Port Said - the Pyramids

Wednesday April 22 2009 - Up at 04.45am this morning for an early start, we were to be on the bus by 06.00am. We were the last bus in our convoy which had a pick-up at front and back of the column, each pick-up had two police officers in the front and three armed soldiers in the back on seats set into the bed. On our bus and presumably the same on the other buses, in addition to the driver there was our business suited armed security guy, an Egytologist/guide and a representative from Memphis Tours. As we left the town of Port Said, each cross street was blocked and traffic held by a policeman so that the convoy never had to stop, our lead vehicle used his siren frequently to announce our coming. We left the dock area at 06.10am and arrived at the Giza Plateau just before 10.00am so it was a long journey, about an hour into it as we came through a police checkpoint, we had a few nervous moments when as the last bus, we were separated from the rest and pulled off the road as the convoy took off without us. Our tour representative got off and exchanged words with the police and after some arm waving we were back on the road. I wouldn’t want to give the impression that the people were not friendly toward us, because in general, they were, people occasionally waved and smiled as we drove by and we reciprocated.


Izzy climbed the Great Pyramid




The Great Pyramid of Cheops, with Izzy at front



We stopped for about half an hour at the great pyramid of Cheops and were able to climb part of it, it was spectacular to see and even more massive than in pictures. The vendors in the area were very aggressive, one came up and pulled off Izzy’s headgear and started to rearrange it, as he said, in the correct way, meanwhile another guy was loading me down with ‘free’ gifts, ’no charge’, he insisted it was purely a gift, then when I began to walk off he suggested I should give him a gift, just a small one, I said I had no money whatsoever and he was quick to take all his gifts back.

Izzy and friend on the high plateau




Overlooking the Giza Plateau



We then moved up to a higher plateau which gave a good view of the great pyramid, the Chephren pyramid and the Mykerinos pyramid, once again were bombarded by aggressive vendors, but the view was excellent, unfortunately we didn’t have time to ride a camel across the sands, maybe next time.

The Sphinx




Me and the Sphinx with Cephren's pyramid behind



Next we moved down to the area of the Sphinx, east of the Cephren pyramid, the Sphinx’s face is thought to be in the likeness of Cephren and is believed to have been the guardian of his tomb.
It was now about noon but before heading for lunch at a local ‘5 star’ restaurant, we stopped at a jewellery maker where several people onboard had ordered cartouches made, the quality of the cartouches was so bad that no-one would accept them.

Me, Izzy and Pat in the restaurant



Lunch as buffet style and the best that can be said is that it was edible, though I must say the restaurant staff were extremely gracious and help[ful. After lunch we made a one hour visit to the Museum of Egyptian Antiqueties, 120,000 artefacts from the pre-dynastic era to the time of the Pharaohs, then the long drive back to the ship, we reformed in convoy about half way back, arriving dockside around 06.00pm. I liked Cairo, the people were generally friendly and welcoming, but the city is an open sewer in places and poverty is everywhere, it’s a shame that the area around these major world renowned antiqueties is so poorly maintained, it might serve well to clean the place up a bit.
We ordered room service on board, then as we ate our food, an announcement was made by the captain, the canal was backed up with shipping heading South, so we weren‘t able to depart at our scheduled time, our most likely new departure time 10.00pm.

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