Pyramids of Giza!

So today was my first official weekend in Egypt. In this country, weekends consist of instead of Friday nights, Sat-Sun, we have Thursday nights, Friday & Saturday. I really only truly had today off, as tomorrow I have to go back to Campus for a five hour, long and bound to be frustrating session of survival arabic. Regardless, today I got to sleep in a little, until around 8:30 am (east coasters, that's 2:30 am for you!) and then got ready to head to the Pyramids of Giza! There was no way I could pass this up, and paying L.E. 170 (about $28 U.S.) for lunch, and entry into the Pyramids of Giza area & Sphinx was quite frankly, a deal. So basically we got in line for admission tickets for inside the pyramids.

Being an anthropology major who intends to focus on archaeology, and having watched things like Chasing Mummies, The Mummy, Indiana Jones, and Atlantis ever since I was little, there was no way I could pass this up. It was L.E. 50 to enter the Great Pyramid, and L.E. 15 to enter the third pyramid, Menkaure's pyramid. We were told that Menkaure's pyramid is far more interesting to go into because it has all these stories about Pharaoh Menkaure (or Mycerinus) like the original Cinderella (apparently) and his love life and autobiography. Honestly? It wasn't nearly as impressive as the Great Pyramid. We went climbed down inside the chamber, and had to duck the entire time. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the inside as cameras weren't allowed. I do have photos of the outsides of the pyramids and the Sphinx though.

Anyway. We climbed down into it, and I thought that was bad. When I came back outside into the suprisingly cooler air, we were approached and attacked again by aggressive vendors. Yeah. From the moment you walk into the Giza area, vendors will approach you and try to push things into your hands and get you to pay for them. Sometimes they offer ridiculous prices, and they won't let you go until you give them the amount of money they need. They are very aggressive and very persistent! They even picked up a girl and put her on a camel for a camel ride without really considering that she didn't want to!

This is where the survival arabic comes in handy! Saying "La shukran" which means no thank you, tends to get rid of them if you are very firm and persistent with them as well. Though, I bet we'll go back at some point when there aren't as many of us going (I'd like to go inside the pyramids again when it's not so much of a big group!), and then I'll test out my bartering skills. Some of the stuff they were selling in the panorama viewing area of the pyramids really was pretty! Like the scarfs and stuff. I also pretended I was digging in the sand with my fedora and trowel. So that was pretty nifty!

Okay, so after fighting off all sorts of people trying to sell everything and anything to us, around 10 or 12 of us had also paid to go inside the Great Pyramid. That was actually the highlight! It's of course, a lot bigger than Menkaure's pyramid, and even though there weren't any stories to tell with it, it was more rewarding. Instead of climbing down and ducking the entire way, you had to climb up. Sections of the part where we had to duck didn't have lights to guide us, so you had to be really careful, and the steps weren't really steps - they were boards with a raised strip of wood to make a sort of footing on the plank, and handrails. Exactly like how you see on TV except with less lighting... they aren't kidding when they say it's a huge physical feat. You climbed up into another section where you could stand, but it was so steep and far up...

 

I thought I wasn't going to make it. I was literally covered in sweat, and when I got to a platform, I just bent over and tried to catch my breath, which seemed to get caught in my throat. I thought that I still had more to go up, and everyone else just continued to go through the opening off to my side, so once I thought, you know what, I will only do this once so who cares if I can't breathe for five minutes? And I went through...

To find out that this was the room with the tomb for the sarcophagus, and that it was the top! I did it! We all made it! It was really amazing. I wish I could've gotten pictures in there too. It was nearly pitch black, with just a few lights off to the sides. Someone took a picture with their cellphone of the group in front of and behind the tomb and then we climbed our way back down and got to head over to the Sphinx!

Unfortunately, my legs felt like complete and total jello and I could barely walk by the time I got outside the pyramid again, so as much as I wanted to walk into the Sphinx area, I just couldn't. We also didn't have enough time, as there was lunch now!

After lunch, we headed back to Zamalek, and I had a nice evening in relaxing and getting ready for five hours of Arabic tomorrow. I'm surprisingly really catching on more than I thought I would pick up a language! I suppose it's because I'm learning speaking more than anything and I'm in an area where I can use it a lot and have to use it!

Tomorrow is weekend for those of our group not in Survival Arabic, so they get to sleep in. I'll get to sleep in for a little, but I'm really not ready for five hours of arabic...

At least in four days, I depart for Luxor and Aswan for Eid! And then classes begin!