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Adventures of a Travel Snob

From Giza to Saqqara

My first day in Misr, the Egyptian name for Cairo, I decided to dine alone at the top of the Cairo Tower. The view from where I sat showed the entire city, and behind a slight haze, were three distinct peaks: the Great Pyramids of Giza.

The following day I made my way out to Giza. I didn’t even know how to react when I saw them. Amongst the many tourists, camel riding hustlers and security guards stood the three great pyramids, as they have been doing for the past 5,000 odd years. Just at the doorstep of Cairo’s hustle and bustle.

Trying to avoid eye contact as much as possible with the camel riders, I wandered around the site taking as much pictures as I possibly could. When I tried to get into the great pyramid, I was denied as the 300 person quota (150 people in the morning and 150 in the evening) had already been reached. I did get the chance to enter the 2nd pyramid. That experience involved walking hunched over through a narrow corridor down slippery stairs. Clearly not designed for a claustrophobic, lanky Canadian.

The air was even thinner once in the anti-chambers of the pyramid, only one of which is open to the public. I lasted about 5 minutes in there before I made a bee-line for the stairs; hobbling up them as quickly as possible in search for air.

A little further away was the Sphinx, who I couldn’t really get close to since the crowds of tourists were HUGE bymidday. After pushing my way through a hundred people and trying not to trip over the baby carriages along the steep slope and narrow corridor that let to the Sphinx viewing point, I was finally able to get someone to take some quick pics before the drive to Saqqara.

Saqqara was more crowded than expected, I had no clue that King Djoser was that popular.Standing alone, the step pyramid built by Imhotep was fantastic. The rest of the grounds didn’t provide much else to see so the visit was a quick but impressive one.