The Great Pyramids of Giza & More Cairo

Finally, the post that features the most emblematic site of Egypt, the pyramids!

Pyramid jump!

But, let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. 😉 We returned from our desert camping trip at around 3pm, and our friend Thomas was waiting for us in the AirBnB. Since he arrived at 4am the previous day, just as we were about to head out for our camping trip, he had been exploring Cairo on his own.

The first thing we wanted to do when we returned was to take a shower! After cleaning up the second thing we needed was food. All we had to eat was a small breakfast in the desert and it was nearly dinner time so we decided to return to the delicious Lebanese restaurant we visited earlier in our trip, Taboula, but this time at their Zamalek outpost a short walk from our AirBnB. After a way-too-big dinner, we went to the nearby Zamalek Nile Hotel's rooftop bar for a drink and sunset views over the city and the Nile River. Interestingly enough, the Nile Hotel is adjacent to the embassy of the Vatican City. Who knew that they even had embassies? Like pretty much all the bars in Cairo, prepare to be disappointed in the quality and service, but the view was nice.

Mmmm... Lebanese food.

View from the rooftop bar at the Zamalek Nile Hotel.

Cairo's riverfront is pretty!

No kidnappings of babies here!

On the way back to the AirBnB we swung by Drinkies, the local government sanctioned alcohol store, and bought a few beers and a variety of "mixed drinks." These are basically 10% alcohol Zimas but with a variety of mostly awful flavors. Before turning in for the evening we made plans for the next day, which would be focused on the pyramids of Giza.

We started our journey by meeting our friend Alex, who just happened to be in Cairo for work, at the Marriott hotel. From there we took an Uber to the entrance of the great pyramids. There are actually over 100 pyramids in Egypt, most of which were built as tombs for Pharaohs in the Old Kingdom. The temples and tombs we saw in Luxor are a thousand years newer, after the ancient Egyptians stopped building pyramids. The two largest (and most famous) Egyptian pyramids are in Giza, just west of Cairo. The 481 foot tall Pyramid of Khufu, AKA the "great pyramid of Giza," is the only remaining ancient wonder, and was the tallest man-made structure on earth for over 3,800 years.

We arrived via the main entrance (there's a smaller entrance near the sphinx), and waited in a short line to get tickets. There were quite a few tour groups and it was generally busy, but not nearly as crowded as when Paul visited back in 2002 and 2008. Once inside the site, we walked between the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre, the two largest pyramids. Khafre still has some of the original limestone casing near the top. The weather was really windy, but luckily clear with blue skies. We kept walking over to the third major pyramid, the pyramid of Menkaure, and then walked out into the "desert" for views over all 9 pyramids of Giza. We also could see some of the pyramids of Saqqara and Dashur in the distance. There are several other impressive pyramids to the south of the Giza pyramids, including the step pyramid of Djoser, the bent pyramid, and the red pyramid. Paul visited these pyramids back in 2002, but we didn't have the time or energy to make the drive further south and explore these additional pyramids.

The pyramids are impressive.

We visited on probably the clearest day of our trip, providing postcard perfect views.

David and pyramid.

You can get a sense of the scale by comparing to the person - each of these stones was 2.5 tons!

Some of the original limestone casing is still visible. All of the pyramids were covered in smooth gleaming white limestone.

The Pyramid of Menkaure, with a big gash where a 12th century ruler tried to demolish it.

There are plenty of camels for tourists to rent. We opted to walk.

Looking back at the great pyramid.

David, Alex, and Paul with the two largest pyramids. It was windy!

Explorers!

These are the views you get with about a 15 minute walk out into the desert. Definitely worth it.

Another in the series of "David jumping at a UNESCO world heritage site."

It's hard to comprehend how massive they are. The great pyramid is about 5.7 million tons of stone.

The pyramids are very close to Cairo/Giza, but from certain angles you can hide the city.

Another postcard view. From out here you can see all 9 pyramids of Giza.

