March 12 - Left Amman, Jordan at 6:30 PM and arrived Cairo at 8. Took a taxi through this crowded, dirty city to Barb's apartment. Here is Bobbi, Ellen, and Lynn outside of Barb's apartment.
March 12, we went on a tour with Real Egypt/Maxim tour company and our tour guide was Noor. Noor said that Cairo has 20 million people and 4 million cars. Found out later that Cairo only has around 10 million. There are 95 million in Egypt and most of them live along the Nile River. The Nile is the longest river in the world, traveling from south, Victoria lake, to north, the Mediterranean. There is a dam in Egypt to regulate the water flow so more buildings are being built on previously flooded areas. To the West is the Sahara desert and to the East is the Sinai peninsula. On our drive through Cairo we saw many unfinished high apartment buildings, lots of traffic and lots of trash. We stopped first at the three great pyramids.
It as a cool, windy, dusty day. Below the four of us: Lynn, me, Ellen, and Bobbi.
You could go into the the largest tomb for an extra fee. Lots of short passageways that lead eventually to an open room where the King was buried. The picture below is Lynn and I coming out of the entrance.
This was King Cheops tomb which is the largest. His son, Kaephra, was buried in the second and his grandson, Menkwiweary, was in the third. We paid extra to go to the Cheops Boat Museum. The boat was found intact in a vault. We couldn't take pictures inside. The boat was used to transport the Kings across the Nile.
The girls in front of the Great Pyramid.
Got a chance to go into an architect's tomb. Bobbi, Ellen, and Lynn with our tour guide Noor in the background.
Cairo is encroaching on the pyramids.
Lots of camel rides. We did not and we wish we had. No other opportunities after this.
The is an observation point where you can take a picture with all the pyramids. It was very windy and dusty.
Next we went to the Sphinx, which is the guard of the pyramids.
The best lunch of the trip - koshary. It is a vegetarian dish with vegetables, pasta, rice and it was very good.
The restaurant in Cairo that served the koshary and only this dish and it was packed. Ellen, Bobbi, Lynn, and Noor.
The Egyptian museum has a lot of artifacts and worth the time. We spent 2 hours but didn't see everything. We saw the King Tut treasures, animal mummies, lots of impressive statues, and regular mummies. Egypt is building a bigger museum to be opened at a later date that will be much larger and display more of their treasures.
One of King Tut's thrones
One of King Tut's bed
Could not take pictures in this room of the gold mask so this was taken in the doorway.
Animal mummy
Queen Hapchepsout, a female King.
The father of King Tut - Akhenaten. Wanted people to just worship one God.
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