A Trip to Egypt: Cairo

In Cairo, we stayed at a swanky hotel called the International Cairo Citystar.

Stan bought this spiffy hat from an aggressive street vendor, and 

                                      we are ready to head off to another extraordinary day.

 We headed to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. 

While in Cairo, our bus was escorted by police cars. Nothing says "bus full of tourists" quite like official escorts.  I think I would have felt safer without their help.

Cairo is definitely more security sensitive than other places we'd been. There were these barbed wire fences blocking side streets to the museum.

Even more unnerving were these tanks with armed soldiers on top. Their faces were hidden by a black fabric covering. If they saw people trying to take their pictures, they became very upset, which explains this picture-from-a-distance shot.

I was excited to visit this museum, especially after our journey to the Valley of the Kings. Much of the treasure of Valley of the Kings has been moved to here.

The outside of this museum was very beautiful.

I think this doorway is just about the right height for moving in one of those ginormous statues or pillars we've been admiring at the various temple ruins.

Sadly, this is one of those places you can't take pictures once you're inside.

However, wikipedia had some representative pictures, like the following four.

This museum is huge, and it would take years to look at every single item on display. 

This museum has 120,000-150,000 items (depending on the source), although only some of them are on display at any given time.

Many of these statues are in amazing condition, unlike much of what we saw when visiting ruins.

Can you imagine the thrill of being the person to uncover this?

There was an entire room with mummies in it, like this one that we saw.  For years, scientists believed mummies with red or blonde hair were the result of chemical changes over time, the embalming process, or dyes used by ancient Egyptians. However, more resent scientific study reveals some ancients had natural blonde or red hair.

Picture from here.

Just to the side of the museum is this burned out building. It used to be the headquarters of the Democratic National Party, which was burned by anti-government protesters back in 2011. There's been a great deal of  disagreement about what should be done with the building since, so there it sits, the neighborhood eyesore.

Modern Egyptians next to ancient Egyptian.

This is the statue of Frenchman, Auguste Mariette. He stands atop his sarcophagus. Auguste was an  Egyptologist, and archaeologist. He was also the founder of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, responsible for all things ancient in Egypt. He is surrounded by the busts of other famous Egyptologists.

As of 2014, Cairo had a population of  12 million, or a metropolitan population of 22 million. So, like a zillion Montanas. 

This appears to be part of a transportation system, although it could be the slide park. I'm going with slide park. Every city should have one.

Cairo from the bus window.

Here's something you don't see every day from your bus window---a pyramid!

Holy cow! I'm looking up close and personal at a pyramid!

I'd always pictured pyramids as smooth. I was surprised how rough the surface is.

Yet another in a long, long list of "I can't believe I'm here, seeing this".

The vendors in Egypt are pretty aggressive and the pyramid vendors were kings of aggression.  You can see someone trying to talk a tourist onto a camel.

Group picture time! We look pretty color-coordinated, don't we?

You had to be sneaky taking pictures of camels, lest the owner spot you and run over to insist you ride if you take a photo.

These are the Pyramids of Giza, one of the seven wonders of the world. The Great Pyramid was finished around 2560 BC, and at 481 feet was the tallest man-made structure for 3800 years. I was taught pyramids were made by slaves (and I saw plenty of movies that proved it). However, we now know pyramids were made by skilled workers, and estimates are that as many as 100,000 workers and ten years were needed to finish a pyramid.

Experts are still unsure about the methods used to build pyramids--rolling? Dragging? Lifting?

Apparently no one left instructions behind.

We were allowed to walk into a pyramid. There is nothing more uncomfortable than walking under uncountable tons of pyramid, hoping there's not an earthquake scheduled. I couldn't find any pictures  I had taken of our journey into the pyramid. Wikipedia helped me out with the following two pictures.

First we walked down a long, claustrophobic trail

to view the king's sarcophagus. Gotta love how enduring the urge to deface ancient treasures with your name and the date is.

From the pyramids we moved on to these beasts. 

Perhaps this could be a scene from 5000+ years ago, minus the heavy smog.

Who in the world would ride one of these?

Yeah, I guess we would.

Camels have such a cartoon-y face. They always seem to have a silly grin on their lips.

Lawrencia and Lawrence of Arabia.

This isn't exactly like riding a pony. Getting your camel to a stand after seating yourself is like a jerky roller coaster ride.

View from a camel.

We said good-bye to camels and pyramids and headed on to Giza.

I've seen a picture of this Sphinx dozens of times in my life. Can you believe I actually saw it with my own eyes? This is the Great Sphinx of Giza. He has the body of a lion and head of Pharaoh Khafra. At least that's who it is believed to represent, as there are no inscriptions anywhere naming it or describing its purpose. 

It is believed to have been built around 2500 BC, but some people believe it may have been built even earlier. By 1400 BC, the Sphinx had already found himself buried up to his shoulders in sand. The first of many excavations took place, the first recorded one by Thutmose. He managed to dig out the front paws. 

The first modern excavation took place in 1817 by Giovanni Battista Caviglia. He got as far as uncovering the chest, and finally the entire Sphinx was excavated 1936.

The nose is missing. One story says it was destroyed 1378 AD by a man annoyed by the way the locals gave offerings to the Sphinx as a way of improving their harvest. There may have also been a beard on the Sphinx, which is also MIA,

Back to the bus and blurry pictures through the bus window. This poor fella, consigned to hauling hoards of hideous bananas on his bike.

We stopped at a shop to learn how papyrus is made.

Papyrus, I learned, is waterproof and difficult to destroy.

More scenes from the bus.

Egypt is a country with growing pains.

The city of Cairo accounts for a whopping 22% of Egyptian economy.

I was disappointed and a little surprised we didn't stop to see any mosques or churches in Egypt. 

Hairy locals being herded down the busy street.

Cairo is known as "the city of a thousand minarets"

Although it has always been located in a strategic location,

the origins of the modern city date back to 969 AD.

I'd love to take a peek into one of these apartments.

One last treasure from Cairo. Someone really stayed up late thinking of this name.