THE GERMAN!!

So here we are, still in Cairo, staying at our friend, Blue's apartment.  We've mostly just been lazing around reading, going to the movies and hanging out at the gigantic Egyptian mall.  We did venture out on Friday however.  Ryan, who is also staying at Blue's apartment is from California.  He is also traveling for a year, and decided to coordinate a little excursion to some archaeological sites that are located about 30 kilometers south of Cairo.  The original plan was to rent a car, but that fell through since we didn't have international driver's licenses.  But Ryan found a company that would pick us up, and take us to the sites we wanted to visit for 60 Egyptian pounds each. 

A small Hyundai van picked us up around 8 am, which was 30-minutes earlier than they were supposed to be there.  I had about 10 minutes to get ready, and no time to have coffee, which was kind of a scary way to start the day. Our group consisted of Kale, Kate, Ryan, me (Heidi) and ..the German:)  

 The Van

After driving for about 40 minutes we arrived at our first location, Darshur, which is home to the first man-made pyramid - Snofru's Red Pyramid (2,600 BCE).  We actually were able to crawl inside the pyramid, which was completely devoid of oxygen.  To reach the center of the structure, we had to crawl through 3-foot by 4-foot tunnel that descended 68-meters at a 28-degree angle to the bottom.  I would not recommend this activity to anyone who is remotely claustrophobic.  Aside from the fact that it was hard to breath inside the pyramid, the smell of ammonia from people urinating inside of it was almost unbearable.  However, we were inside a pyramid, and that was an adventure in itself. 

This Pyramid was built at 43 degree angle, the first true smooth sided pyramid on earth, so they say...

  The 68 meter shaft downward - coming back up was a lot of work, we are all still sore from the climb.

Our next stop was the "bent pyramid" ... it was um, bent. And here is THE GERMAN!! No one really knows his name, we're not sure he has one, so we shall call him "German"  LOL  This Pyramid was built around 2600BCE, it began at a 55 degree angle, and then was completed at a 43 degree angle, due to structure issues with the steeper angle. The great pyramids of Giza were successful at the steeper angle. hmmm

"German"

On to Memphis, which is the ancient capital of Egypt founded in 3,100 BCE...it basically consisted of an open-air museum. The "docents"  at these sites are locals who instead of explaining the exhibitions, follow you around and ask for money.  Their method of asking for money is rubbing their fingers together and making a hissing or kissing sound.  It's really funny, and gets really annoying sometimes.

The largest statue found, although legs were broken. This is Ramses II ...and Ryan is to the left:)

  Sorry

Our final stop was Saqqara, which was the ancient burial ground, which serves as the necropolis of Memphis.  I got to pet a donkey there.  He was so cute!

The day after this excursion we were all very sore from climbing and crawling through pyramids.  Our historical excursion turned out to be a great workout.  Bonus:)