Cairo, Egypt

 September 15, 2024

We arrived in Cairo yesterday, from Johannesburg, on an 8.5 hr overnight flight. And yes, we’re both incredibly tired. I am still quite sick, with a bad cough and shortness of breath. Of course, being in economy class, it’s next to impossible to sleep. We got an early check in, thank God, and we both took a short nap to try to prepare ourselves for our full day of sightseeing tomorrow.

Our guide is Ola, an Egyptologist with multiple levels of education regarding the history oh Egypt. Neither Ralph, nor I, are ancient history buffs, so much of our tour was well over our heads! Today we started in Memphis with a large statue of Ramses II. 

Next we drove to the tomb of Kagemni. There we wandered through the various rooms and were taught something about all the hyroglifics and carved pictures adorning the tomb walls. Tho one below has a hippopotamus eating a crocodile. Hippos weren’t well thought of in ancient times because “they destroy the earth “.

After that, we drove to the saqqara necropolis. There we saw all the column in and the only step pyramid in Egypt. The king built the bottom two layers for himself, the next two for his wife, and the last two for the children.

Next we went to the three important pyramids near the sphinx. It was close to 35 or 40 degrees so we walked closer to take photos. 

We then made a stop at a carpet school where they teach the children carpet weaving. It’s incredible how quickly they can work and the amount of work involved in carpet making. Of course, as in Turkey, they tried hard to sell us something. Supposedly, the carpet maker gets 65% of the profit from the sale of the carpet…a bit hard to imagine that is true. It does, at least , give them an opportunity to learn a skill.

Ralph chose to walk around the perimeter of the largest pyramid but, given I’m still very weak and short of breath from my bronchitis, I waited in the air conditioned car. While walking around the pyramid, he was badgered about riding a camel and finally gave in.

After that, and in the same area , we saw the sphynx. It is not a tomb but made from a single piece of rock. It is meant to protect the horizon