GEEZERS IN GIZA
There are many tourists who bemoan the fact that the Sphinx doesn’t seem very large. Whiners I say. Relative to the massive Great Pyramid of Cheops (2,550,000 cubic meters and the second most massive structure ever built – extra credit if you can name the largest) over which it stands guard, perhaps it is on the small side, but we’re not talking garden gnome to tract house scale. At 20 meters high by 48.5 meters long, it’s plenty big enough to impress and, oh, right, it was constructed in the middle of THE DESERT so we’re going to give it a few bonus points for that.
The Giza plateau is actually in a suburb of downtown Cairo which appears like some polluted oasis on the horizon. But in that magic time, after most of the day tourists had boarded their air-con buses, the evening crowd had not yet arrived for the Son et Lumiere (Sound & Light) show, the touts and camels were presumably off to their tout and camel dinners, Alan and I strolled alone around this oasis of sorts, the peaceful, mostly ‘deserted’ (Alan’s pun intended) pyramids, and then quietly made our way back to – or rather away from – civilization.
Food highlights: Babaganoush with the texture of pico de gallo, with plenty of chopped onion, garlic and roasted jalepeno. Smoked, marinated eggplant. Heavy-garlic tahini.
Next up: WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN
The 3rd picture kinda leaves an impression of the guy is having a migraine or dizziness while riding the camel. Car sick in the desert get it? Haha.
Alan! Put on a hat!
The camel-sick guy really has heat stroke cuz he’s not wearing a hat!
Oh, and what’s a “tout”?
What was the camel saying to the two of you??
Thanks for the great photos and diary.
Enjoy every moment. Pat
My guess on the largest: Great Wall of China.
Stay cool out there!
The second shot of the pyramid and the blocks – are they building a new one?!!! Are they using the old method or is this some lath and plaster thing?
Saw a monk with a laptop the other day. Kinda takes away some of that spirituality image for me.
I wonder if they have Buddhist video games.
Brilliant to stay until the bedlam of touts and tour buses had passed–were you transported back a few millennium? The food sounds fab–eggplant, tahini and garlic–foods of the goddess! Great photos, but beware of spitting camels, and what–no cheesy shots of you up on the hump?
The Sphinx is pretty special partly because the body was carved out of a rock outcropping that was already there–no carrying that puppy in. And for structural beefcake, I’m with Alan–China’s wall has the muscle.
So next, are you going to walk like an Egyptian and climb those piles of stone?