An Egyptian Holiday - Day 3

Day 3 - Cairo - The pyramids



Before i start about the day's tour, let me take some time off to talk about the hotel. We stayed in the Oasis Hotel in the Giza area near the pyramids. The hotel is built on a sprawling area of 10 hectares and has a total of 300 rooms. All the rooms are spacious with heaters and coolers depending on the time of day that you are staying in the room. There are lots of fountains adjoining the rooms. The hotel welcomes you into a spacious lobby enough to hold the baggage of 40 people (we had all our luggages there before moving to our rooms). There is Wifi available but at additional cost. There is a gym available which is free to use but it works from 7:30AM to 10PM. They do have jacuzzi, sauna and massages which are at extra cost and you could use them if you have both time and money to kill. There is also the swimming pool but its usage is from 9AM to 6PM. So for tourists who have a busy itinery lined up, this wouldnt work out. There is also the tennis and basket ball courts but we didnt use any of them. Actually, we didnt have time to use them either.

Coming back to our subject, day 3 was supposed to cover the pyramids and sphinx which is the first thought that comes to people when you talk about Egypt. Our first stop was at the pyramids, where you have an option of going into the bigger pyramids. There are two options either going into the 50m one or through the 110m pyramid. The distances that i have given here denotes the distance that you need to crawl through a small passage to reach the tomb which is at the bottom of the pyramid. But both these options are at extra cost and you need to decide on it before you enter the pyramid area. We took our sweet time to decide and hence couldnt buy tickets for the same. I would not recommend these to old people, pregnant women and people suffering from breathing problems since the air at the bottom has lesser oxygen concentration and you definitely do not want to be getting medication at that place.

However for people who do not want to go for these extra options can go into a smaller pyramid which has a narrow passage of length 10m to get the hang of it. The biggest pyramid of all is the one built by Kofu measuring 146 metres in height. All the stones that were used to build the pyramids were brought from Aswan via the river Nile. It is estimated that some 2.3 million stones have been used, each weighing from 2 to 10 tonnes. Look at the amount of workmanship that has gone into building the pyramid. Due to sand storms over the past 5000 years some 9 metres at the top of the pyramids have fallen off. The next pyramid near to this one was built by Kofu's son keops and stands 139 metres tall. It still has some glazing on it left. Each of the pyramid has smaller pyramids near to it. There are usually three small pyramids beside each big one. One is for the king's spirit since egyptians believed in after-life and hence preserved their bodies by the process of mummification. The second one is for the mother of the king and the last one is for the queen.

Next we went to a place where the pyramids can be seen at a birds eyeview and also to take pics of them. This place you can take the camel ride across the desert near the pyramids to the sphinx area. The cost of this is 25 US dollars. We took the ride and believe me it was worth the money. The way the camels jerk to get up itself is freaky. Then you got to get used to the constant rythm in which the camel shakes and moves. We went to a place where all the nine pyramids in the Giza area can be seen in one line. We then continued for about 40 mins before reaching the sphinx. The sphinx as everyone knows is famous for its broken nose. It is believed that some muslim king when he came to egypt saw the local people worshipping the sphinx and got infuriated. So he ordered his men to break its nose and from then on people have stopped worshipping it. We got a group picture with the sphinx and the big pyramid in the background. The cost of this picture is 30 Egyptian pounds. The sphinx is adjoined by a temple where the king is mummified and taken to the pyramid by a way directly from the temple to the pyramids. There at the pyramids he is laid to rest in his tomb with all the jewelry, riches and food for the king.

After the sphinx we were taken to a nearby perfume shop since egypt is famous for naturally extracted perfumes. It is believed to stay fresh for a period of 20 years without going to waste. Here we were served a special egyptian drink called hibiscus and then started the demo of how the perfumes are made. We were made to smell the different kinds of scents in their repertoire. Following this you got to choose the exact flavour of scent that you would be purchasing. Now its bargaining time to get as good an offer that is possible and we Indians are very good at this. Then amidst chaos people bought scents for their loved ones and got the dispensers free for this.

Lunch followed at an Indian restaurant and the food was good here (Tandoori restaurant). We then visited the Egyptian national museum, one of the biggest in the world. The museum was very huge covering two massive floors and containing thousands of artifacts. We got only an hour to explore this huge area, but you would definitely need a full day's time to go around the entire museum looking at everything that is on display. For a history lover, maybe more. Here the most noteworthy thing that we saw (in our brief stay there) was the Tutankhamen's tomb and all the treasure that was found there. Of all the egyptian pharaohs, tutankhamen is the most famous since his is the only tomb that had not been looted for centuries and was opened by the government. The government seeked the help of British nationals to open it since the locals feared that opening the tomb would get them into a curse. So when they opened the door to the tomb they found four huge caskets one above the other all covered in gold to protect the king inside. The jewels found in the room and sacrophagus that was housing the king is on display and worth a watch. The actual mummy of the king is still present and can be seen in the Valley of the kings. There are still other artifacts showing the way the people lived and the utensils that they used. However due to our limited time we could only stray for a look here and there.

There is a sound & light show in the pyramids area where the light is shone on the pyramids and along with the background sound you get to hear the story of the king who built the biggest pyramid. The timing for our show was around 6:30 and you got to show up at 6PM itself. It was for this reason that we were rushed through the museum. The sound & light show costs 30 US dollars per person. It is freezing cold at this time near the pyramids and so you better wear proper warm clothing to protect yourself. For those who dont have it, they can rent blankets at 5 Egyptian pounds per blanket. The show started with the traditional trumpeting and music rendered by people wearing traditional gear. At 6:30, the show started throwing light first on the sphinx and explaining its story. Then it is followed by the story of the person who built the big pyramids and how it was built. Personally it is worth seeing for the first ten minutes when you get to see the story about the pyramids and the time when all the four visible pyramids light up. This is the most beautiful shot in the entire show. This is followed by the story of egyptian people and it rambles on for about 50 minutes. Just when we were reaching near freezing states the show ended and people made their way back to their hotel rooms to retire after a long and tiring day. It was so good to be tucked under the warmer blankets in the bed.

The pyramids had been seen and they are testimony to the stories that happened 5000 years ago. It has stood the test of time and is still standing to show people that time has lost to noone but the pyramids. It has seen history unravel in front of it for 5000 long years and still more to come.