Day 25 - Giza - The Last Wonder

My sphinx has got no nose

How does it smell?

Terrible

Today we went to the pyramids at Giza near Cairo. That's me with the Sphinx, which stands guard outside these huge monuments to the pharaohs. At 9am we interviewed Dr. Zawi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and active archaeologist. His recent discoveries include the tombs of the workers who built the pyramids, which uncovered the fact that the pyramids were built by paid farmers during the seasons when the Nile flooded and they couldn't work on their farms, not by slaves as people had assumed for years. He gave an animated speech about Egypt, and he even wore his Indiana Jones hat.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu

This is the last surviving wonder of the world, the Great Pyramid of Khufu. It's incredibly impressive but must have been even more amazing in ancient times when it was covered in a layer of limestone (long since looted) which reflected the sunlight and could be seen for miles around.

I'm pretty sure this is called "The Other Big One"

Soon after the interview with Dr. Hawass a massive dust storm started up which was a nightmare for the cameras and us. Imagine having sand blown in your face constantly for about four hours with no way of taking shelter from it. At least in the Western Desert we were jumping in and out of a jeep so we didn't have to put up with it for long. We did visit an interesting tomb though, with a statue that Barack Obama joked looked like him when he toured the pyramids recently. The hieroglyphics were so detailed and well preserved you could make out the feathers on the owl glyph's wings.

It was probably a curse, knowing my luck

After exploring the pyramids close up we rode on camels out into the desert. Our camel drivers were Ahmed and his son, who must have been about seven or eight. An expert rider, he chatted to the camel throughout the journey as he bounced about on top of it, his little legs swinging about. I laughed out loud when a small girl on a horse almost collided with us and he yelled at her angrily like a Cairo driver.

OK, these are horses

The dust storm cleared up and we filmed the sunset, although it wasn't a great one. We've got a few more locations to visit before we leave a week from today, but if all goes to plan we'll mainly be doing interviews so I don't know how many more photos I'll have for you.

Nothing like Cairo pollution. Bet it didn't look like this 5000 years ago