What Goes on Two Feet at Noon and Then Collapses in a Heap?

This was pyramid day! 

We had hired a guide, an Egyptologist named Nehal, to take us to the pyramids and show us around. It was quite a visit. Nehal arrived on time and was absolutely lovely, a mother of two whose parents are a professor and a doctor. She has a double masters in Egyptology and something else, and she knew pretty much everything. 

We arrived at the site only to discover that the pyramids website had printed out tickets with the next day's date. This required some discussion and some tipping (it is a tipping culture), but all was ironed out without too much angst due to our guide. She gave us a lot of background on the 3 large pyramids, all built during the Early Kingdom, and then we took electric buses to each of them. We stopped first at a viewing site, where Phil performed the pyramid yoga pose, much to the admiration of all. Many people take camel rides or go by horseback to see the sights, and there were dozens of vendors, whom we were instructed by Nehal to ignore. 

Then we moved on to the smaller pyramid of Menkaure. We went into it, which was terrifying and difficult, requiring a downhill climb bent in half to see the burial chamber (empty), and then an uphill climb bent in half. There was some panting and perspiring. I am smiling in the photo but weeping inside.

Our second stop was at the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops, to the Greeks). The inside exploration was more intensive there. I had chosen not to do it, as my inner physical therapist suggested, but the boys climbed down and back. When they emerged they were pale and sweaty. Again, the pyramid was empty, and our guide told us that many people just quit partway and have to be helped out.

We walked through the sands to the Mars Ankh burial site, which was the favorite of all of us. She was the granddaughter of a pharaoh and the wife of Khafre. She died unexpectedly, and her mother was so distraught at her passing that she insisted all the statues and art inside show the two of them together.  Unlike the pyramids, the tomb was decorated with paintings and statuary; it was rather moving to see the mother and daughter depicted clasping hands. 

 Then we bussed down to the Sphinx, which was just as it should be. Awe-inspiring. We learned that a thousand years after it was built and had been covered by the sands, a pharaoh was sleeping atop it with no idea what was beneath him. He dreamed a god came to him and told him he was about to make a miraculous discovery, and when he woke he dug down -- and thus the Sphinx. 

After we were done with pyramids, we traveled a little ways to a papyrus shop, where we learned from a very sweet but not well-informed woman how papyrus is made and bought some papyrus artworks. Our guide got a phone call telling her that her daughter was throwing up at school, so she called us an Uber and departed. We were exhausted by then, so we wished her well and went back to the apartment to chill.

We had cocktails in U Bistro and Bar, located in an old-time palatial building on Zamalek, where they know how to mix a drink. Afterward, we devoured a fancy dinner on a fabulous moored boat, where Phil ate pigeon and rice and I ate chicken and walnut sauce and Ben ate fattah, with an appetizer called mambar. Look it up if you dare! Touristy, no doubt, but tasty, with a view of the Nile and live music. A delicious ending to our time in Cairo.