Tuesday, November 14, 2006

After checking out of the hotel we headed to Mohab's. We spent a couple of hours there, finishing up the laundry and packing up for Dahab.

We headed to Giza in the afternoon. We took the subway and the whole way there I was getting so many stares and glares that it was driving me nuts.

We were told at the gate that they only allow a couple hundred people into the Great Pyramid per day and it was late in the day so we may not get a chance. We figured we would try anyway. There were about five tickets left when we got to the booth. *whew* So, off we went climbing up the steps of the Great Pyramid!

The first few steps up and in are like walking through a cave, then you hit the chute, it's like torture walking up a ramp hunched over double. By the time we reached the Grand Gallery we were soaked. The Gallery is amazing! Every stone is perfectly cut, to think of this engineering being accomplished 5000 years ago. From the Gallery there is more bending which leads into the King's Chamber. I counted 20 regular steps across and 10 wide, the height had to be at least the length. Standing to one side was the sarcophagus, lidless and broken. Every stone along the walls was carved to perfection, not to mention huge! All the corners were right angles. Just absolutely amazing!

Poor Mohab had one of the janitor guys bothering him the whole time about how they used Genie's to make the pyramids. Here I am gaping around and ignoring everything, and here's him being followed everywhere by a janitor mumblng on about Genies.

By this time it was time to leave, we descended all the ramps and went through the torture again, dude following and mumbling the whole time, making it even more torturous.

We left and took some pics outside. Some young girls (about 10-years-old) came up and asked my name and where from and if they could have a picture with me.

We walked around until closing time and as we were leaving we had about 50 kids following (must have been a school outing or something) us and asking my name, etc, holding hands, touching my hair, one girl even took off her necklace and gave it to me. Just before leaving I turned and waved, what a sight, all these kids following and waving. I now know what it would feel like to be a celebrity.

We had dinner at Pizza Hut across the road and watched the sunset over the pyramids. Then went back to Mohab's for a bit, had a late dinner and headed for the bus station.