Egypt Day Three

1.25.11

Today was such an eventful day! Jenny (My Egypt Roommate) and I slept in as long as possible causing us to miss breakfast… ooops. Our first stop was the great pyramids of Giza. No bid deal right? I was so giddy it was almost embarrassing, I was jumping up and down when I got off the bus. We went to Kufu’s pyramid first which is the biggest one. There we got to climb up some of the stairs and take tons of pictures. I just kept touching the stones in disbelief. They are HUGE, I mean I knew they were big but just standing there next to it I felt like the smallest thing on the planet. I stood there just thinking about the people who designed and built these pyramids and then thinking about how they have lasted for thousands of years, thousands, that’s a really long time. Think of the oldest person you know and then multiply their life by 40. Its really such a wonder how intelligent these people were.

Roommates

Climbing the Great Pyramids

Pose?

My personal favorite: the sphinx pose

Then we left and drove over to the smallest of the three pyramids. This one was the one that we actually got to go inside! We weren’t allowed to take our cameras is so I don’t have any pictures of it, but that’s okay because there really wasn’t a lot to see inside. We entered in a small opening, a little less than half the size of a door. They built the burial rooms with the coffin inside and designed the passageways to be smaller then the coffin so that looters wouldn’t be able to take them out. Then we went down this little tunnel until it opened into a larger room, the room was empty and really warm. We explored the couple of rooms and found a dark crevasse that is over the burial room, so naturally we crawled inside of it and got dust all over ourselves. It was crazy to think that I was actually inside one of the great pyramids. I still can’t believe it.

Standing outside the smallest pyramid

I know what you are thinking... & yes, it is necessary that we taking jumping pictures everywhere we go.

Then we drove to a spot nearby where we could get a good view of all three pyramids for pictures. It was funny to watch everyone posing with the pyramids, we had people holding them, leaning on them, picking them up, and even jumping over them, ohh the crazy Americans.

My and A.J.

Were so excited!(:

Next we went to go see the Sphinx... dedication to Sister Brambila for the song lyrics:

"Who knows what the sphinx thinks,

when the sphinx thinks.

Who knows what the sphinx thinks,

I dunno do you?

And when he's thirsty. . .

Who knows what the sphinx drinks,

when the sphinx drinks.

Who knows what the sphinx drinks,

I dunno do you?

He's out there in the desert with his head upon the sand,

He'd like to tell us something,

but no one understands. . .

Egyptian.

Who knows what the sphinx thinks

when the sphinx thinks.

Who knows what the sphinx thinks,

I dunno, do you?!

Petting the Sphinx

"Get some"

Me and Jess (:

Then we headed over to a small museum where we saw the remains of a giant statue of Ramses II, we had to look over it on a balcony because it was taller then everyone just laying down, it was huge. They carved this statue from a single stone, the craftsmanship and detail was astonishing. The pictures don’t even do it justice, they never do. I could just imagine what it would have looked like standing tall and in its original state.

Ramses II

Our next stop was the Temple of Ti. We went through with our guide while he told us about all the different aspects of the burial temples, all the different alters, rooms, and hieroglyphics. It was remarkable to get up so close and see every little detail in the animals and people. The great thing about this temple is that a lot of the color was still preserved. It helped to really picture what they would have looked like while the color was new and vibrant.

Our last stop was the step pyramid, the oldest of all the pyramids that we saw on the trip, I don’t really remember a lot about it because we literally had to run up to it and around it while the guards were trying to round us up to leave because it was closing soon. So I’ll just have to look up all the cool facts on it. It was fun though because we were all sprinting together in order to get the chance to see everything there was, we didn’t want to miss anything.

We were getting antsy

Then after this long and exhausting day, we grabbed our backpacks stuffed with whatever we could carry for the next three days and hopped on a plane to Luxor! It was a nice quick flight and a short bus ride to our hotel. Our hotel was almost as exciting as the pyramids… okay so not really, but they were really fun. When Jenny and I walked into our little bungalow next to the Nile, we literally dropped our stuff and started jumping on the couches because we were so excited. Glamorous. Then everyone slipped on their suits and hopped in the pool until the guards kicked us out for being too loud… oops again.

It was one of the craziest, longest, and best days ever. It was amazing what we were able to fit in one day. I touched the Great Pyramids of Giza, something I NEVER thought I would get the chance to do. Now I have the travel bug, I just want to see all kinds of things and experience the world the way I am experiencing Egypt. Want to come?