Giza Pyramids
Breathtaking. Pure and simple.
Upon arrival from the airport, one can immediately see the complex. From my hotel pool deck, on the last night, the Giza complex remained in full view and majesty.
The Giza pyramid complex, also called the Giza necropolis, is the site on the Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt that includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx of Giza.
King Tut & The Egyptian Museum
The Egyptian Museum required a full day and maximum attention. The museum is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East, and houses the largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities in the world; displaying an extensive collection spanning from the Predynastic Period to the Greco-Roman Era.
The Egyptian Museum is located on the edge of Tahrir Square, Cairo’s most central and most famous public plaza and ginormous traffic circle. The site of the peoples’ uprising in 2011.
We spent approximately 90 minutes on the first floor alone, following our guide through the artifacts, sarcophagi, and ancient treasures of Egyptian culture. The image gallery to the right features a few of the pieces that caught my eye and attention.
The Sphinx of Pharaoh Hatshepsut, in particular, which sat broadly in the center ailse of the museum. The Egyptians believe that the sphinx was a representation of their solar deity, Sun God, Horus of the Horizon and symbolized royalty and sacred status.
Click Image | Open for Full Gallery
The second floor housed the treasures found in the tomb of King Tut. A massive number of artifacts and treasures of King Tut’s tomb. British archaeologist Howard Carter and his patron Lord Carnarvon discovered a new and nearly undisturbed tomb in 1922 that turned out to be that of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen, who ruled for about 10 years and died when he was only about 19 years old.
Because he died so young and his tomb had to be rushed, it was partly built underneath another tomb. As a result, archaeologists had largely overlooked the site of his tomb for decades and grave robbers overlooked it for thousands of years before that. When rediscovered in 1922, all of Tut’s treasures and possessions from over 3300 years ago were still intact inside of the sealed tomb. French archaeologists and the fledgling local Egyptian government began the process of instituting preservation laws and institutions, a lot of those treasures are now on public display throughout the world – on loan from the Egyptian Government and Museum.
In fact, only a portion of the tomb’s contents were here; exhibits and artifacts were already moved over to the new Grand Egyptian Museum out in Giza, some exhibits were rearranged and consolidated into smaller spaces within the current museum building.
Yoga On the Nile
6AM Morning Movement
Yoga and movement meditation along the Nile River was all that I could have asked for. My only wish is that there were more time for more of it.
Windy Nile River Practice
First Night
A ten hour flight, delayed for takeoff allowed me to connect with Alex and Maria; we were the only “Americans” on the trip. I have a feeling we may travel with Anayra again 😉
The colorful re-construction was jarring on the ride in from the airport. Quoting from Gilles Khoury, whose Financial Times article coincided with my trip, “The condition of Egypt into a few words – its perennial hardships and rises and falls since the 2011 revolution that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak…. summarised the way people feel and behave here, with more or less similarities: their emotional exhilarations, their cautious hope and, of course, the lightness, the comic relief, the forever joie de vivre, which they express with the term maalesh (“It’s fine”).”
We were all exceptionally exhausted, but the meal, location and instant connections made at the table on the first night, clearly set the stage for the rest of the trip.
Interestingly enough, I captured shots of two wedding preps while lounging at the pools…in two different hotels….at both the start and the end of the trip. And as it turns out, the bearded guy (shooting the image out the window in seat 30A) was again my seat mate, on the way back to NY. 😉
Travel with Princesses In Mind
I committed to this amazing trip to Egypt in June 2022. I set it up with the intention of marking another year on the earth. Grateful, beyond words, that this excursion helped to facilitate a re-connection with three little Egyptian Princesses on the eve of my departure. While all my friends and family may appreciate the details; this is expressly dedicated to my great-neices, Radiyah, Hannah and Aliyah.
As-Salaam Alaikum
Three little girls and a connection to family, the ancestors, the sounds, rhythms, smells and sights of Africa. I knew the trip was meant to be and what and who it was meant to include as the warmth of that morning shower washed over me and I literally felt all my parents touch me, as if they were the water, washing my shoulders.
I just let go and cried.
I was a little nervous up to this point, in all honesty about how it would unfold, whether traveling alone – although with a group – was the right thing.
Through the shower, however, I felt all the anxiety dissipate and I instantly knew I was to reconnect to those little girls, (and eventually their father and grandmother) as one outcome of this trip. My diligence in capturing the grandness, pride and beauty of this country is as much for my memory as it is for their experience; for these pre-teenagers have not walked this part of the earth yet.
This was my way of taking them with me.
So it begins.
