Friday, May 15, 2009

Travel: Observing the pilgrims

Living in Egypt blog (Maryanne Stroud Gabbani)

I look at Maryanne Stroud Gabbani's blogs most days because they offer a great insight into her life in the rural outskirts of Cairo and Giza. Today she describes taking some visitors to the Giza plateau and it is nice to see the view of the tourists from the pyramids rather than the view of the pyramids by the tourists.

I had a nice couple from the UK staying at the farm for a weekend not long ago and they wanted, naturally, to visit the pyramids at Giza. Even more, they wanted to go inside the Great Pyramid, a trip that takes some organising these days. We got up at 6:30 am to be at the pyramids at 7:30 so that we could be first in line for the tickets to the area and the pyramids. In the old days things weren't nearly so organised and it was just a matter of showing up, but now you have to buy a ticket to the plateau and another to go into either the Great Pyramid or the Middle Pyramid at the entrance. There are two entrances, one down by the Sphinx in Nazlit Semman and one up the road from the Mena House. Once you are wandering around the plateau, it is a long dusty hike back to the ticket offices to get entrance tickets to the pyramids. We were first in line, and they got their tickets to see inside the pyramid.

They wanted to wander around for a few hours and I said that I would amuse myself at the pyramid while they did whatever it was they wanted. Sometimes my visitors want my company, but they were very independent, so I settled down to watch and photograph visitors to the pyramid. It didn't take long for the crowds and buses to begin arriving and soon I had more than enough to watch. It was a Friday morning and there were people from every nation on earth, along with Egyptian families and some school trips towing crowds of children around the area.

See the above page for the full story. Her other blog shows a photograph from Giza or Cairo on a daily basis.

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