© Richard Randall

The Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu)

The largest and oldest of the Pyramids at Giza is that of the IV Dynasty pharaoh Khufu, more commonly known as Cheops, said to have reigned between 2589 and 2566 BC. This pyramid was originally 140m high by 480ft, measuring 230m along its base, these dimensions were reduced by about 3m with the removal of its casing stones. The weight of the pyramid is estimated at six million tons, and contains over 2,300,000 blocks with an average weight of 2.5 tons, with some weighing 15 tons. We entered this pyramid by an opening that Khalif Ma'mun a treasure hunter created in 820. Once inside we headed on in a crouching position until the path split, one way was the descending corridor to the 'unfinished chamber'; which as it's name suggests is not the most interesting place, although the 100m descent along the corridor will certainly get your heart pumping, and the other direction takes you to the ascending corridor. It helps to be quite fit once you are inside the pyramid as walking the ascending corridor can be quite hot work as it has a gradient of 1:2 and it runs for 36m until it meets another junction. Ahead was a horizontal passage 35m long and 1.75m high which took us into a limestone chamber with pointed roof known as the 'Queen's Chamber', although there is no evidence that a queen was ever buried there. We went up further in to the 'Great Gallery' which was built using Muqattam limestone. It was incredibly hot inside the great gallery even with a small number of us inside. The sweat was running off of us, as was normal for us we had taken several bottles of water with us. You can't carry too much water with you, although at first the weight was a burden we soon solved that by drinking it! The 'Kings Chamber' sits 95m below the apex of the pyramid, built using red granite blocks, rectangular in shape measuring 5.2m by 10.8m by 5.8, apparently Hitler ordered a replica be built under the Nuremberg Stadium, strange but true? As sometimes happens in life when you see something for the first time it can be disappointing, not as magnificent as you had thought, I had hoped that the pyramids at Giza would be as amazing as I had imagined. As we walked nearer I was not disappointed, they are absolutely huge, people looked like ants walking round these massive monuments. There were quite a few older people who found that once inside they couldn't make the steep climb up the wooden walkway, unsure of their footing they exited gasping for air, because the interior was very hot and still. To stand outside and admire the pyramids, the sheer size of them is something neither of us will forget, it was a truly amazing experience.

The Pyramid of Chephren (Khafre)

The second/middle pyramid is situated on higher ground than the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and has much steeper sides making it appear taller than Cheops. Originally the base covered 214.8 square metres and it was estimated to weigh 4,883,000 tons. As was the case with the Great Pyramid there is an unfinished burial chamber, and an upper chamber. In 1818 Belzoni located and dynamited open the sealed entrance, to find that some thousand years before Arab tomb robbers had gained access. In 1993 there was an explosion inside the pyramid, probably a bomb, which injured some tourists. Inside Chephren's burial chamber Belzoni wrote his name in black letters in celebration of his find. The granite floor of the chamber has the sarcophagus of Khafre who reigned c.2558-2533 BC, set into it.

The Sphinx

The Sphinx was supposedly carved from the soft limestone that was left after the harder surrounding stone was quarried for the construction of the Great Pyramid. There are many stories about the age of the Sphinx including the American geologists who in 1991 claimed that it could have been up to 2600 years older than originally thought, due to its bedrock being heavily eroded by water, which they said could have occurred during the Nabtian Pluvial era 3000-1200 BC. Then there are others who argue that the erosion was caused by the wind! I am sure that since we visited Cairo there have been many more theories brought forward. Unfortunately the Mamluke and Napoleonic troops used the Sphinx for target practice, causing the loss of much of its beard. Along with the damage caused by the target practice there were shoddy repairs using cement to fill the cracks which have left the poor old Sphinx looking tired. I believe that since our visit these mistakes have been rectified.

The Pyramid of Mycerinus (Menkaure)

The Pyramid of Mycerinus is the smallest of the three Giza Pyramids. Menkaure (Chephren's successor), started this Pyramid but it was his son Shepseskaf who completed it. Story has it that an oracle gave Mycerinus just six years to live, which could explain the smaller size of this Pyramid, because he decided to live his life to the full I guess he had more fun activities planned than the construction of another huge Pyramid. That is not to suggest that the Pyramid of Mycerinus is any less impressive that the two larger Pyramids of Chephren and Cheops. This Pyramid is often called the Red Pyramid because the lower half was wrapped in Aswan granite. The unfinished chamber is in the superstructure and the final burial chamber is found underground. A basalt sarcophagus (which was unfortunately lost at sea whilst being taken to the U.K.), and human remains originally thought to be that of Menkaure's, later thought to be a XXVI Dynasty replacement, were found here in the burial chamber.

The Pyramids at Giza were imposing in their austere simplicity, and they were one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and after talking about it for so long we had finally made the trip to Egypt, and seen them up close, phenomenal.

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Before we visited any other sites we spent the next few days enjoying Cairo. We ate out at a lot of restaurants during our stay, one of our favourites was called 'Aubergine' I think. It was quite close to our hotel, and always very busy. The menu was very good, and everything was served up on different shaped plates with the food displayed in various artistic patterns. There was a good restaurant on the main road that served a variation on egg and sausage for breakfast, it came on top of a pizza! The coffee shops in all of the major well known chain hotels also served good snacks and cakes. There were also many street vendors selling juices, and kebab type snacks. We noticed that there seemed to be a large number of shoe shops in the area near our hotel, along side the snack bars and jewellery shops. Richard bought a pair of snake skin shoes which are very 'loud', thankfully he has never worn them! There were a few shops selling tourist tat, but in our particular area the shops were a bit more up market. There were some great clothing boutiques, where I bought a few pieces, mainly good quality cotton tops. We also found a lovely jewellery come silver shop, everything in there was beautiful. We bought a card case and some napkin rings, all silver, which were priced by weight. Haggling is the accepted behaviour when purchasing anything in Egypt, there were always good deals to be had. There was a small but wonderfully air conditioned shopping centre near to our hotel with a surprisingly good selection of shops, mostly selling clothes and some great shoe shops. Although there were battered old buses running all over the local area we preferred either to walk or take a taxi to explore Cairo. The city is best explored on foot, even with the guys trying to sell you perfume, or find you a hotel, or arrange trips to the Pyramids, you name it they can help you! We loved everything about Cairo, the hustle, noise, and even the thrill when we successfully made it across the road safely. Drivers don't tend to pay any attention to the traffic lights, they prefer to obey the traffic police ..... usually! We ventured further afield from our hotel to visit the markets, downtown Cairo, Coptic Cairo, Mohandiseen, Heliopolis (Masr el-Gadida), and other places to generally soak up the atmosphere. I must admit that we did pass a good many hours in the bar/restaurant 'PUB 28' which was our local watering hole in Zamalek. In fact we spent so many hours drinking there that we were on first name terms with all of the bar staff and we had a bar tab. The bulk of the patrons were ex-pats with a good mix of local alcoholics! The food at Pub 28 was also excellent and we enjoyed many meals there.

Caribbean

Sundries

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