panaoramic shots. From there we drove to the Sphinx. Also built in honor of King Kaffrin, it was actually a sort of “left over” stone. It was later used by Mohammed Ali to justify his claim to the throne. He claimed he had fallen asleep in the shadow of the sphinx and been told that he must clear the sand away from it and he will become Pharoh. When he awoke, he worked for 3 days and 3 nights removing the sand and was crowned 4 years later. We then wandered through yet another temple before I engaged in my first bit of bargaining to get Sarah a little critter friend. I’m sure she’ll love it :-P.
From there we drove to the Nile where we were having lunch on a boat. The food was rather western but the entertainment was definitely not, including a belly dancer and whirling dervish. Returning to the bus we drove out to the Citadel of Cairo to see the mosque built by Mohammed Ali (the father of modern Egypt) in 1805. It was beautiful. Here our host also explained some of the tenets of Islam to our group and I thought she did a great job addressing some common misconceptions without being too blatant about it. From there, we drove down to the Papyrus Institute where we learned how to make papyrus and received cartooches we had ordered with our names on them. Exhausted, we slept for the 3 hour bus ride back and pretty much crashed once we reached the boat.