Cairo

What a noisy dirty crowded place. No one obeys the traffic rules, cross the road at your own peril! and they all beep their horns constantly. Staying at The Shephard Hotel on the banks of the Nile. I think it partly looks so dirty as there is very little greenery to offset the dust and smog that hangs over the town, however the road sides and streets were strewn with rubbish.
First stop out to the Pyramids. You might expect them to be out in the middle of the desert towering majestically above the sand hills, no, they are now basically in the middle of suburbia!
Although they do still tower. The largest Cheops covers 13 acres at its base. near by are the ruins of smaller pyramids to wives and important officals etc. The blocks are huge weighing up to 2 ton each, its hard to picture how thety managed to manhandle them into place and to such heights. Anne went into the burial chamber of the middle size pyramid, not much to see inside as it had been stripped by grave robbers, however it was a different experience to do it.
Nearby is the Sphinx rising majestically above the sand. It is part of a mortuary complex where the bodies were mummified, this took 70 days. We returned to the pyramids 2 nights later to attend the light and sound show, which explained some of the history of the life of the pyramids.
Again we ran the gauntlet of vendors trying to part you from your money.
A trip to the Cairo museum was interesting, firstly no air conditioning! so plenty of water. Full of hundreds of objects related to life in ancient Egypt, cooking utentils, pots, chariots, statues by the hundreds, furniture from tombs and storage jars for the bodies vital organs to be preserved in. The highlight was the Tutunkhaman room with the sarchopagus, death mask, jewellery and other posessions needed for daily living in the after life. Such a culture fixated on life after death!
Next was a visit to the El Kaleli markets, where charming young men asked "how can I part you from your money"! An amazing amount of tourist tat, but also some local stores selling piles of spices, mounds of bread and thick pungent turkish coffee.
We also visited a place called Garbage City, where about 200,000 people live who recycle about 70% of Cairos rubbish. What a place, narrow streets piled high with bags and boxes of rubbish being sorted out by hand. Everybody works. The bottom floor of the apartment buildings had storage rooms used for holding and sorting the rubbish, there was mess, smell and goats and donkeys every where. In the midst of all this is a Cathedral hewn out of the rock that seats 20,000 people. It is run by the Coptic Christians, who also provide schooling and hospital facilities. Most of the people who live and work there are also Coptic Christians. All around the rock walls leading into the church area are carvings of biblical stories and reminders Christs sacrifice for us. It was an overwhelming place to be in, a kind of life we could not begin to comprehend.
We leave Cairo to drive to the Sinai peninsula and Mt Sinai tomorrow.