Today was definately the warmest day of the tour, as it approached 30 degrees.
(To go inside this famous pyramid, click on the photo below)
The pyramid of the pharoah Khafre.
After that, I went inside the small pyramids of the queens of Khufu, which stand in a line next to his pyramid. There are three of them here, and I went inside two of them, and they belonged to the queens Henutsen and Hetepheres.
(To see inside of these pyramids, click on the photo below)
These are the queens pyramids of Khufu. I have a better picture of all three, and I'll add it later. Shows all of them much better.
The next stop was the solar boat museum. This is one of many boats that were buried around pyramids. These were symbolically buried so that the dead pharoah could travel around in the underworld after death. It was probably also used in the funeral procession. It is made of cedar from Lebanon, which was very valuable in those times. The wood has survived remarkably over the 4600 years it was laying disassembled in it's shallow tomb. There is another one one that is buried beside it, but has never been opened. The National Geographic Society inserted a camera into the pit in 1988 and took pictures and air measurements to see how well the pit was sealed. It will remain there forever.
(Click on the photo below to see the solar boat)
After all that, I took a cab to the town of Memphis, south of Cairo to see the famous statue of Ramses The Second.
(Click on the photo below to see more of the area)
Ramses The Second
There was one more area that I wanted to see before I left, and that was the pyramid field of Abusir. It is south of Cairo near the pyramids of Sakkara and Dashur. The taxi driver I had for the day (Fayz Mohamed Abdel Daim), said that it was probably closed to the public, but we would go and see. Sure enough, it was closed. There was an old Arab man who lived in the area and was in charge of keeping people out. I decided to offer him a few dollars to let me in, as it worked with the guards at Dashur, when I climbed the Bent Pyramid. He happily took my money and opened the gates. I was shocked and I didn't think it would work so easily. His name was Abdel and he wanted to give me a personal tour (fine with me!!).
(Click on the photo below to see more of the area)
I went back to the hotel for dinner and then decided to try one more time to send e-mail. I heard that the Nile Hilton in Cairo had internet access, so I gave it a try. This hotel is incredible. Definately for the rich. I found the office I was looking for and managed to send my e-mail. One less thing I had to worry about.
On the way back to the hotel, I asked the taxi driver if he could take me to a shop that sold the real muslim robes, not just the touristy ones. He said he did and off we went. When we arrived at the place (The Jolie Bazaar), it looked as if they were getting ready to close. All they sold were the tourist ones. I was getting frustrated at this point and the owner was trying to get me to buy gold or whatever he could sell me. He was very persistent and wouldn't leave me alone. Just to get away, I said I would come back tomorrow as I didn't have any money with me. He said that's no problem, I could just take what I wanted and his son would follow me back to the hotel so I could get my money. I was starting to get nervous of this, realising how desperate these store owners are to make money. The fact that less than half of the tourists are coming back because of the massacre in 1997, makes it nearly impossible for these people to make a living and survive. I managed to talk them out of this and left immediately. I was a little shaken, because the owner was starting to get very angry with me because I didn't want to buy anything. He was yelling and turning red and saying things like "...no tourists ever come here anymore. I haven't seen any Canadians for two years!!", and "...You can take these with you, I trust you to bring the money back tomorrow, or my son will follow you to your hotel!!". I thought he was going to have a heart attack, and his son didn't seem too happy with me either. I was happy to get out of there and put that behind me. Even the taxi driver seemed a little worried about what had happened, and he knew them!
It was late when I got back, so I just went to bed.
