Giza & Lena

There was a nice sunrise soon after we docked in Alexandria after our transit of the Suez Canal. The port itself was nothing to write home about; very big and very busy, cruise ships seemed to be something of an afterthought. But there was plenty of space for the customary fleet of buses to park near the ship, so nothing to complain about. 

Barbara again decided that the very long bus rides to get to the Pyramids of Giza this time were not for her so, again, I was let out on my own. 

The day started off rather badly, but despite a police escort for our little bus convoy .....

they couldn't control the weather and as we left the outskirts of Alexandria, there was the most horrendous traffic jam due to the foggy conditions (see above) on the motorway which had prompted the authorities to close all the toll booths.

As the traffic about us shuffled around trying to get ahead of anyone else in the queue, the only interest was in spotting unusual vehicles such as this family moving house it would seem:

Everyone else seemed to be leaving an unusually large space around them! 

After a frustrating two hours or so (at least it was air-conditioned), we eventually got moving towards our destination, still two hours further on. Time anyway to study some curious structures. 

Our helpful and knowledgeable guide told us that these strange things are for pigeons (a bit like dovecotes at home) but while offering pigeons a safe place to roost and breed, the trade off is that some of the pigeons are 'harvested' for food - a local delicacy.  

Eventually we got to the outskirts of Cairo, Giza to be exact and our first glimpses of the pyramids was not at all what I expected. This is what I'd expected ....

but this is what we got:

The trip was well organised though and our first stop was the picturesque views above where everyone needed to take a selfie, or have one taken by someone else, as I have to admit I did as well ... 

From this direction, the urban sprawl around the pyramids in every direction except south, was very obvious: 

From there the buses took us back down to the really busy side of the pyramids where, if we dared, we could actually go into the Pyramid of Khafre, the centre one of the three which still has some of its amazing smooth surface coating at the top. A phenomenal work of engineering and art at the same time. The adjacent Pyramid of Khufu remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. 

On the bus, our guide had said that all those who wanted could go into one of the pyramids but gave us plenty of dire warnings about how cramped it was, and that anyone who was even slightly claustrophobic, had any form of heart condition or wasn't reasonably fit, should not even consider entering. 

I reckoned I was fit enough and am not usually too worried about claustrophobia, but I must admit that when I saw the entrance tunnel, I did nearly have second thoughts. It looked about two feet high and maybe three feet wide, but I think it looked worse than it actually was and it wasn't really quite as small as that. Never-the-less, it probably was a bit like squeezing under a dining table which was 120 feet long and sloped downwards at a 20° angle. 

Lots of others were going in and coming out (not looking too distressed) so I bit the bullet and ducked under the entrance portal to find that it wasn't quite so bad as it looked if one sort of ducked sideways, but that became very awkward when meeting others going out. This picture of an uphill slope shows how little space there is to pass people.  

It was mostly well lit which made it a lot less claustrophobic, and the handrails and floor treads helped negotiate the relatively steep slopes. In places there was quite a lot more space which was quite a relief, even for myself being relatively short at 5' 5": 

This nice diagram (by MONNIER Franck - Own work, Public Domain) shows our route through the lower passageway, down, along, up again, and along quite a bit further to get to the very centre of this massive structure weighing an estimated 5¾ million tons, most of which was above our heads! 

We had been told in advance that there was little to see (unlike the tombs in the Valley of the Kings) as these tombs had long since been stripped of anything of value and had lost any decorations. All that remained was some (relatively modern) graffiti in the final chamber: 

 And an empty sarcophagus and its lid, which presumably was too large to extract and had to have been set in place as the pyramid was being built. 

To my surprise, the bold captain of our ship, Boudicca, Capt. Mikael Degerlund, had also ventured into the pyramid despite being at least 6' tall - it must have been significantly more difficult for him to negotiate the long cramped passageways. Seeing me trying to take a selfie with my phone (proper cameras weren't allowed) he kindly offered to take one for me which came out a lot better than the selfie and shows the moderately large chamber nicely.

After the equally difficult exit during which nobody appeared to bang their head on any of the sharp (and of course, very hard) stone edges, to my surprise, we exited to the bright Egyptian sun and fresh air - PHEW!   ......

The Sphinx was next on the agenda and here is our captain taking a selfie in front of the Sphinx and Pyramids - sorry captain, I should have offered to take one of you with your phone.  

Juts to prove I was there too I have my own piccies of the Sphinx: 

Why the colour is so different between the two shots I'm not sure as they were both taken at about the same time, just down to the auto-colour balance in the camera I suppose. 

Having 'done' the Pyramids and Sphinx, we were whisked off into Cairo and the Nile again to a pair of very smart boats looking something like this: 

Capt. Degerlund and others joined me at my table (I claimed my seat there first) in the richly decorated lower deck of the boat .....  

where we were well looked after by appropriately dressed waiters: 

and entertained by Lena ..... 

That was actually her second dance; in her first she was a little more scantily clad and afterwards sashayed around the diners, especially the men, while the ship's photographer took photos, for which there would undoubtedly be a charge .....

Then she singled me out as a target, not knowing (or probably caring) whether the lady between me and the captain was my wife or not, but was unable to get to me due to the seating being rather too tight for her hips. So, I thought, it would be rude of me to let her just stand there ..... 

  
Surprisingly soon afterwards, the photographer came around with a pile of nicely presented large prints for which he eventually accepted a £2 coin for the above, which I assured him was more than the 50 Egyptian pounds he was asking (which it was) - a bargain I thought, especially compared with the ship's photographs on board Boudicca.  

Then it was the ladies' turn to be entertained by a hefty looking Turk, initially doing something that looked rather like the dance of the seven veils, very strange!  

The lengthy dance morphed into something more butch complete with a sharp and dangerous looking sword which he swirled around, brandishing it wildly before balancing it precariously on his turban, all the while still spinning: 

Then he lit up, literally .... 

 and after many more minutes of dizzying spinning, started disrobing his illuminated skirts: 

A weird but wonderful act followed by the same routine of being photographed with members of the audience, mostly the ladies. 

In due course we got back to the bus and the long ride back to Alexandria and our comfy ship. This time our police escort did actually help us through the traffic and they left us at the motorway with a friendly wave. 

Next stop Malta.