First Day at Cairo

7th December 2009 (Mon)

After the long 13 hours of flight, we finally reached Cairo!

The first thing that strike me after we landed was instead of grass along the runway as in most airports, in Cairo it is sand!!

Not a very good picture of the airport :p

Before passing through immigration, the tour leader that followed us there had to purchase our visa. In Egypt, visa can be bought at the airport for $15 bucks! No need to get it beforehand and there's also no interviews.

So now i have an Egypt visa pasted in my passport! :D

In the meanwhile, everyone also had to change US dollars to Egyptian pounds. Can't do this beforehand in Singapore cause not possible to change it. So there was also a row of money exchangers just before immigration.

Finally after everyone has gotten a visa, changed money and pass through immigration, it was 7+am in the morning and our tour starts immediately! yes.. after 13 long hours of travelling, we have a really full day of itinerary to cover!

First look at Cairo..
And as the coach pass through more buildings, one thing strike me as very odd. There were reinforcement bars sticking out of almost all the buildings!

Being a building student, i immediately thought that wldn't the exposure of the reinforcement bars to the external environment corrode and affect the building integrity of the building? But then as i thought more about it, i realised this is Egypt! It is unlike Singapore whereby it is rainy and humid, and water content in the air is high. Therefore the reinforcement bars would most likely not corrode here in Egypt! *bingo ^-^*

But later the tour guide also did explain that leaving the reinforcement bars as such is very common in Egypt as the Egyptians believed that this protuding bars can ward off any evil from their homes, and it is also easier for them to expand their homes vertically upwards in the future. The Egyptians would tend to build one level by one level as and when they have sufficient money. :) Guess this is a practice that is unique to Egypt! *But it still feels weird seeing reinforcement bars sticking out of most buildings in Cairo. Not use to this sight :p*

And while travelling to our first destination, we caught sight of the pyramids!! *excited to the max* I always thought the pyramids would be in the middle of the desert far away from any built up areas.. but NO!! it is super near the city!!

But we shall come back to the pyramids soon :D

First destination of the trip is a visit to Memphis, an ancient capital and an administrative centre of Egypt throughout ancient history. We visited an open air museum whereby there were many Ancient Egyptian statues on display in the surrounding gardens. But the main 'star' of the museum is a 10m Statue of Ramesses II.

"Ramesses II reigned for 67 years during the 19th dynasty of the 12th century BC, was known as "Ramesses the Great". He is often regarded as Egypt's greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh. Other than being known as one of Egypt's greatest warriors, he is also known as a peace-maker and for the monuments he left behind all over Egypt. Ramesses built extensively throughout Egypt and Nubia, and his cartouches are prominently displayed even in buildings that he did not actually construct. He constructed many temples all of which overshadow many of the others before him and the principal buildings he was involved in were probably the temple at Karnak, which he completed; the Rameseum, his mortuary temple, at Thebes; the temple at Luxor; and the great rock temple at Abu Simbel with four seated figures of the king on the facade. Ramesses II also erected more colossal statues of himself than any other pharaoh. He also usurped many existing statues by inscribing his own cartouche on them. He built on such a monumental scale to ensure that his legacy would survive the ravages of time."- So during the rest of the trip, we wld visit many more temples and statues that were built by Ramesses II. -

This statue was hauled out of the mud in 1820 and it belongs to a pair of statue of Ramesses II that probably stood outside the Temple of Ptah. This statue was offered to the British Museum who failed to collect it. So it lies at the site where it was discovered, encased within a building that was specially built to protect the statue.

The legs of the statue has already been eroded but generally the statue is very well maintained as the curving on the upper body, head and arms of the statue can still be seen.

Up close to the statue as the building is two storeys which allows visitors to see the whole statue from the second storey and scrutinise it up close at the first storey.

Other artifacts housed within the building..

And statues displayed within the grounds of the museum..

There's even a large alabaster sphinx from the New Kingdom period..

