Everyone's going!!Forty-five minutes later, it was all still going according to plan. Our mini-bus was headed towards Giza, the site of the Great Pyramids - man-made structures that have fascinated and captured imaginations for hundreds of (Euro-centric) years. Amazingly though, they have been around for nearly 4000 years - can we even build anything these days to last 4 years?
Glimpses of the pyramids through the highrises (which run right up to the edge of the Giza site) heightened our anticipation..........as we drove by. What?
Oh, our driver must know another, less crowded way. It is already 8:00 am and there are hundreds of buses and taxis, along with all their gawkers, so good thing we have a guide (or a teacher who's been here a couple of years) and driver that obviously know what's up.
But we keep going south. And then we turn left. And then we loop back around a bit before heading south again. We knew the pyramids were big and took up some space, but we're not idiots. Where are we going?
Oh, the other pyramids!?!
Now we kind of figured there were other pyramids, but we had no idea how close they were, or how impressive they are. Gets us excited about actually seeing The Great Pyramids!! So here instead of what we thought we'd be doing, is a little photo essay of our day seeing those "Other Pyramids".
The Step Pyramid of Saqqara.This pyramid is the oldest known surviving stone monument - believed to have been built an incredibly 4600 years ago! It is the centre piece of a funery complex that covers some 7 square km. A French dude actually spent 75 years here poking around, and the job of excavation is still not done! Crazy sand!!
Camels! Obviously.
In awe of the Step Pyramid!
There they are!! The Great Pyramids of Giza - the closest we'd get today!From there we headed a little further south - definitely not going to Giza today we finally guessed - to Memphis. Not where Elvis is said to be buried, although with the size of Saqqara, the burial ground for this ancient capital, who really knows! Anyways, we continued on to Memphis, which as was just mentioned, was the ancient capital of Egypt for a few hundred, possibly thousands, of years. Not much is left of that time except an open air museum built around the massive fallen statue of one of the most successful and ruthless leaders, Ramses II.
Making a case that these statues aren't as old as they say!
Bad ass Ramses II - big bad dude.
A sphinx - legend has it that these stone monuments are actually much smaller than they appear in photos because people are always trying to get a good photo - Like this one, which is actually about 3 m tall and 4 m long. Still pretty big for 3000 years ago!!
Possibly one of Ramses II underlings - he gets the last laugh as he's still standing!From Memphis we continued further south to Dashur, site of the Red Pyramid and Bent Pyramid. After the success of the Step Pyramid, ancient architects made an attempt at making the first smooth faced pyramid. This resulted in the Bent Pyramid, which by it's name alone, can lead you to believe it didn't quite work out. As it happened, the angle the architects used was too steep, so about two-thirds of the way up they had to adjust, giving this pyramid it's bent look.
What IS impressive about this monument however is the fact that much of it's original facing is intact. This is rare as most of the limestone used to make the smooth finishes to the other pyramids, including The Great Ones, was taken down and used to build ancient Cairo a number of centuries ago. A feat of recycling, but somewhat of a shame!
The massive Bent Pyramid.Despite the setbacks of the Bent Pyramid, the ancients were undeterred, and learning from their mistakes, managed to build the Red Pyramid - which was probably not called "Red" in it's time, but has since gotten the name because the weathered lime and sand stone has a hint of red in it - a result of it's outer limestone being looted!
The Red Pyramid - nice job architects! So straight, and the oldest of the 'true' pyramids.
A classic! - "I'm a giant...HA HA HA HA!"
Overheard in the desert:
Graham: "How long do you think we'd last out here?"
John: "I bet we're trying to drink our own urine before we can get to the shade of that pyramid over there."
An un-named piece of rock that has now been dubbed "Dinner's Pyramid". The treasures it must hold!!Next up..."The first days of school - Four weeks in the making!"
On day three, we did three more dives, including one to a depth of 30 metres so John could obtain his Advanced Open Water certification, allowing him even greater access to the wonders of seas and oceans. Throughout it all, we saw all sorts of creatures and sights, but our favourite underwater creatures have to be the Angel Fish, who always seem to be swimming in pairs!! Of course the eels, who always seem to be lurking in the coral are pretty cool too! 
