South of the city are the Pyramids.  We drive by them all.  I do not feel well, but we climb out for the panorama shot together on the plateau.  They are more breathtaking in life than you could ever imagine.  Mom videotapes some of the pyramids and takes photos of the Sphinx.  I stay in the van, planning to come back at the end of our trip (which I did).  The pyramids enticed the two girls to try and go inside to the tomb.  Ken made it to the King's Chamber but the girls were put off my the dank, dark closeness and the smell of urine and only made it to the Grand Gallery.  Be forewarned.  (We ended up not going in, but DID go inside the next largest pyramid, the Red Pyramid built by Sneferu, father to Cheops later on our trip.That was similar and absolutely frightening.)  I want to CLIMB the pyramids if I can some day, but I would like to go early one day when the weather is cooler and venture inside.

I plan to return to see the Great Boat of Cheops and the Sphinx at the end of our trip (which I do). Mom and the girls love the boat museum although Mom has to fight off mobs of tourist hounds trying to sell her postcards. She does fairly well. The boat was located in a pit next to the pyramid (there is still another to excavate) and was in such good condition they put it together over 10 years and built a large museum around it.  It is magnificent and I am glad I make it to the museum on our return to Cairo. Discover the Serapeum is closed for renovation - how sad - I was longing to see the great cavernous halls of the Sacred Bull tomb complex in Saqqara, but I wasn't feeling well anyway. Then we drove to Saqqara, the long road trip on badly paved roads doesn't help my illness!  The gang explores the first pyramid texts in the tomb of Unas.

Mom got to go - I was feeling so unwell from food poisoning and was devastated I couldn't go in. Saw the Step Pyramid from the van!!  I long to return.  Mom went down into the tomb (see picture) and took lots of photos. Unas was a fifth dynasty pharoah and though his pyramid is the worse for wear - his tomb has the oldest hieroglyph carvings and the first for a pyramid.  Full of stars on the ceiling.

Here lies the giant statue of Ramses II.  Laying on his back with cartouches on his bracelets and seal.  The head, torso, one knee and one ear intact.  Magnificent.  When they found it years ago - it was lying face down in the mud and dirt.  Other formerly great statues litter a tiny courtyard.  A few stone sargophagi.  Not much left of the great city of Memphis. An alabaster Sphinx, I forget the pharaoh - maybe Hatshepsut?  The splendor of the great city of Memphis has vanished into the Nile Delta region, with all the tributaries, the ground is mud and dirt - and the city is lost beneath the ground. South, the cities along the Nile are better preserved, where conditions are drier and more desert-like.

The mint tea seems to make me feel better.  Naga encourages me to drink more of it.  It seemed to work actually.  (I never got sick after that and by the end was eating salads!) We had lunch and then went to the rug factory, the rugs were too expensive.  The children were doing the finely weaved carpets.  I tool a photo of one girl who was working quite hard.  The reason for me to come back, I think.  Some of the very fine silk rugs were thousands of dollars and true pieces of art.  Driving through the suburbs of Cairo - time regresses several thousand years.  Immediately farmers and fishermen come into view. People and animals using the Nile. Villagers on donkeys.  Small villages with little or no plumbing or electricity. As if time has stood still.
 

Dinner at Khan El Khalili - the giant outdoor trading/market zone.  Great writers have worked here.  Perhaps it is the Monmartre of Cairo.  It also is reminiscent of the streets of Rome.  So crowded, lots of silly trinkets for sale.  Emily gets a waterpipe for her boyfriend.  Sarah gets a belly-dancing music tape.  We ogle cat statues in granite but Naga tells us to WAIT TILL LUXOR (His big refrain! where he has friends).  We order cartouches for all our friends.  I decide on a horus necklace in gold for health and a twisted chain and some cartouche earrings. The dinner was superb.  Spicy, hot, seasoned meats and vegetables. After a good night's sleep I feel okay in the morning (and many pepto bismols later).

Day 5

To Photos