Leaving the museum, while travelling to the next destination... saw camels on the road!

And we travelled to the first pyramid of the day! The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara! This can be considered the first pyramid of Egypt!

The pyramid coming into view as the coach travels towards it..

Part of the ancient wall that has been restored in the south-east corner of the funerary complex and the entrance to view the step pyramid.
From here we enter into a narrow passageway which leads into a roofed colonnaded corridor of 40 pillars ribbed in imitation of bundles of palm stems.


From the colonnaded corridor, we enter into the Great South Court of the complex where the Step Pyramid comes into view! However, restoration works is currently underway to the exterior of the pyramid.

The Step Pyramid is the central piece of an extensive funerary complex built for the 3rd Dynasty pharaoh Djoser, who lived around 2700BC. Surrounded by an enclosure wall, probably built in imitation of the city walls of Memphis, this first pyramid, 62m high, was created by placing a series of even smaller mastabas one on top of the other.

"The Step Pyramid of Djoser marks an unprecedented leap forward in the history of world architecture. Until then, Egyptian royal tombs had been underground rooms covered with low, flat, mud-brick mastabas. For the step pyramid, the great innovator Imhotep chose to use stone rather than mud-brick, and to build not just one mastaba but six, one on top of the other, with each additional layer smaller than the one beneath it."

Views from standing at the center of the Great South Court.

We were able to go up this structure whereby there were a restored section of wall bearing a frieze of cobras.. and from there a view of the place too..

Going up to the wall there was this well like structure that was super deep. Forgot what it is really for though..

And these guys were trying to get money from us.. but they didn't get it.. there were also many other locals touting their wares of different types of souvenirs..
And right from the top we could see the other Pyramids in the distance!

And i managed to find a picture of the overview of the entire funerary complex online! :D
Source: http://home.hiwaay.net/~jalison/gpd2.html


Next we visited the Tomb of Ka-Gmni (c. 2340 BC), a government official, which was just 5 minutes ride away from the Step Pyramid.

Too bad no pictures can be taken inside the tomb because some parts of the walls still have the original colours which were painted on them and it is quite colourful. But mainly the walls inside the tomb have pictures of daily life scenes engraved in the stone, and these scenes involve people fishing or dancing, all sorts of birds, fish, men paddling boats and people carrying baskets of food.

After that we proceeded to a traditional carpet weaving school...

There were some children weaving carpets and they would pat the seat next to them, asking u to seat next to them, or they would use hand gestures to ask for money. At first they would smile at you but once they know you are not going to give them money, their faces immediately changed. Can say to almost an angry look.. which immediately would become friendly again upon seeing their next 'prey'..
But other than that, some of the carpets there were really pretty..

and then its time to head to lunch!

Pretty delicious lunch! It was a buffet lunch but each table had a small BBQ 'stove' of meat.

And we also had an opportunity to try their traditional 'bread'. Shown above in the bottom right photo. The lady below was making them.

After the hearty meal, we proceeded towards the true pyramids!!

Pyramids seen from a distance again! :D

And very soon we reached the Pyramids of Giza which consists of a total of three pyramids!
The Great Pyramid (Pyramid of Khufu), the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure. Mainly Khafre is the son of Khufu, and Menkaure is the successor of Khafre. :)

At the entrance of the compound with one of the pyramids..

And tada! the pyramids just right behind me! *impressive!!*

Together with the Great Pyramid in the foreground and the Pyramid of Khafre in the background!

Built by the 4th Dynasty Pharaoh Khufu, the Great Pyramid (Pyramid of Khufu) is the oldest and largest of the pyramids!

With an additional charge, one can enter the pyramids. But there's nothing inside the pyramid, just a chamber. And one need to go through this super narrow corridor to enter the pyramid. So we gave it a miss. In any case i saw a documentary about gg into the pyramid before :p

But the photo below shows the opening into the Great Pyramid!
And the pyramid is such a vast structure! Made up of huge blocks!
hee.. and i climbed the Great Pyramid! i conquered one of the wonders of the world!