Paul was representing Atlanta United.

After taking in the spectacular view across the plateau, we walked to the sphinx, and then past the queen's pyramids on the way to the Solar Boat Museum. The museum features a boat unearthed and reconstructed in the 1960s. It's part of a site inclusive ticket so we spent a few minutes checking it out. Most sources indicate it's the oldest surviving boat in the world, originally constructed to bring Khufu across the Nile to his pyramid tomb. It was buried along with several other ships for Khufu to use in the afterlife.

To end out the trip we climbed into the pyramid of Khufu (the largest pyramid in Egypt). Which pyramid you can enter varies, depending on the day or even the year. The first portion of the trip into Khufu's pyramid features a section blasted out by archaeologists. After you reach the part of the tunnel made by the ancient Egyptians, the path narrows and features a steep climb upward before it opens up to an impressivly tall chamber and eventually the tomb. The climb is very tight at some points and it's easy to feel claustrophobic. The narrowest part of the tunnel is about 1x1 meter and often there are people passing up and down at the same time. There's nothing left in the tomb, but the experience of climbing into the heart of the great pyramid is quite an adventure.

The sphinx and the great pyramid.

The sphinx is a little smaller than people might expect.

David has a new boyfriend.

He's been missing his nose for a few centuries. Contrary to popular belief, Napoleon didn't do it.

Climbing up into the great pyramid. No pictures allowed inside. Oops.

This is the view when you emerge from the great pyramid. It's really close to the city. In fact, the satellite cities even wrap around to the west of the pyramids.

The great pyramids of Giza are an impressive site, especially considering they were built 4500 years ago. It's astounding that an ancient civilization developed the engineering skills required to construct such massive monuments. While the site has been engulfed by the sprawling metropolis of Cairo, there are still great viewpoints that make it seem like you're in the middle of the Sahara. There are a few pushy vendors, but we were only minimally hassled by a couple of people trying to sell things or get us to ride a horse or camel.

After walking 5 miles around the pyramids complex in the sand, sun and wind it was definitely time for some lunch. We caught another uber back to Zamalek to have lunch at Abou el Sid. This restaurant is quite possibly the quintessential Egyptian restaurant, with interesting interior design and good food. Unfortunately, we had pretty bad service here, but would probably still recommend you visit if you're in the neighborhood and looking for a place to try Egyptian food. The winning dish was ordered by Alex and was a baked chicken dish with rice and milk.

Lunch at Abou el Sid.

Ready to eat after a long morning at the pyramids.

After lunch we had a bit of a rest before heading back to the Khan al Khalili area. Our Uber took quite some time - over an hour to go from our AirBnB to pick up Alex at the Marriott and get to the Khan. While Ubers have been overall a very convenient way to travel in Cairo, we've had a fair share of frustration as the city has a number of one-way streets, insane traffic, and Uber drivers who don't want to use their cell phone data to navigate. Once we arrived at Khan al Khalili, we wandered around for a bit, Alex bought a lamp, and we settled in for some feteer at the Egyptian Pancake House. Feteer is an Egyptian specialty and you should definitely try it. It's basically a flaky pizza-like food that can be stuffed or topped with meat, cheese, honey, or other savory or sweet ingredients.

Alex at an atmospheric lamp shop.

We shared beef, cheese, and honey feteer.

To end the day we went back to Zamalek and had a quick drink at Harry's Bar in the Marriott. It was fine at first, then a live "band" started - basically very loud karaoke. We would say to avoid bars in Cairo. They're expensive, usually very smoky, and sometimes loud. The problem is the alternatives aren't great either - most Cairenes hang out smoking sheesha (hookah), which we wouldn't recommend because, well, cancer. The other alternative is coffee or tea, but late at night you don't necessarily want a shot of caffeine. We ended up spending most night hanging at the AirBnB.

Next up, our final post from Cairo. Just two days left in Egypt!