There are a million Pyramid web pages on the Internet, so on this page we are just going to include information from our visit to the pyramids during our recent trip to Egypt. [Here is a link to perhaps the best of the Pyramid sites: NOVA's Pyramids Site].  Tracy and I were in Cairo as coach and chaperone to the ACS students participating in the Mike Ross Screaming Eagles Track and Field Invitational. Here then are our impressions of the Great Pyramids. Click on any image to enlarge, and then hit your browsers "Back" button to return to this page.
 

Here is a view of the Great Pyramid complex, which contains 3 main pyramids (Khafe is shown here) and 6 pyramids in all. Approaching the area from a dusty road in Maadi on the outskirts of Cairo, you just turn the corner and there the pyramids are, with the city backed up to them. This picture reinforces the common notion that the pyramids are a camel or jeep ride into the desert. Instead, they are are now in an urban setting. Click here for an image of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid at night
 
 

Turning 180 degrees from the Sphinx, you can see Cairo (right) slowly encroaching upon the Ghiza complex. However, looking to the immediate left, it is apparent that you are also right on the edge of the vast Sahara Desert.
 
 
 
 
 
 

The first structure visitors encounter as they walk directly from the Kentucky Fried Chicken/Pizza Hut up the hill to the Ghiza complex is the Sphinx. Looking a little the worse for wear (no, it is not true that Napoleon's artillery blasted off the nose during target practice), the Sphinx remains an impressive sight. I once read in a Scientific American article that the shape of the Sphinx (roughly a figure eight when seen from above) is a shape that mimics the erosion pattern of stone formations in the Sahara desert. They argue that its shape, along with the direction in which it is facing, has contributed to its longevity. Click here for a picture of us at the Sphinx
 
 

As you reach the Ghiza plateau, the three primary pyramids come into view.  Click here for a view of the three pyramids at night
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Here is Khafe, the largest of the pyramids. It is interesting that only the top seems to have withstood the effects of erosion, as there is a layer of stone at the top of the pyramid that is missing from the remainder. As we rounded the corner, we encountered a group of lovely Egyptian school children on a school trip. They were eager to practice their English with us, and they posed for a group portrait. Just a little further down we encountered one of the many camel owners found in the Ghiza complex. Although we declined a ride, we did get pictures of both the owner and ourselves with the camel. I wonder how many people have worn that turban? (and when it was last washed?)

 

Click here for a photo of:

• Tracy, Queen of the Desert
• Sheik Dale. . .
• Tracy and Dale at the Pyramids

While we did not have opportunity to visit the interior of the Great Pyramid at Giza, we were given the opportunity to see inside the smaller Menkaure Pyramid. This was a mixed blessing, the ticket taker was inattentive, and we got backed up, head to butt with an entire tunnel full of visitors, and were stuck there (in the dark and in the heat) for about fifteen minutes until the congestion was relieved. Of course, we were at the bottom most part of the tomb, which did nothing for Dale's claustrophobia! Click here on on the animated gif for a less anxiety-prone tour of the pyramid.

 

We actually went to the site of the Pyramids a second time, at night. After the second day of the track meet, we dined at the afore mentioned KingTutty, er Kentucky Fried Chicken and got to see the Pyramids at night, glimpsing the famous laser show from a distance. Outside the students had after dinner entertainment in the form of this young street vendor trying to emulate Ahmad's trick of slowly rotating a bottle of water upside down without spilling any. He did eventually, but not before soaking himself and some of the students. A good time was had by all, as the students shared the remainder of their pizza with the young boys.