The grandeur of Giza

The first post in this series is here..

Our group met at the roof of the Hayat Pyramid View hotel for breakfast. It was cold outside and all the breakfast items were cold given it was in a room with open doors. We made the most of it and saw the run rise to face the pyramids. Caught the first light hit the great pyramids! It was fantastic.

When we first walked up to the roof, it was hazy! The moon was still up.

We took pictures before and after the sun came out..

Had a feeling this trip will be a good one just by the way she was smiling!!! 

The sun comes out and the clouds roll in and "magic"!

Then it was time to meet our guide for the day, Ibrahim. At first glance if you are not used to Arabic nations, the tone comes across as rude and our guides way of saying "excuse me!" everytime he wanted to grab our attention was interesting. He was a really sweet and caring dude!

The language and accents make up for an intersting social study! He was dealing with desis .. from US. So he was a bit flummoxed on how to deal with us. Should he be proud that we bargained for everything like Egyptians? Or should he be upset that being Americans who can afford things, we are still bargaining.. he literally was telling us that in a very roundabout way. He wanted us to tip the locals wherever possible. Tipping, how much and when was the topic of most of our group discussions! 

Ibrahim gave us the rundown and told us he was not allowed inside. He also told us that the big pyramid and the pyramid of the grandson had entrances to go in but it is the same experience. One was 20 USD and a longer line and one was 4 USD and a much smaller line. We opted for the shorter line given the interest of time! We went in and out through a narrow tunnel at a steep angle to see the bottom of an empty chamber and come back up. It was an intersting experience. How they moved things around in these angles and got giant granite boxes in and out is just mindboggling.

Everything about this place is just amazing. This was 3000+ years ago and they still stand inspite of all the regime changes and looting over the decades. Everything thas been stripped off including the stones over the years but what took them a few hundred years to build has lasted a few thousand.

One side has all the drama.. other side is bland ..

 

We as a species don't build anything this lasting anymore. All our glass, steel and sheetrock stuff won't last anything compared to this! 

At some point the room would have had a large granite box with the mummy and all its treasures. They were looted a long time back! What little things the locals and invading cultures didn't take, the Brits and French took to their museums! 

now there is an empty chamber with graffitti over a few thousand years! We suck as a species is what I kept thinking!

After we went in and out of the pyramid, some of us got to go on a camel ride around the pyramids. Our camels were named Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Alex, Mickey mouse and Charlie!

Once the camel ride was done, we visited the Sphinx which was right across from our hotel. There was already a big crowd at the Sphinx thanks to some school excursions. We were lucky to get some photos without too many people around. We also got to see the place where they did the mummification near the Sphinx. 

There is a steele in front of the Sphinx which talks about the Pharoh's dream to clean the sand around it.. we learned that the sphinx probably predates the pyramids. That was a special ticket and given time we were just happy to walk around it and get a view! I cannot write enough words to make you realize how amazing this place is. You have to see it for youself. Do it while you can still walk long distances every day, do a little climbing on tall stones. In another 10-15 years this trip might be difficult for me! 

Was wearing my uniform BYSJ 60 day challenge shirt on multiple days. Surprisingly no one asked me what a 60 day challenge was in Egypt or Jordan and that is a first! 

A video highlight of our first morning in Egypt!

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After this it was time to drive off to our next stop across the Nile into Cario!

A pyramid.. finally!

The previous post about this series on the Belize trip is here..

It has always been a dream to see the Pyramids.. Given that might happen sometime, was going to see "a" pyramid.. Chichen Itza, Altun Ha or Lamanai.. 

The first one that came our way is Altun Ha!

We were staying 20 minutes from Altun Ha and were not going to miss the chance. Day 4 of the Belize trip started with Altun Ha in the morning.

Our guide took us to the modest Museum of sorts that explained the place and had a replica of the Jade head that was found in the tomb, that made the place famous!

On the way to the structure we saw a large beetle, a very large but hopefully dead tarantula (it was larger than my hand) and some nice flowers.. all of which amused the kids in the group.

we also saw a "love you to death tree".. which is a parasitic tree that grows around palm trees and engulfs the palm inside! (this is a vertical Pano) 

The pyramids are layered and sealed with remains. There are more questions than answers per our guide on why they built it the way they did. The carbon dating for this is all over the place as it was used by multiple generations and trying to restore the pyramids actually damaged it. 

The place is not fully excavated and they decided to stop. you can clearly see that the original stone work was way better than the current stone work or more recent stone work used to try and repair! 

We climbed up to the top of both the large structures and had a great view of the surrounding area. At one point this place must have had a 10000 people trading in the market below.. it is easily possible to visualize this from the top. (our guide was nice enough to say "give me your camera and I will take pictures when you are at the top". Really liked this guy as he made sure I was in a few pictures!)

Here is a slide show of the landscape..

and a slide show of the Pano's .. this place was perfect for Panos. 

Altun Ha is a must see if you visit Belize. 

After hanging out there for an hour or so we moved on directly to our second stop of the day..Turned out to be the second best highlight of our trip and was totally unexpected!  That post over the weekend. Was fortunate to have an extra day after the vacation to edit photos and videos in the middle of dealing with a broken washing machine. Work has begun and that means the posts slow down. 

Starting to like Wifi free vacations. It is a good reset.