Conquering the pyramids

"All dread time, but time dreads the Pyramids."

Thursday, April 15
Wow. We did it... and it was pretty cool. Today was our excursion to the Giza Plateau and the pyramids there. Cairo is so large and sprawling (what do you expect with 20 million people?) that there is development (a relative term) up to the area of the pyramids. It's quite mind boggling as an engineer especially to consider that these are 4500 years old and the Great pyramid, the largest and oldest, is over 2.3 million stone blocks that weigh 2.5 tons a piece. I read an estimate elsewhere that at some points during the process they had to be sliding the stone blocks in at about one every 2 - 3 minutes. Because their tools were primitive they needed to start quarrying the granite or marble blocks that lined the special interior rooms about 7 - 10 years prior to when they were needed.

Greg arranged a driver, George, with the hotel to take us to Giza and then around the pyramids. George as it turned out was a CRAZY driver - even by Cairene standards. For example, in the first minute of our trip he pulled a crazy maneuver that almost resulted in an accident and a policeman demanding his license. Greg and I were thanking Lolo again for bringing the sit and stroll. We zipped along to Giza. As we approached the area a number of folks were trying to wave us down, stop the car, block the road, look official, sell us something - or all of the above. All of the guidebooks say to avoid them at all costs. Apparently George is well-versed in Egyptian travel books. His tactic was to aim to them and accelerate. I do have to hand it to him, it was highly effective.

He dropped us off near the Great Pyramid. After going through security we wandered up in awe of this ancient monument. It was huge. We were warned that it's so big that being right in front of it is actually disappointing because it seems so two dimensional from the base. I wasn't disappointed, but I did think that each stone block was going to be a lot bigger. The kids enjoyed scrambling on the blocks on the outside and taking pictures. We were debating if we should go inside the pyramid, as we were warned it was strenuous. We opted to go for it. It was awesome to go inside and head up the tiny passageway that leads to the burial chamber just like an old school archeologist. Gavin lead the way and we followed.

After the great pyramid we headed to the area where you can take photos of all of the pyramids and then down to the Sphinx. That was Connor's favorite far. He kept referencing the Little Einsteins episode and saying we needed to look for the missing puzzle piece!