Day 23 - Pyramids

Today was quite eventful. I woke up at 8am and thought to myself....I am going to see the pyramids today....awesome!
Kathy(the director of St.Andrew's) arranged a taxi to takes us to the Giza pyramids and a few other places. The drive there was maybe a half hour. The whole time I was waiting for us to leave the city but then in the distance I see this pyramid. The pyramids are basically right beside the city, it was surprising and strange. I had thought that they were out in the desert not right outside the city. We took a carriage around because Kathy is afraid of camels and horses. It was a nice bumpy ride and our driver was hilarious, a charming smooth talker, but very entertaining. His name was Sam, his Arabic name being Ghali (sp?). At the Giza Plateau there are the 3 big pyramids and the Sphinx and other tombs and small pyramids. A major tourist area but really amazing to see. The pyramids were not as big as I had imagined but still incredible to think how they were made and how long ago. I did not go down into the big pyramid but I went in the small pyramid. I was really interesting. There was nothing down there but it was really cool to see what it looked like and just awesome to be under a pyramid. I went into a tomb after that. Apparently this just opened so that was cool I came at the time where you can go in it. It was really interesting to see the engravings and all of the symbols on the walls. Next we saw the Sphinx. So I saw all the famous things that we see pictures of all the time. Exciting!
The only bad thing was all the people. So many tourists were there...everywhere...I was one of them but still...kind of takes away from the incredibleness of the pyramids.
After the Gize Pyramids we went to Memphis, which was the capital city of Egypt during the Olds Kingdom and Pharaonic period. It is in the village of Mit Rahina. There was a sphinx and the major piece there was the huge limestone statue of Ramses II. Not much to see at this place but it was still really interesting.
Our next and last stop was Saqqara, one of the richest archaeological sites in Egypt, and not as many tourists :) There are many monuments that are still buried in the sand and have not yet been discovered. The Step Pyramid of Djoser is there along with other pyramids and tombs. We went into 2 tombs here and they were amazing. The colors on the wall were still preserved and the carving so detail it is incredible. The meaning behind all of the carvings on the walls are so fascinating. This is where I rode a camel. I was just going to sit on it but the man insisted I go for a ride. It was actually pretty awesome, and comfortable, however, I almost took a nose-drive as the camel was sitting down to let me off. It was funny. One the one side of me were the pyramids and on the other, endless desert. It was overwhelming to think of endless and huge the desert is. It was sand as far as the eye could see. Breathtaking.
One of the camel men must have been talking with Kathy because after I got back from my little camel ride she asked me if I could exchange 3.25CAN for this man. He had been carrying it around for a year apparently. Thanx for me he finally got rid of it today.
I think I found my favorite area of Cairo on our drive today. The Giza area, or at least the part we drove through today. It was less industrial and without huge tall buildings, and did not have tonnes of people on the streets. It was more "small town" with kids running around, kids and men on donkey carts and some farm lands interspersed here and there. I wish I could have just walked around that area for hours.