If you plan on going to the Giza Pyramids in Egypt, you better allot one whole day. It’s not because of the distance from Cairo. On the contrary, it is very near Cairo. It is because you’d need time to walk around, stare at the pyramids, line up to go inside, observe people around the compound, and just soak in the pyramid landscape. You have an option to go on a camel around the pyramids if you have trouble walking. But it is very expensive and tones down your experience of trudging in the desert and getting sand all over your sandals or shoes. Also, the tickets to enter the Great Pyramids are sold only at 1:00 PM (I think they sell all morning tickets to the group tours).
For this reason, I went to the Giza Pyramids twice. My first visit to the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx was hurried. They say that the easiest way to go to Memphis, Dhashur and Saqqara is either by joining a tour or hiring a cab yourself. I opted for the latter. I hired a cab to go to the Giza Pyramids first, and then on to the three sites. I believed it when they said that half day with the Giza Pyramids would be enough. They’re wrong, especially when you are into these ancient architecture and civilization like I am. As I learned from this experience, it is a bad idea to lump the three sites with the Giza Pyramids.
Aside from the fact that the compound of the pyramids is quite vast to cover by foot (I decided to just walk around instead of hire a camel), I also wanted to stare at the wonders, observe the people and take a lot of photos. So obviously, I had no time during that first visit to wait for the tickets as I had to rush to Dhashur, Saqqara and Memphis. All sites in Cairo close at 4:30 and these three sites were much farther than expected.
I left the Giza pyramids at around 1:00 pm, getting a shwarma and soda along the way to Dhashur. It was quite far from Cairo and I had less than two hours left for the three sites. I just took pictures of the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid in Dhashur before dashing back to the cab to go to Saqqara. My cab driver talked to another driver who suggested that we go to Saqqara first before Memphis since Memphis only has a museum. By the end of the day I was so tired and dissatisfied. I wasn’t able to enjoy and examine the sites to my little heart’s content.
Thus, it was only on my second visit that I spent some time staring up at the Great Pyramid and wondering how the ancient Egyptians could have done such feats. The pyramids must be the most photographed structure on Earth. Children from all over the world grew up in this era learning about the pyramids and how it is the only surviving ancient wonder. It is in world history books, scientific journals, travel magazines, and the National Geographic and Discovery channels.
When you look at pictures, you’d see the pyramids towering over tiny people in the background and you’d wonder just how huge it must be. And yet, when I saw these giant wonders, I was disappointed. It didn’t quite measure up to my expectations in terms of size; it didn’t seem as big as shown in the photos. It, however, measured up to being a wonder.
Each block of stone that made up the whole structure must weigh a ton. Without the machines that we employ nowadays, it’s a miracle that the ancient Egyptians were able to put one on top of another in a very engineering-accurate way. I walked around it, looked up at the top when my lower back and neck would allow, observe the people, took photos with different lighting from the sun and from different angles, and basically just marveled at the pile of stone that majestically rose up to the sky.
I also stayed with the Sphinx for quite some time. But unlike the pyramid which you can actually examine closely from all sides, only one side of the Sphinx was open to the public. It was undergoing major maintenance to arrest its slow decay; the Sphinx is already being eaten away from the inside, with the water from the Nile River slowly eroding the foundations. I observed that they have tried to reinforce the base. This is obvious at the rear end of the Sphinx, which is seldom seen by the public. I don’t know if the Sphinx ever had a tail, but it was definitely missing. Also, like most statues in Egypt, the Sphinx is missing its nose. If you follow the Egyptian belief that the dead would need everything for the afterlife, then the dead would definitely need his/her nose. So, I wondered why robbers and tomb raiders break the noses.
I also went further to the other excavation sites across the pathway from the Sphinx, just beyond the Great Pyramid where camel drivers take their clients to see the city beyond. There was nothing much to see but more rubble and sand. However, it gave me the creeps. There were underground openings (could be man-made or a cave) that were fitted with wooden doors and padlocked. The whole area was practically shouting “ancient” and I wondered what the tomb robbers could have taken from there, or what other undiscovered relic could still be lying underneath all the stones and sand.
How to go to Giza Pyramids: You can take the metro to Giza (only one Egyptian Pound) and then take a cab from the Giza metro station to the pyramids (should not be more than 15 LE). This is the cheapest and easiest way.
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