Egypt was part of our original trip instead of Iran, but due to quite a bit of bad press we decided to drop it and go to Iran. In Jordan we were so close to the pyramids that we couldn't help ourselves and decided to go on an overnighter.
I'm a nervous flyer at the best of times, but flying in over the Sinai I was terrified. But obviously my fears were wasted.
We had a guide pick us up from the airport and we headed straight to the lesser known "alty" pyramids. Some of them were so alty that from a glance you'd think they were just piles of rocks, but they were legit ancient.
This is honestly a legit pyramid
The passage inside King Tetis tomb
The pyramid of King Teti has one of the most impressive tombs inside, covered in hieroglyphics, but nothing to note regarding the pyramid. Our guide had told us you couldn't take photos inside, but that the guy at the door will come inside and for a tip let you take photos. Sure enough when we were inside, he offered us to take photos, and kept fake checking that someone was coming. We even got photos in the coffin.
Hieroglyphs on the wall of King Tetis tomb
We then went to the step pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara. This was one of the first pyramids built and kind of proves the progression of the design and debugs the myth that the Great Pyramids were built by aliens.
We went to another pyramid next, that I have no idea what it was called or where it was. I've tried to google it but to no avail. This time the passage into the tomb was terrifying, the path was about 1m by 1m, and you had to go down about 50m into the darkness half crawling half walking. There was absolutely nothing inside too, no hieroglyphs, just steamy hot stone walls.
We also checked out the "bent" pyramid of Dahshur. This pyramid was built at too steep an angle and halfway through construction it was showing signs of collapse, so they had to change the angle in order to stop it collapsing. King Sneferu however was not keen on being buried in the "bent" pyramid so had them build him a new one.
We then travelled to Memphis, the ancient capital city to visit the open museum. Inside the open museum was a statue of Ramses II that was in immaculate condition, like it was freshly chiselled. There was also a whole lot of other statues and priceless artefacts just littering the grounds.
That night we headed to a Nile Cruise for dinner. This was arguably the most touristy thing I have ever done, but there were only like 10 other people on the boat which made it tolerable. The show they put on was one of the stranger I'd seen; it started with a strange man with a goatee singing wedding planner esque songs, then an Egyptian exotic dancer, then a spinning dwarf, and finally a spinning comedian.
The following morning we went to the famous Cairo museum. There are so many monuments and artefacts in there, that they say if you spent 30 seconds looking at each one, you'd be there for 3 years. You really just have to focus on the main ones or you just become overwhelmed. The Royal Mummy exhibitions were a highlight, they were seriously eerie. You aren't allowed to take photos inside the museum especially not in the mummy exhibit, but I sneaked one and I got caught straight away so I had a tail for the rest of the time we were inside.
I had wanted to see the mask of Tutankhamen since I was a little kid, so I was beside myself with excitement as we went in. It was more extravagant than I had imagined. The mask is 11kgs of pure gold, then there is a huge golden sarcophagus, then a gold plated wooden sarcophagus, and then four other gold plated boxes that the sarcophagi go in, like a Russian doll. This wasn't the limit to the gold, the room gold was wall to wall; jewellery, walking sticks, chairs, you name it, and he was just a boy King. You couldn't even fathom how much gold a King like Ramses would have had when he was buried.
After lunch we headed to the famous Great Pyramids of Giza. I had organised to go inside the Pyramid of Cheops which is the largest of the three great pyramids. This one was one hell of a climb to get right up into the middle of it. My thighs were burning. Once inside there wasn't much to note, again, just an empty rock tomb.
When I got back our guide had organised us some camels, I personally dislike camels with a passion, and I would have been happy to walk after my experience in India, but I agreed more for Dad's sake.
We walked around the pyramids on the camels and went to a neighbouring hill that looks over them. This is where everyone gets the photo of them touching the pyramid. I nailed my one.
We then finished with the Sphinx, another iconic symbol of Egypt.
Next stop Jerusalem
Nick + Tony
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