A day in Giza ...

Today has been the best day! We are exhausted but we have seen and learnt so much. After an early start ... awake in time to watch the sun rise over the pyramids from our room, we headed off to meet Mustafa in the hotel lobby where he introduced us to our guide today - Abby who has a PhD in Egyptology and has been guiding for 30 years. She was to prove to be a wealth of knowledge and she also quickly worked out that we were wanting to learn.

We headed south to Memphis first - the site of the first capital of the United Egypt. There we saw the statue of Rameses II and other artefacts from that time. Rameses is pretty amazing and to learn more about the statue like how it was carved, the details of the headdress, hieroglyphs and clothes was fantastic. After Memphis we drove to nearby Saqqara and were about to see the Step Pyramid and the Colonnade of Saqqara and then the tomb of Idut who was the daughter of the king. Abby talked us through the meaning of the different chambers and the hieroglyphs that adorned the walls.

On the way back to Giza we visited a Carpet School where they teach the children of the farmers how to make the beautiful carpets that we all know as Persian rugs. It was a selling opportunity for them but the chance to see them actually making them was worth the hard sell. On the drive back ... amongst lots of mad driving and busy traffic we saw more of the surrounds of Giza and much of life in Egypt before a delicious lunch at a local restaurant with our Abby.

After lunch Mohammed our driver superbly negotiated the mad traffic to take us to the pyramids. Abby helped purchase our tickets into the area and then headed us off to the Great Pyramid of Khufu where we had the opportunity to actually go inside the pyramid. Now let me say that this experience is not for the faint hearted, for those with serious heart issues or those who are claustrophobic. It was an intense climb and crawl to get through some parts of the journey and we ended up in the very middle of the pyramid ... sometimes on our hands and knees. Thankfully we made it in and even more thankfully we made it out again!

Then back into the car to drive to the Giza plateau where we could view the pyramids and then be amazed at the vastness of the desert so close to the city outskirts. Throughout the entire day Abby provided us with so much information ... even quizzing is at times about things she had told us earlier in the day! Finally we headed down to the Valley Temple and our last stop was to see the Sphinx. 

Back to our hotel just after 5 ... in time to catch the sunset. Dinner, a shower and time to get ready for tomorrow. We will be in bed soon as tomorrow we have to be up and in the lobby to meet Mustafa at 4.30 to make our way to the airport for our early morning flight to Luxor!