Pyramids

We’ve kicked off our tour of Egypt with arguably the biggest sight there is to see, the Great Pyramids. 

We arrived at our hotel at a ridiculous time after landing in Cairo airport, so the next morning was a bit of a write off. It was no bother though as we had no plans for the first day other than to chill. I only left the hotel to get lunch and water all day until we met the rest of the group in the evening. We then went to an evening show on a cruise boat on the Nile, which was as tacky as you’d expect. 

It was an early start the next morning as we headed to the Great Pyramids of Giza. I’ve heard people giving these a bad rep due to their commercialisation, but it was actually ok. Sure there’s people try to haggle with you constantly, but you could handle it. 

We were told it was actually quite quiet at the pyramids. One reason is that we’ve come in the “deep winter”, even though it’s over 20 degrees, it’s actually cold for the Egyptians. Secondly, Egypt is next to Israel and Gaza, so tourism rates have dropped massively. There’s nothing to be concerned about though, the areas we are travelling through are safe as can be, and there’s no concerns from the foreign office for travelling through these areas. 

First up at the pyramids was a look inside the Great Pyramid. This was a very tight space in which you needed to crouch for most of the way. A very helpful lady from up north explained to those going in that you need to crouch down in the pyramid, something which I’d not considered given that hadn’t been able stand up straight for several minutes by now 🤦‍♂️. There was a tomb inside, but it was empty. 

After leaving the very warm inside of the pyramid, we then had a wander around the outside of the pyramid, and looked at the other two pyramids in the distance. 

We then headed to a viewpoint where you can see all the pyramids in a panoramic view. There’s camels everywhere here, mainly for tourists to take a ride on. I didn’t bother as it didn’t look particularly safe, nor does it look like they take great care of the camels either. 

Next up, we went around to see the Sphinx, with its head disproportionately smaller than the rest of its body. 

Our last stop of the day was the Pyramid of Djoser, also known as the step pyramid, built before the great pyramids. It’s built in rectangular blocks rather than in the style you’d normal assume a pyramid is built in. 

Following a full day of sightseeing, we headed to the train station to board our sleeper train to Aswan. This was Dylan’s very first sleeper train, so he was very excited. 

We’ll be straight into the sightseeing in Aswan when we arrive on the sleeper train tomorrow.