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!

Saharan Safari - Camping in Egypt's Western Desert

When most people think of Egypt, they picture the pyramids, temples, the Nile river, and maybe the mosques of Cairo. But the majority of Egypt is the Sahara desert, a vast and mostly barren stretch of sand and rock punctuated by a few oases. Back in 2002 when Paul was on study abroad in Egypt, he had the opportunity to visit several of the oases, and had an amazing camping trip in the white desert. We decided to do a similar trip from Cairo to Bahariyya Oasis and the White and Black deserts. We booked ahead of time with Oasis Safaris, which we highly recommend. Our driver picked us up from our AirBnB at 7AM for the 5 hour drive to Bahariyya. It took more than an hour to get past the sprawling suburbs of Cairo, and then it was mostly barren desert for the whole drive. We stopped at a gas station at the midway point, and saw a few other tourists (including a group of young Koreans) heading that way.

When we arrived at the oasis, we met up with our guide, Mohamed Sobhy, and switched over to his 4x4. We drove south to the black desert, an area with black volcanic hills. We climbed part way up one for sweeping views across the desert. Our next stop was at a cold spring for a Bedouin style lunch. We met four other tourists there: a couple from Michigan (small world!) and a mother and son (Linda and Ryan) from Sydney. We enjoyed lunch sitting on the floor, with a cold spring running right through the middle of the building.

Our first stop - one of the hills in the black desert.

If you look closely you can see us climbing up.

We had a great view across the black desert.

The spring here is pumped via a machine to irrigate crops.

Lunch time!

The stream from the cold spring went right through the building where we had lunch.

After lunch we began the 80 km drive south towards the white desert, which is named for its wind sculpted rock formations. Along the way we stopped at crystal mountain, an area with a lot of quartz pieces in the sand. There was originally a large quartz formation close to the road, but over the years people passing by took too many "souvenirs" so very little remains. The new spot nearby where tourists go now still has quite a bit of quartz scattered about.

After a bit more driving further south, we went further off-road to a viewpoint with an amazing vantage across the desert that featured some monolithic rock formations. In the late afternoon light it was really spectacular and looked more like a scene from Tatooine in Star Wars than anything you'd see on Earth. The pictures we took honestly can't do it justice!

Walking near crystal mountain.

Taking pictures across the desert.

There were nice sand formations everywhere.

David near crystal mountain.

There were a lot of quartz crystals scattered throughout the desert.

Another 4x4 cruising across the desert.

David with a big gypsum crystal.

Crystal in the sand.

This is probably just a rock, but let's call it a dinosaur tooth fossil.

In the windy desert, small dunes formed against the road barriers.

The spectacular viewpoint we stopped at.

Looking at the 4x4 tracks, you can see how monumental the rock formations are.

Us at the viewpoint.

It was a magical place.

David in the car.

Next we drove even further south, entering the White Desert National Park, just 20 km north of Farafra Oasis. The national park is where you can find most of the carved rock formations that make the white desert unique. We drove around for a while, with Mohamed pointing out particular formations and telling us what people say they look like: the mushroom, the camel, the rabbit, and even the chicken and tree.

Along the few stops we'd had throughout the day, we'd been speaking with a few other travelers, including the ones we mentioned from Australia named Linda and Ryan. At this point our guides asked both parties if we wanted to camp together or alone. After agreeing it would be more exciting to have people to chat with we decided to make camp with our Aussie counterparts. It turns out that Mohamed's brother, Ahmed, was leading the Aussies so it also gave the brothers a chance to hang out and simplified the work for all our guides. Since Ahmed wasn't as good with English as Mohamed, the other group also had an interpreter named Kareem, who would be with Linda and Ryan on their three day desert tour.

Our guides started setting up camp for us while we wandered around the site and looked at the rock formations and watched the sunset. Afterwards, they prepared a delicious Bedouin style meal and we sat by the campfire chatting, stargazing and drinking tea for a few hours before calling it a night in the couple tents they set up for us.

Since it was the desert in February, it was pretty cold! The temperature by morning was probably a few degrees above freezing. We slept with 3 layers of clothes in a sleeping bag with blankets on top and it ended up being cozy.

A big sand dune forming next to a rock formation.

David with the mushroom formation.

The white desert is unreal, with bizarre white formations sticking up from the desert floor.

A small sea shell fossil.

From left to right: Paul, David, Mohamed, Linda, Ryan, and Kareem.

Mohamed and David taking in the view from a small hill.

There were a lot of anthill-shaped formations in one area.

Little tracks from a beetle or mouse.

The most famous formation, the chicken and the tree.

David in the desert.

It's really a beautiful place.

Another group driving through the white desert.

It's the rabbit!

Sand and white rocks for days.

Closer to sunset, the rocks took on a beautiful pink/orange hue.

We called this one "seagulls attacking."

Sunset was spectacular.

Super shadow!

The sun going down between two formations.

At sunset and night, the white rock looked almost like snow.

David the explorer!

Grilling the chicken over the campfire coals. Ahmed accidentally left his phone on the side of the grill, but luckily it survived!

Dinner was delicious! Chicken, rice, salad, orzo soup and potatoes with veggies.

Ahmed with the campfire. 21st century technology in hand, of course.

The next morning we got up as the sun was rising and strolled about the campsite for a few minutes taking in the changing colors of the rocks. After a quick breakfast, our guides began packing everything up and we prepared ourselves for the hour drive back to the oasis followed by the 5 hour drive back to Cairo.

We were visited by a fox overnight!

Our campsite.

It was cold!

The sand was mostly covering the white rock formation by just a few inches.

Our camping trip was a really unique experience and worth considering on a trip to Egypt. The opportunity to get away from Cairo and the Nile and to see what the vast majority of the nation is like is valuable. We were short on time so we only explored the desert on a one-night trip, but honestly it would be worthwhile to extend that stay a few days and get a better idea what this region is like, with visits to more oases. The long drive to and from Cairo would have been easier to deal with if there was more time out in the beautiful desert.