Abi's Overseas Adventures: Egypt

In England we booked a 7 day tour of Egypt focusing on Egypt's ancient history. The program was a day in Cairo, an overnight sleeper train to Aswan, a day in Aswan, two nights on a felucca, two days in Luxor before catching the sleeper train back to Cairo where we were to fly back to England. Unfortunately just before we arrived in Cairo we found out that the 5 star sleeper train was cancelled and we would travel overnight on a 12 seat mini bus instead.But enough about that, here's the blog on The Great Pyramids of Giza.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world and was built roughly 2540 BC. It took about 20 years to finish and was built by a pharaoh called Khufu. Originally it stood about 146 metres tall and was covered in smooth casing stones, it was the tallest man made structure for over 3, 500 years! Although today it is only 138 metres tall, and all the casing stones are gone, it is still a very impressive sight.

But hearing all that stuff is different from seeing it in person, to me it looked way bigger than 138 metres. It is absolutely amazing.

We arrived at around 9 in the morning from our five star hotel (with a view of the pyramids) and stepped out of the mini bus into the sandy desert. We had just bought tickets allowing us to go inside The Great Pyramid. I was so excited. As we walked towards the pyramids we were swamped with people trying to sell us souvenirs. One of their tactics was to give you free stuff and then later ask you for money, this happened to us several times and we gave back the free items. But one time the salesman didn't come back, so we got to keep the souvenirs.

The passage leading to the burial chamber was quite small so we had to bend down; it was bare because of tomb robbers but was still very exciting. Dad explained how they had great slabs of stone that slid down to block the passage after they finished working in the burial chambers. The king's chamber had a big stone sarcophagus in it but otherwise was empty.

Being inside the pyramids was an amazing experience; it was the best part of the tour.