The Pyramids at Giza

Everyone knows about the Pyramids at Giza, it’s a must see for tourists around the world. At the beginning of my time in Cairo, a friend from Binghamton came to visit and I took her to the Giza Pyramids.  We had a blast getting there as we took the subway and three cabs to get there. The trip wasn’t really so long, but we decided to see Coptic Cairo in the early afternoon, meet up with another friend, and then go see the Pyramids.  It was amazing.  Coptic Cairo is the oldest part of the city, one of the only places you can see a mosque, Jewish temple, and a Christian church within a block of each other, a faint memory of religious cohabitation and peace. The Pyramids were tall and looming. The stones at the base of the pyramid were taller than us; it’s hard to imagine the engineering required to move such massive things.  We purchased tickets to enter the second pyramid, which was the smaller, better preserved one. It consisted of short dark tunnels eventually connecting with the burial chamber. Long since stripped of any ceremonial beauty, it smelled like piss and was a cavernously claustrophobic room hotter than 100 degrees Fahrenheit in March. On the outside, the original facing of the pyramid was still in tact at the peak of the structure, helping us to move past the smell and recognize it in its original beauty. Before leaving we visited the Great Sphinx, whose nose (so I am told by an Egyptian friend) was blown off by Napolean Bonaparte when he conquered Egypt.  He thought it was demonic and so aimed a cannon at it, besmirching the beast’s existence by removing violently its nose.  The Sphinx was a tall, looming beast, rising above and outshining the temples at its feet. It was a beautiful sight.