Egypt - Day 3: Cairo

Today was my third day in Egypt and second day going to the city of Cairo.  Today was the best day here, by far!!!

 

I had another trip today with SAS which started at 7:30am, once again.. but it was ok because it's a long bus ride to Cairo, which means I could nap!!  We arrived in Cairo a little less than 3 hours later, and for the second time I was standing in front of the great pyramids.  I would have never dreamed doing it once, but now this was my second time.. and it was just as good as the first!  Having a different tour guide today, I learned more about the pyramids and building them and stuff.. the blocks that I said were huuuge, weigh anywhere from 2-15 TONS each and.. if you combine all the blocks from the 3 pyramids as Giza, they could line up and stretch for the entire border of France, being 6 meters high and 2 meters wide... WOW!!!  Now can you see how absolutely huge these pyramids are!?

 

Me and my friends walked around the pyramids and then went in one of them.. you couldn't go in one of the big 3, but one of the queen's pyramids you could go in.. so we did it!  It was crazy getting down, you had to crawl and it was really steep and scary, but I didn't want to pass up a chance to actually go into a pyramid.  We went down and there was the little burial room which was the only place we could go, but that was ok.. it was really hot down there!  But now I can say I've been inside a pyramid in Egypt!!

 

After the pyramids, we did the panoramic view and the Sphinx, which I did yesterday, but it was worth it to do it again!  I got some more good pictures, and let's face it.. seeing the pyramids more than once is just fine!  It took awhile to actually sink in that i was standing in front of the great pyramids that are one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world!!! 

 

After the Sphinx, we boarded the bus and were off to Sakara, the city where the first pyramid ever was built.  Here, we stopped at the country club we were going to eat lunch later and got into our jeeps for the jeep safari portion of the trip!  This part was crazy.. I honestly don't even know how to begin to describe it.. we started going and it was fine and then as soon as we hit the Sahara desert.. it was literally 'pedal to the metal' time... we were going sooo fast up and down sand dunes and hills just driving through the Sahara desert, which I never thought I could say I did.. it was sooo much fun!  I actually don't know how we didn't roll the jeep.. there were many times where I was in the air for a few seconds straight, but we all loved it and had so much fun!  I attempted to take a few videos of the ride and when anyone sees them, I think they're going to get motion sick.. haha.. I think our driver really enjoyed us because he would go really fast up a hill and then stop when we were just looking down this steeeeep sand dune just waiting to fly down it and he'd crank up the music in the jeep and then we'd go flying down!!! I could do that all day, it was so much fun!

 

The jeep safari ended and took us to a part of the desert where there were a TON of camels waiting on us, for our Camel ride!!!! As soon as I stepped out of the jeep, a little boy came up and led me to my camel, who's name was Michael Jackson.. I'm not even kidding.. but half of them were named Michael Jackson and if it wasn't it was either Moses or Charlie Brown.. they're not very creative with names!  I got on my camel and then it stood up and I realized how extremely high i was.. it was crazy!!  Camels are huge.. and thankfully I did not get spit on!!  I looved the camel ride part, it was so much fun and my friends were telling me how tight they were holding on and how bad their hands hurt.. and I laughed and said the only time I held on was when the camel was sitting down for me to get off! haha.. I thought it was so much fun and the little boy who led my camel was so cute!  I felt bad that he had to walk the whole time leading the camel, in jeans and a long sleeved shirt in the middle of the desert, but he didn't seem to care.. he even would stop every now and then and take my camera to get pictures of me on my camel, which I thought was really nice!!  We were supposed to tip them and I gave him a little extra because of how nice he was.. I just wish he could speak English, but since he was so young he couldnt.  At one point he stopped and made a kissy face and the camel leaned down and gave him a kiss.. it was so cute!

 

The camel trek took us back to the country club where we ate lunch.. the lunch wasn't as good as yesterday's at the hotel, but the Country Club was really nice and the pita bread was amazing!!  After lunch we boarded the buses again to go to some of the funerary chambers and the Step Pyramid which was the first pyramid in the whole world.  It was interesting seeing the funerary chambers, but also kind of creepy... these people built their burial chambers while they were still alive and told the artists how they wanted everything decorated and stuff.. the place for just one Nobleman was huge and we couldn't even see where the actual place he was buried in it was because it was blocked off and really far down.. but it was neat.  We learned about how they were buried with masks and some of their possessions and things they wanted to use in the afterlife.. and the bodies were buried in a coffin, in another coffin, in yet another coffin.. and then they'd have on a mask, and another mask under that.. so their spirit could find and recognize them to go back to the body.. it was weird but interesting.  The mummy wasn't left in this chamber, but it was found there and taken to a museum.  Apparantly a lot of grave robbers would take the mummies because of all the precious gems that they are buried with.. so the funerary chambers have to be misleading and hard to find where the mummy actually was.  This one was a good one since they actually found the mummy in it before.  After seeing those burial places, we went to the Step pyramid to get a closer look..  It was pretty cool! 

 

There are pyramids everywhere in Egypt.. I think they said they've found over 100 pyramids different places in the desert.. and they discover new burial chambers every day.. I probably saw at least 300 hundred different ones today, which is nuts!  It's so hard to believe how long ago all these pyramids were built and how they are still standing.. it's amazing!!

 

OOH and I forgot, but yesterday I saw the Nile River!!! I think I saw it today too, but I'm not positive because it's big and not very distinct.. but I know for sure I saw it yesterday, so I thought that was cool, but not what I expected!

 

Now, I'm off to bed... I don't have to get up at 6 tomorrow, which is a nice change of pace.  My friends and I are just going to be staying in Alexandria tomorrow to see some things we haven't yet.. but I know nothing is going to compare to today because it was amazing!  I wish I could have described it better, but I would have been writing this for hours trying to describe everything I saw and did.. I'm sure I will remember something important though tomorrow, but I will update you I promise!!