A travel article about Giza, the Valley of the Kings and other sites including Edfu, with some bullets with advice for tourists about visas, tipping, getting around etc: "It's hardly surprising that the Sphinx's huge shattered face seems to smile enigmatically. The gateway to one of the world's most famous monuments is marked by a handprinted cardboard sign proclaiming: Entrance. The millions of tourists who make the pilgrimage here every year must pass under that sign, and through a gap in the rickety metal and wire fence, to come face to face with the giant figure of a lion with a man's face. Inside the fence, souvenir sellers fight over positions, tourist police drag children off by the ears for trying to sell carved camels to tourists, and rubbish lies in the corners. It's hard to think of a less appropriate setting for the figure the Arabs call the Father of Terror. No wonder he is amused. But it doesn't seem to matter. No matter how many times you've seen the Sphinx on television it is still awe-inspiring to be in the presence of this extraordinary figure carved 4600 years ago from a huge block of limestone left over from the building of the Great Pyramid of Cheops".
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