Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
29° 59' N 31° 7' E
May 01, 2005 09:45
Distance 14km

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Cross this off my list

Text written in: English

Phew, finally got here.

I only had a few hours here and wanted longer. It is interesting how close they are to Cairo, looking out in one direction you see desert, the other you see all of modern Cairo right up to the edge of the Pyramid boundary.

They were of course very impressive. I will save most of my commentary for the captions on the pics.

Photos / videos of "Cross this off my list":

This was my first view of the Pyramids in the fog. I had been standing near the gate, waiting for the place to open, when I realized, hey, I bet I should be able to see one of the Pyramids from here, and I turned around and there it was! The Great Pyramid of Khufu (or Cheops to the Greeks). It is the tallest and first one built. I paid an extra $10 to go inside the Khufu Pyramid, you climbed up and up into the Main gallery. I was surprised that all the interior surfaces were smooth, in Luxor and Aswan they put heiroglyphics and paintings on every available space. This is a closeup of the edge of the pyramid. When they were originally built they were much smoother and overlaid with limestone to be completely smooth. The top of Khufu The three (main) pyramids of the Giza plateau, Khufu (the largest) in the foreground, then his son's Khaphre (Chephren) in the middle, and Menkaure (Mycerinus) in the far back. Khaphre's is built on a higher elevation and sometimes can appear larger, but Khufu is actually the largest. The surrounding desert. Looking in the other direction you would see Cairo, the Giza plateau is just on the edge of the city. What do you think this is? This is a close up of individual blocks if you are just standing in front of the pyramid. They say these were built before the invention of the wheel, and they were cut to fit into each other. This is my favorite picture of it. The Sphinx It was built quite close to the pyramids The Pyramid of Khafre from a distance. Because the angle of Khafre's pyramid was much steeper than Khufu, the people who stole building materials were not able to get at the very top where limestone still covers it. Pyramid of Menkaure, much smaller than the others, and closed (as with many of the ancient sites in Egypt, they close them on a rotating basis)
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