Giza Pyramids and Sphinx

The Giza Pyramid Complex, is without a doubt the most visited site in Egypt, located only 13 km (8 miles) from the center of Cairo where we are staying. It holds the largest pyramids built in Ancient Egypt - the Great Pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre, the Pyramid of Khafre, the Pyramid of Menkaure along with smaller ones and of course the Great Sphinx. These were built 4,000+ thousand years ago. Imagine. We could not believe that we were actually going to the last of the remaining wonders of the ancient world!

First, I should mention that there were a lot of tourists. Most of them pay to get a camel or horse ride around the complex as the distance between pyramids is quite significant. We had a driver so we didn’t need to pay for this service. Some of the animals didn’t look very healthy so we are happy that we didn’t use them.

So much has been written about the pyramids that I won’t go into what we learned just that we were amazed by the size of the blocks and how well they fit together. How in the world did the ancient Egyptians possibly build these huge structures?!

We wanted to see the Solar boat in the Cheops Boat Museum but the museum has closed and the boat has moved to the new Egypt museum which hasn’t opened yet.

We had been warned about the aggressive vendors around the pyramids but we didn’t find them to be terribly annoying. Actually Mexican vendors at Chichenitza were much worse. Haha.

We enjoyed seeing the beautiful Sphinx up close. It was apparently carved from the bedrock at the bottom of the causeway. As we left the site, we saw 3 paraglides flying over the pyramids. What a way to see this sight!

The sun was magically starting to set so we were more than ready to head home. We were still feeling somewhat jet lagged but our driver wanted to treat us to a freshly-squeezed sugarcane drink and the guide wanted to fit in a trip to a shop to show us how papyrus paper was made. Neither stop was long but quite interesting.

What an exciting day! When we returned to the hostel, we walked around the corner and picked up chicken shawarmas for the second night in a row. So good!Read more