Of Pyramids and Camels

Our first day in Egypt started out with great weather.  Sunny and mid 70’s, very pleasant compared to the scorching heat found here during the summer.  We began the day at the 3 pyramids that are about 1/4 mile from our hotel.  The site was truly amazing and it felt strange to be at a site that is so familiar to us through movies/pictures and yet always so far away.  Of course the size was impressive, but even the smooth texture of the limestone of the pyramids was different than our expectation of a gritty/sandy surface. 

 

We ventured into one of the pyramids.  The passages were slightly taller than Amanda making for a interesting  trip in/out.  At the bottom was the tomb were the pharaoh was buried nearly 5000 years ago (of course now emptied).  We could not take pictures inside, but I took one of the entrance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of the day for the kids was the camel ride that we took next.  They certainly are not the smoothest rides around, either running or walking (we tried both), but nobody fell off.  Amanda began asking when the next ride was immediately after we got off.

We finished the tour off with the Sphinx.  Also impressive when you get a chance to view the detailed work up close. 

Tomorrow we spend the day in Cairo touring several sites before heading to Aswan which is in the south of Egypt.  We are taking a sleeper train to get there, which should be an interesting experience and will probably deserve its own blog.