We were thankful that Gibson woke up feeling much better Tuesday morning. Our tour started the day at the Citadel, a fortress built by Saledin in the 1100s.
The Citadel is home to a beautiful mosque built by Muhammad Ali in the 1800s.
The mosque is called the Alabaster Mosque because it is covered in alabaster.
We sat on the floor of the mosque while our guide explained the importance of praying 5 times a day, one of the pillars of Islam. Ordinarily the walls of the mosque are covered with ornate carpets, but the mosque is currently being renovated and all of the carpets have been taken down. We were glad we could see the beautifully carved alabaster walls.
As we drove to our next stop, we saw several trucks loaded down with garlic.
We visited the step pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara. This step pyramid is the oldest stone building project of significant size in the world and was built about 4700 years ago.
You can walk right up to the pyramid. We suppose if it lasted this long, a few tourists aren't going to knock it down now. Interestingly, while later pyramids have tons of religious symbolism, the earliest step pyramids were just an attempt to build the biggest monument possible. Meaning was added to the pyramids later.
Next we drove to the famous pyramids of Giza.
We had the opportunity to go deep inside the second tallest pyramid, built by Khafre. Khafre's father, Khufu, built the great pyramid. It's bad manners to build a pyramid larger than your father's, so Khafre's pyramid is slightly smaller. He built it on higher ground, though, so depending on your point of view, Khafre's pyramid looks taller than Khufu's. Here we are waiting for our turn to go inside.
Our guides told us that we would not be allowed to take any photos inside the pyramid, but after walk-in up the narrow passageway, we found the pyramid attendant inviting everyone to take photos, and accepting tips, of course. Giovanni Belzoni was an Italian archaeologist who entered the tomb in 1818 and proudly inscribed his name on the wall.
We climbed up the first rows of the pyramid for photos.
These stones weigh an average of 2.5 tons. Mostly the pyramids are built of limestone. The pink granite edging the bottom of the pyramid comes from Aswan, almost 900 miles away.
Those of us who wanted to had the opportunity to ride camels. Brandan, Sofi and Emma all took a turn.
The rest of us admired the panoramic view. Starting at the left are the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. There are a few small pyramids scattered nearby called the Pyramids of the Queens.
We took a selfie with our guide, Ibrahaim. Becky showed Ibrahaim a photo of our Abraham and told him Abraham's nickname is Abe. Ibrahaim's Egyptian nickname is Heema.
Sofi and Brandan had time for a photo when they got back from their camel ride.
Our next stop was the Sphinx. Sphinx is a Greek word. Ancient Egyptians called the Sphinx "Harmakis" and the Arabs called it "The Father of Terror."
Egypt experiences earthquakes and this wall near the Sphinx illustrates the ingenious building techniques the ancient Egyptians used to prevent everything from toppling in an earthquake. None of the joints of stone line up in this wall and none of the blocks meet in a corner. Instead, the blocks are carved to turn the corner before meeting up with another block.
This photo shows all 3 pyramids, the sphinx and 5 happy travelers.
After the pyramids we took a welcome break inside a cool store that sold papyrus. The shopkeepers demonstrated how to make papyrus from the plant called papyrus by soaking the plant, pounding it, then slicing the stalk into thin slices and pressing the slices together into sheets. In ancient Egypt, only the Pharaohs and priests could write on papyrus and they reserved it for special purposes. People wrote on rocks or broken pottery for everyday needs.
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