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Look!! Pyramids!!! They're actually huge, we're at the photo spot, pretty far away from them. And yes, over Aaron's shoulder is Cairo. They ARE that close to the city. Most pictures you see are taken with the city at the photographer's back.
The Nile, as seen from our hotel room balcony. It's wider than that, the far bank in the picture is actually an island, and the river is about twice as wide on the other side.
This is the Khan el Khalili bazaar. It's a very famous tourist spot; originally built in the 13th century, and HUGE. It covers a lot of land, all these narrow, cobbled streets and twisting alleyways, and approximately 7 different stores, repeated over and over and over. About twenty feet behind Aaron and Bella (and me with the camera) is a large, busy mosque. Four days after we visited it, some crazy person bombed it, killing one person and injuring 20. They hadn't had anything like that in Cairo for 3 years before that--obviously my Eye of Horus necklace that I bought the day before kept a successful lookout for enemies.
Look, we're standing near the crotch of Ramses II! Yes, we're inside the Keep Out ropes, that museum guide behind us let us go because he knew our tour guide. I would recommend booking a tour through your hotel to see Memphis (that's where we are there with Ramses and a bunch of other huge statues), Saqqara (home of the original pyramid, the Step Pyramid and a tomb we visited that still had amazing colorful paintings on the walls), and of course Giza. It sounds expensive at first, but unless you speak the language and look Egyptian, you're definitely going to save money by having an actual Egyptian person on your team. Plus, with a guide, you get to touch stuff. I understand better why places like the British Museum and the Met don't want to give their ill-gotten Egyptian goods back to Egypt--they really don't take very good care of it.
The mosque of Mohammed Ali, or the Alabaster Mosque. See the pretty white stone they built it with? It's the limestone facade that originally covered the pyramids. They hauled it right off and built this. Ironically, there's a limestone quarry that's actually closer to this site than the pyramids are. The mosque is very beautiful inside, though. Amazing Byzantine-inspired painted ceilings, and crystal chandeliers that tinkle constantly in the breeze. This is also the site of the Citadel, a castle that was once the home of the Egyptian royals.
There's a pyramid. It's the second pyramid, so not as large as the Great Pyramid, because the son respected his father. However, he was a crafty bastard, and built his slightly smaller pyramid on higher ground, so it usually appears to be the larger of the two. There's still a bit of the original limestone covering left around the top. We went inside this one--it involved walking bent over down a very long, narrow shaft with a short ceiling, then up for a long time (still crouching, mind you) and then you're in a large, empty room. It's very stuffy inside, and kind of disappointing. You know that going in--that the pyramids were robbed AGES ago--but it's still kind of a let-down to be confronted with it. There's nothing but an empty stone sarcophogus. Even slabs of the walls were stolen, for the paintings. All that's left is modern graffiti, crap like "Sam was here" and "J+L" in a whole bunch of languages. It's sad. On the other hand... you're standing inside the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World!
That's the Great Pyramid. People are so tiny next to it! I really don't have any shots that do justice to how very large it is. I guess you'll have to go to Egypt and see!
That's us coming out of the pyramid. It looks like a dirty alley, doesn't it? Yeah. A lot of Egypt was like that.
After visiting the pyramids up close, Sherine (our tour guide) took us up to the photo spot, which over looks them (see the first picture). From there, you can rent camels and ride down over a bunch of sand dunes and around the pyramids to the Sphinx, which is on the other side. It was, hands down, the best part of the trip. My camel's name was Mickey Mouse. It's miles of empty, barren, and strangely beautiful desert behind the camel herder who's taking our picture. Just hills and waves of sand--I've never found deserts particularly beautiful before, but that definitely changed when I was in one. This was Valentine's Day--next year will have to be pretty spectacular to top a romantic camel ride to the pyramids!
We let Bella ride her own, and she pretty much had the time of her life. She was annoyed that we wouldn't let her go fast, like when Aaron and I raced. SO fun to kick your camel and go flying across the desert. If you do it: sit back and let your pelvis rock. Seriously, lean way back and relax. Otherwise you'll bump along like crazy and feel like you're about to tumble onto the camel's neck at any moment, especially when they run down a dune. I have so many different shots of us on camels--it seems kind of silly and touristy, but it was SO much fun, and the memories will certainly last a lifetime!