Another tick on the bucket list

 Apologies for the late post - we've had some internet connectivity issues on board.

This morning we docked at Ain Sokhna, which is the nearest port to Cairo.  We left the port in a convoy of buses with a police escort.   Egypt has an entire branch of their police force which is just for tourists.  Tourism is their livelihood and after past terrorist attacks against tourists they aren't willing to take any chances.

The drive to Cairo was over 2 hours, and there wasn't much to see except desert on the way.  But it was worth it.  We had 3 separate stops in the Giza complex.  The first was at the "panorama" which is an elevated point from which you can take photos of all the pyramids.

The 2nd stop was close to the pyramid of Khafre where we had the opportunity to go inside.  The pyramid of Khafre is the only one with some of its outer casing stones remaining (right at the top).  It also appears to be taller than the Great Pyramid, but is actually shorter.  This is due to the fact that it is built on bedrock that's higher up than the bedrock the Great Pyramid is built on.  Denise declined the offer to go inside because she's claustrophobic, but I figured I would give it a go.   This turned out to be a mistake.  It really is a tiny tunnel and  even someone as short as me would have to bend double to go along it. First you have to make your way down a really steep ramp to the doorway - which is probably only about 3 or 3.5 ft high.  The ramp is so steep they've had to put metal bars on it for people to use as steps.  When you get to the doorway you find that as well as bending down to go in, you also have to proceed down some rather small steps.  I gave up a few feet inside the door and turned around and came out again.  But I got some good photos of the pyramids from close up at least

The final stop in the complex was near the Sphinx, which I found even more impressive than the Pyramids. Sadly, the Sphinx has seen better days.   First of all Napoleon's soldiers used its nose for rifle practice, then it lost its beard during WWII.   The largest piece of the beard is now in the British Museum and the Egypt and British governments are negotiating its return as the Egyptians want to restore it.  The Sphinx's neck has suffered some erosion and they reckon that the beard provided at least partial support for the head.
Poor old Sphinx, it's had a bit of a hard life.  I don't imagine all the pigeons nesting on it are doing much to preserve it either.

 

Then it was time to leave Giza and drive to the Hyatt West Cairo for a rather mediocre lunch followed by a trip to the Papyrus institute where we got a demonstration of how to make papyrus before being encouraged to buy one of their over priced papyrus paintings. 

Finally it was another 3 hours on the bus back to Ain Sokhna where we were just in time for a late dinner.   We are now totally knackered!