After leaving the Suez-Chanel, we were meant to stop in Port Said, but due to the unsafe conditions there, we changed our port of call and went to Alexandria. From there, we organized a crew-tour to the Pyramids in Gizeh!
Our little private Bus took us almost 2 hours from Alexandria to Gizeh, which was a really interesting tour. Just the tour itself already. As you can see in the pictures, Egypt is not in the best condition, frankly said…
Arrived in Gizeh, we entered the Pyramid-area and I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed about them. You know, you imagine the Pyramids as T H E mighty Pyramids standing lonely in the desert. But its far from that, truth is, they are surrounded by the City of Gizeh and somehow not sooooo impressive as I expected them to be. But that’s just my opinion.
Walking around the area, you really could see the state of civil mentality in Egypt. Our Tour guide said, that normally you are not allowed to climb the stones of the Pyramids and that they are guarded by Security. But, in theses times, there where a lot of people trying to get money from you, just for taking a picture of you. Even the Security guys asked. An a lot of other, poor looking youth permanently running after you and asking or begging. It was really not easy to get rid of them, because the “normal” reaction of a nice European guy is to say “no, thank you” or something like that. But as soon as you talk to them, they somehow increase in number and surrounding you completely… so the best, but for us feeling kind of rude reaction is, to completely ignore them… after a few minutes of shouting and talking and even touching you they will look for other victims…
After the Pyramids, we took the Bus and drove a few minutes down the hill right in front of the most famous cat of egypt, the Sphinx. And again, I was kinda disappointed of her, because she was quite small, not like in Asterix and Obelix. But this was probably due to the fact, that in the city of Gizeh had grown just up to approx 100m to the Sphinx.
Nevertheless, it was an experience to see her and surrounding temples. After this stop, we headed to a small museum of Papyrus, where we got shown how real Papyrus is being made, and we also bought a small piece of it, of course. Like good tourists do…