View of Cairo while standing on the pyramid :D

From here we move on to the other two pyramids at Giza.. Pyramid of Khafre and Pyramid of Menkaure.

The pyramids are generally in a very good state and but do you know...

The pyramids that we see today looked very different from when they were built. All the major pyramids had coverings of highly polished stone at one time, but over the millennia these have been stripped away to build different monuments, leaving the rough surfaces of the limestone construction blocks.

One example of the surface of the pyramids in the past can be seen in the picture below.. The pyramid on the left is the Pyramid of Khafre, and as you can see the summit has a different covering. This pyramid's summit is the only area that retains the limestone casing that originally covered all three pyramids.

Travelling on the coach.. so now the Pyramid of Khafre is in the foreground and the Great Pyramid is in the background.
Camel rides being conducted..

And view of the Pyramids of Ginza!!
The Great Pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure from left to right.

The colour of the pyramid changes with the amount of light shining on it..

And we took our first group photo here!

After some photo-taking at this view point, its time for the camel ride!! But to walk towards the camel, one would first have to go past smelly, mushy camel dung obstacles -_-

Photo of and with the camel me and my mum rode!

Generally the ride was bumpy and scary especially when the camel is standing up and kneeling down.. The camel would rise his butt and stand up with his back legs before standing on his front legs. So you are practically leaning all the way forward... and it does not help that the camel stood up right at the edge of a slope.. scary!!

It was indeed a unique experience.. though i was prety scared of falling down from the camel. And the camels were all led by little children and everyone was scared that the camels would not be able to see them. But do you know that a camel vision is actually concave.. magnifying the height of a child. Therefore a child wld actually look like an adult to a camel... and we are giants to camels!!

After the camel ride, we then proceeded to the foot of the Pyramid of Khafre, whereby we were given time to walk around and take photos.. and we did some climbing up and done the remaining structures at the foot of the pyramid.

Pretty pretty! especially with the sun setting..

And one of my favourite photo taken during the trip! cool daddy!

Walking back to the coach we saw a rainbow!

And we also saw the other pyramids of Cairo in the distance!! If i'm not wrong, the one on the extreme right is the Step Pyramid, and the one of the other pyramids is the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur!

*The Bent Pyramid is another pyramid whereby most of its outer limestone covering is still intact, and it is called the Bent Pyramid because the slope of the pyramid abruptly becomes shallower at halfway point of the pyramid.*

Then its time to visit the famous Sphinx!
The Sphinx is part of the complex of the Pyramid of Khafre and was carved out of a natural outcrop of rock left behind when the causeway to Khafre’s pyramid was being built. It is a gigantic statue which represents a lion with a human head that is said to be a likeness of Khufre standing guarding over his tomb. I read that the statue is disfigured and beardless because the the Turks used the Sphinx for target practice in the 16th century and shot off its nose *who knows*, while the beard is at the British Museum.

Directly in front of the Sphinx is the remains of the Sphinx Temple..

And we accessed the area around the Sphinx via the adjacent Valley Temple of Khafre. It is this temple that the king's body was held prior to the burial.

Emerging from the temple, we reach the causeway leading to Khafre's Pyramid which was used as access to build the pyramids during the annual Nile flood whereby surrounding areas near the temple would be flooded.

Inside Khafre's Valley Temple..

It was only a short stay at the Sphinx as the place was closing.. we headed next to a perfume shop nearby whereby they sold oils and beautiful perfume bottles...

before heading for dinner at a restaurant near our hotel.

After that it was just a short ride back to our hotel: Meridien Pyramids where we would be staying for three nights :)

A super long but fulfilling day! Based on the itinerary, we wasn't suppose to visit the Pyramids till Day 6/7 of our trip. So it was a pleasant surprise to be able to visit them on our first day at Egypt! Main attraction of Egypt - seen! *and climbed :p*