Al Wādī al Abyaḑ

Our last day in Egypt started off with a 2.45am wake up call! We all gathered in a daze to grab our breakfast packs (bread roll with cheese, bread roll with fake devon and bread roll with no filings) and get on a plane back to Cairo.

Pyramids! It was the coldest we'd experienced so far in the trip. It was still early by the time we arrived at the Pyramids so the sun hadn't warmed anything up yet.

There are moments in life when you realise that you really did have the wrong idea about a thing...and I had one at the Pyramids of Giza. Matt went inside the big pyramid - I decided that a claustrophobic induced panic attack wasn't on my to do list for the day and stayed outside - and as I was thinking about the inside of the 'mids. That's when I realised. The pyramids aren't a pyramid shaped shell that is totally empty inside. They are solid pyramids with a pathway cut into them. So yep. I learnt something that day.

The day kept rolling along, even if we were too tired to notice the time ticking. We stopped at the Sphinx; cue many references to Asterix and Obelix. I felt a little underwhelmed here, but it may have more to do with my early morning than the monument itself.

Often I'm surprised that life is happening around the big things we've visited. There isn't a huge radius around the sphinx or the pyramids that is just emptiness, instead there are buildings and shops and fences - not just the postcard image.

On we trotted to one of the most amazing museums in the world - The Egyptian Museum. We'd heard a lot about this over the last few days as all the valuable items from the temples and tombs we'd seen were actually housed here in the Egyptian Museum. It is huge so I'll give you just three highlights:

1. Tutankhaum's stuff: all of it was pretty incredible! But the best (in my opinion) was the cascading boxes that his sarcophagus was in. These are huge, gold, boxes that get smaller and smaller and we actually could see into them as the back was open.

2. Akenaten's hall: I studied this Pharaoh in school and was a bit obsessed with him. Such a crazy guy. There is so much I could say about him, but one weird thing he did was change the way Pharaoh's were depicted. Until him, all the pharaohs had a similar look (even if they didn't in real life). I saw one of the statues he built of himself. It is almost unrecognisably Egyptian. Check out the photo.

3. Merenptah’s tablet: mentions defeating Israel in a battle! It’s pretty amazing to see things that mention Israel as we get closer to going there! This basically confirm that Ramasess II was not Moses’ Pharaoh.

The museum was also a bit strange in that it wasn't very well curated. Hardly any items had labels, the lighting was dim and it didn't seem to have a very logical flow to it. I've been cringing every time Medhat says "...but that is in the British Museum" - but now, I think I'm grateful that someone is looking after it properly!

Later that night we strolled through the streets with Jamin and Janett & family. Saw how papyrus was made and bought a vial of jasmine perfume.

Tomorrow morning we fly out to Jordan!Read more