9 November 2024

This morning we boarded the bus for the 30-minute drive to Giza, just outside Cairo, where the Pyramids, Sphinx, and Grand Egyptian Museum (the new museum) are located. It is Saturday, so the whole area was flooded with buses and cars carrying tourists and school groups. All around the biggest pyramid were hoards of people, some of them drumming us for money--for example, wanting to hand us a "gift" (perhaps a Chinese-made trinket or a photo) and then expecting from us a "gift" (i.e., money) in return. Our guide, Hend, had prepared us well for such approaches, so we weren't much bothered by them. 

Although I had seen many pictures of the Pyramids, getting the three-dimensional view up close was very special. And the same goes for the Sphinx. I climbed up a few courses of the huge limestone blocks used the build the Great Pyramid, peaked into the entry door, and climbed back down. I didn't go in, because Hend had said that I would have to do most of the interior passage in a low stoop, which would make both my back and my knees very unhappy. However, no cautionary remarks stopped me from taking a 25-minute ride on a camel for another view of the three pyramids. 

On two sides the pyramids are threatened by creeping commerce and high-rise apartments. Fortunately, the other two sides still afford a good view, especially the side where I took the camel ride. 

This also applied to the Sphinx (minus the camel rides), but it is still possible to take a picture of it without a background of shops and apartments. 

Next, we returned to the bus and drove to the Grand Egyptian Museum. Just ten days ago it opened fourteen new galleries, so we were all willing to sacrifice the scheduled talk on women's rights in order to experience the new museum. Upon arrival we ate lunch at one of the very classy restaurants inside. Unlike the old museum, which is organized chronologically, the new one is divided up into large cultural categories (like "society," "religion," etc.) and, within that macro scheme, it progresses in a rough chronology. It is a collossal building, so large it is impossible to describe in a few words. Maybe the photos will convey some idea of its magnitude. 

 The kind of apartments that are beginning to encroach upon the domain of the pyramids 

                                                Two of the pyramids from afar

                                                                   The five men on the tour

                                                                        A closer view

                                                                            The Sphinx

                                                        One of the largest statues of Ramses II

                                                        Pharaoh with goddess supporting him.

                                            View of the pyramids from a glass wall at the new museum.

                                                                Rare wooden statue of a scribe.

                                                Two groops of African (i.e., Nubian) soldiers supporting the pharaoh.

                                                                Pharaoh with son and grandson

Queen Hatshepsut deliberately taking the form of a man to convince the people that she could rule just ass effectivelyh as a man.

Grand Staircase in the new museum, lined with statuary and leading nonstop up about five levels.