The Great Pyramid at Giza and The Sphinx

Our next stop was what everyone thinks of when you picture visiting Egypt – the Great Pyramid at Giza. What’s really surprising about this is that it’s literally right next to the hustle and bustle of Cairo. I thought it would be an hour or two drive outside the city, but we actually had to head back into the city from Saqqara to get to it. You are in the middle of the city, drive about 5 minutes, then all of a sudden it’s a desert and there’s this huge pyramid right in front of you! The Great Pyramid is as big as I expected it to be and is quite impressive! What was even more amazing was that we were there with about 10 other people…I expected there to be hundreds of tourists milling about but it was empty. We got plenty of uninterrupted photos and didn’t have to fight any crowds because we were there in the off-season. We opted to buy the extra ticket that allowed you to climb to the tomb inside the pyramid, and I’m glad we did. As we were climbing up the shaft to get to the tomb, I pictured all the drawings we were shown in grade school about pyramids and I could picture exactly where we were. The shaft and tomb were extremely hot and extremely humid (unlike the dry heat outside), and there wasn’t anything in the tomb itself, but it was really cool to be inside. After we exited the pyramid, we drove to a viewing spot about ½ km from the pyramid where you could see the Great Pyramid, two others near it, and a few pyramids far off in the distance. This time, we were the only tourists there so we had the run of the place to take lots of pictures. It was hard to do, though, because it was so windy and sand was blowing in our faces. After the photo op, we decided to ride camels to the Sphinx rather than to drive there. For about $20 per person, we each got our own camel and person to guide it. Trying to ride a camel in a dress was extremely uncomfortable and awkward, and I wouldn’t recommend it. But it was amazing to think that I was riding a camel in the middle of Egypt with the Great Pyramid beside me! We got to the Sphinx after about 30 minutes (it actually wasn’t that far, camels are just slow) and of course our camel-leaders asked for tips. There is a temple below the Sphinx, so we walked through that before climbing some steps and seeing the Sphinx for the first time. My first thought: It looks so much bigger in pictures! There are actually lots of Sphinxes in Egypt, this is just the largest and the most famous since it’s beside the Great Pyramid. The story of the Sphinx is that over time it became covered in sand, and only the nose and forehead were above the sand level. A young man (possibly the son of the pharaoh—I can’t remember) was wandering the desert and sat down to rest in the shade of the Sphinx’s head. He fell asleep, and had a dream that if he uncovered the Sphinx he could become pharaoh. So he dug it out, returned to the capital, and ascended the throne. In actuality, he probably just uncovered the Sphinx then went to the capital and killed the pharaoh. Directly across from the Sphinx (about a 5 minute walk) the city of Cairo begins again, and we got bombarded by vendors selling junk when we tried to get into our van.