Page 29 - WDT Magazine Egypt

GIZA PLATEAU & THE GREAT PYAMIDS

t’s difficult to tell where Cairo ends and Giza begins.
From our hotel, it was about 10 miles to the Giza
IPlateau, home to iconic pyramids and Sphinx – a
20 minute trip in the early morning. Giza’s three mil-
lion residents mostly inhabit older apartment build-
ings with retail stores at street level. Buildings along
the littered boulevard to the pyramids ranged from
neat and well maintained to crumbling shells without
roofs. A patina of dust covered everything.
We had mixed emotions as we got out of our car in
the dirt parking area not more than a hundred yards
from the Great Pyramid. We had been warned about
crowds and commercialism that diminished the
majesty of these monuments. At first blush, our fears
seemed well-founded.
Tour bus after tour bus was unloading eager visi-
tors from around the world. Weathered dark-skinned
men, mostly clad in the traditional gallabiya (long
robe) and taqiya (skull cap) swarmed newcom-
ers with a quick “Welcome, where are you from?”
before brandishing the finest trinkets China could
mass produce for only one Egyptian Pound. We had
been trained by our guide to say “la” while making a
frowny-face – so we put on serious faces and briskly
la la’d our way to the ticketing building. We later ex-
panded our vocabulary to la shukran or no thank you,
although it had little influence on these ambitious
entrepreneurs.
Things got a bit better past the ticket booth when
we came face to face with the big three – The Great
Pyramid of Khufu and its two sidekicks, the pyramids
of Menkaure and Khafre. The Great Pyramid is most
remarkable; 2,300,000 hand-chiseled limestone and
granite blocks weighing up to 70 tons each, stacked
with precision 481 feet up to its peak. Built around
2560 BC, Khufu held the record for the world’s tallest
structure for 3,800 years.
As grand and famous as they were, up close they
were less impressive, like seeing a famous older
movie star up close without makeup. It wasn’t until a
bit later when we saw the pyramids from a distance
in the desert, that we appreciated the giant monu-
ment’s true grandeur.

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