Cairo

A couple of years ago the Americans finished the tunnel through the Suez Canal. They agreed to do this in the Camp David Treaties. Since then Sharm el Sheikh is 510 street kilometers from Cairo away. So the buses which start collecting their passengers between 1 and 2 am from the hotels on the Na'ama Bay will arrive at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo after some long breaks at 9 am in the morning.

When you admire the grave treasures of the unimportant, early died Tut-ench-Amun, you may ask yourself where are the treasures of all the other pharaones. Most of them possibly were already stolen and melted in ancient times. The museum is really most interesting, but after 2 or 3 hours were stoned. Our way continued out to the pyramides of Gize.

You are lucky the sun will shine through the smog. 18 million Cairoans leave their traces. After lunch we visited a bazar and at 5 pm the bus already started for the way back.

Khufu

The Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu). The Great Pyramid at Giza is an awesome sight and it is the sole remnant of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The building is 4500 years old and was built around 2550 BC. It is 147m (481 feet) tall and 230m (755 feet) wide. and slightly higher than Khafra's pyramid (which looks taller - but it is also built on higher ground).

If you don't think 147m is tall, I will tell you right now that photos do not give you the correct scale. These buildings are HUGE when you compare yourself to them in person or virtual reality (one day in the future). The pyramid used to be smooth sided, but the finished white limestone slabs where stripped off long ago to be used in other buildings. The sides of the pyramid angle up at 51.5 degrees.

It is estimated there are 2.3 million blocks of stone in it and it masses about 6.5 million tons. The Egyptians were master builders and the difference between lengths of the sides is only 20 cm.

The step pyramid at Saqqara is the forerunner of the smooth sided pyramids. The stone blocks used to construct this pyramid are smaller blocks no more than a few feet long and a foot high. This pyramid is about 10 km south of the Giza Group. In fact, you can see the great pyramids from here, and vice versa if you are looking carefully. The funerary temple complex here is very well preserved and you can even see a type of glazing on the pillars of the entrance building to the complex.