Day 1 - Giza & cairo

pyramids

great sphynx

papyrus papers

egyptian museum

JW Marriott Cairo

We got picked up in our private van with our own tour guide for the day. Seeing the pyramids was a dream come true!

pyramids

The Great Pyramid, aka the Pyramid of Khufu.

Our private shuttle was a special one today, equipped with four massage chairs!

There are three pyramids at this site. The one with the shiny smooth tip is the second largest. The largest one is the Great (Khufu) Pyramid.

The small hole seen here is the entrance to the great pyramid.

The path starts out spacious and quickly gets very tight.

The ticket collector took my tickets instead of just punching them. My guide said the unscrupulous worker will probably re-sell the tickets.

Getting narrower. For such a massive structure, you’d think they can make the tunnels bigger. But the vast majority of it is solid rock.

The king’s chamber, where the mummy of the pharo was placed. The walls here are made with granite, as opposed to limestone for the rest of the pyramid.

The place where the mummy was placed. It’s empty now.

We climbed out of this hole to get to the king’s burial room. It’s the entrance as well as the exit.

Climbing back down. Not made for claustrophobic people.

This path leads to the queen's chamber, but is not accessible.

We got back out!

Finding our spot for a picture.

Our tour guide gave us a full lesson on the pyramids. Each block weighs 2.5 tons, the great pyramid is made of 2.3 million blocks.

All these limestone blocks were hidden by a smooth shiny surface shell, but all the surface is gone except for the tip of the second pyramid.

Each block is taller than the girls.

Pyramids were built to help the spirit of the pharaohs become gods.

Cartwheel time!

The Great Pyramid, the only one of the seven ancient wonders of the world that’s still intact. It’s still a mystery today how they accomplished such a massive engineering feat 4,500 years ago, before wheels were invented.

Great Sphynx

If you kiss the Sphinx, does it turn into a prince?

The Great Sphinx, carved out of one single rock, is meant to protect the Great Pyramid.

The Great Sphinx is located near the great pyramid and is meant to protect the pyramid.

papyrus papers

Smash the plant flat to get the water out.

Roll the plant flat, then intertwine them to make paper.

Glow-in-the-dark art isn't ancient at all, but make for a cool "wow" effect for these art.

We got some Egyptian food for lunch.

First time we've had filtered well water in a bottle.

We visited a paper store where they make hand-made paper out of papyrus plant. The girls got a hand on the demo.

egyptian museum

These women had elongated skulls. The pharaoh’s family married each other to keep the divine bloodline pure. The inbreeding probably explains many anomalies in the statues’ body shapes.

These golden houses were fit inside one another like Russian dolls.

The guard dogs are meant to protect the tombs, so they're well respected and can be seen near all pharaoh tombs.

One of the mummies still under wraps.

Enjoyed some Egyptian coffee with the tour guide. Like Greek coffee, Egyptian coffee is strong, unfiltered and earthy, with ground at the bottom.

The Egyptian Museum was built back in 1906 and has the largest collection of Egyptian art in Egypt. The best room with Tutankhamen’s (e.g. King Tut) golden mask and golden mummy box couldn’t be photographed, unfortunately. A brand new massive museum, funded by Japanese government, is being built and will be open in 2020 and will replace this one.

JW Marriott Cairo - Back at the Hotel

Should we go down to the pool? Hmmm...

Man-made beach with waves. A beach in the desert in December? Sure, why not?

The girls went for a swim in the heated pool. One lifeguard, four pool workers, and just the two of them swimming. This was before we discovered the indoor pool.

Their fruit smoothies at the restaurant is amazing! You can taste the fresh fruit.

I'm rarely a fan of hotel restaurants, but this restaurant was fantastic and the staff was friendly. And dinner is free with executive lounge access.

JW Marriott is a very nice hotel, geared towards business people. As a Marriott Titanium member, they were polite to me, but with all the restrictions on kids, I felt unwelcome here. The kids still had a lot of fun here though, and the restaurant and suite upgrade was nice.