Egypt: Day 1: Saqqara and Giza Pyramids

After arriving at 4 in the morning to Cairo, Jen and I were lazy the whole day with little to no sleep between us. We rested until the briefing meeting at 5, where we met our guides and the rest of the crew. Our tour group is a mish mash of two DePaul students, a couple from Somerset, a couple from South Africa and another woman from London.

My apologies for the shit photoshop job

We had our first option to attend either the very kitsch Giza pyramids laser and light show, which we were supposed to see the next day anyway, or a dinner cruise down the Nile. The latter sounded more enticing, so we meet our guide and headed to the dinner boat, Memphis, named after a local temple here (as does everything in Egypt seemed to be named after something from the Ancient days). Nefertiti’s BBQ House, anyone?

The King is in.

We walked into a large room with 30 long tables, a row of buffet tables and about 200 Chinese tourists occupying most of the tables. We found our table and soon enough the boat took off down the Nile. Calling it a boat vs a floating restaurant with marble lined floors, gilded windows and disco lights was certainly debatable. During dinner we were awarded with a man playing two electronic keyboards to many show tunes and a grand finale of "If your happy and you know it, clap your hands." Then his partner came on who crooned Sinatra and Elvis hits from his laptop that showed the words Karaoke style with the bouncing ball over the words. We had to laugh at how our general impression of what we expected was so vastly different from what we got, but we still had a great time.

Later on, we did get a real treat in seeing a spectacular whirling dervish entertainer that had taken the age old custom of "whirling" and given it the Las Vegas treatment. He was fast, doing tricks with colored pans, undoing layers of his spinning tops to reveal even more tricks and leading the crowd in bursts of applause and a million pictures.

We then had a belly dancing performance, complete with fake sword fighting and audience participation dancing from a group of Chinese ladies who loved it, which ended just as we pulled back into our docking area.

More like Star Wars reenactment

We woke early the next day to head to Saqqara, the oldest pyramid in Egypt. What you are looking at is nearly 4,500 years old and is the less refined version of what the greater pyramids are based upon. It is composed of 6 mastabas, or funerary dearths, each one made from sandstone and white limestone. Surrounding the pyramid are a few remains of temples that held the wives of the king and important officials. One of which was accessed by descending down a rather small opening into a room covered with hieroglyphics that were beautifully preserved.

Next, we made our way to a local perfume store that specializes in creating oils the same way that the ancient Egyptians did. The legend goes that King Tut was buried with some large vases of an assortment of oils, including eucalyptus, lotus, jasmine, citrus and more, which were still intact some 4,000 years later when they were discovered. The secret to these oils being that they are concentrated oils, without any alcohol or water mixed in. A single drop was enough to smell great for 24 hours. We later learned that many of these oils are directly imported to major perfume designers, mixed with alcohol or creams, bottled up and sold as brand names of perfume, cologne, musk, after shave, eye moisturizer, lip balm, etc. The perfume store was set up as a parlor in which we were given refreshments and a light lunch. We were taken on a brief tour of the oils and refinement processes.

Next, we headed to the Giza pyramids and Sphinx. With about ten thousand other tourists, we made our way up the base of it, climbed a few rows high, but you can only go up about 5 rows, before the guards whistle at you. Apparently, a tourist a few months ago decided to climb up to the top against the guards authority and got himself in a position where he couldn't get down, so was instead airlifted via helicopter off the Pyramid. The Giza pyramids are the biggest of all the pyramids and are the only remaining site of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. We took our photos that have probably been taken a billion times and stared in awe as the guide gave us some more history of the monument that stood as the world's highest structure for 4,000 years until the Empire State building stole that title. Quite an impressive feat from an ancient civilization that used nothing but sheer manpower and stone to create it.

We made our way around to several areas to take photos and then finally to the Sphinx. It sat half buried in it's excavation hole, but was still a truly beautiful monument. Missing it's nose and beard from the original mask that was supposedly designed after King Khafre who had ordered it built. We took our mandatory Kissing the Sphinx pictures and many more before elbowing our way through the hordes back to our bus.

I was nervous about making a good first impression..

True Love

Nose envy

We made our way back to the hotel to refresh and eat a little before boarding the train to Aswan, the southernmost city on the Nile to begin the rest of our journey slowly making our way back to Cairo. The train is a slow and winding 13 hour overnight trip. We have first class tickets, but have already been warned to avoid eating anything from the train food carts and to limit the number of times you need to go to the bathroom, as it is quite awful. Ah… traveling!! Something tells me, we'll be just fine though, as we make it a habit to bring our own toilet paper and snacks everywhere we go.

Til the next story!