ALEXANDRIA /CAIRO, EGYPT -

SPHNIX, PYRAMIDS, NILE

& THE BELLYDANCER

Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 5 AM, Temperature 63 Degrees, 60% Humidity, W- 9.8 mph

It was a Perfect Day (except for the early start time)! Sunny, cloudless, blue sky, moderate temperatures—we couldn’t have asked for anything better.

We had to be at the World Stage by 6:40 AM for our meet-up, our departure was scheduled for 7 AM (although we were on the bus at 7 AM, we didn’t pull out until 7:30 AM). The Cruise Director said 90% of the passengers were taking Excursions to see the Pyramids. In addition, 200 of the 814 crew members took special Crew Excursions to the Pyramids. HAL seems to be very crew-oriented; they have special events and celebrations, including religious services, for the crew. The crew can also sign up for Excursions while in port; they take turns, scheduling depending on the ship’s needs (we assume they are free to crew members – they work very hard and deserve it). They have no scheduled days off, only a few hours off on a split schedule during the day. John needs “stupor time” in the morning before he starts his day, so he set the alarm for 4 AM (but we were already awake). We’d brought fruit and Danish to the room the night before, so even though the Lido Casual Dining had a special 5 AM opening, we were all set in our room (except for John’s trip to the Lido for Takeaway coffees). John went down to the World Stage at 6:00 AM to get a good seat close to the exit. I joined him at a more leisurely 6:15! There were three different Excursion itineraries: Our’s was the Sphinx, the Pyramids, and a Lunch River Cruise on the Nile River. Ultimately, there were six buses for this Excursion. We were the first bus in the convoy; each Excursion traveled in its own convoy, and each bus had an armed security person on board. Our Guide said the security was not related to any specific incident but had been in place for years to protect the important tourism industry. There was definitely a police presence (both uniformed and literally “men in black”) whenever we got off the bus - the Pyramids, our shopping venue, and at our Nile River Lunch/Cruise.

We traveled through the City of Alexandria to the highway, which would take us to Cairo. The city was densely packed with limestone colored apartment buildings, many with laundry hanging from the balconies or clothes lines under the windows. The guide said the government had built a number of new cities as people want to move away from the city's congestion (I think many people won’t be able to afford that option). On the Highway, as we drove closer to Cairo, we saw large billboards advertising new planned communities with pictures of Western style houses similar to what we would find in the US. Our Guide lives in a new City called 6th of October. It is named after Egypt’s successful crossing of the Suez Canal in 1973 in a surprise attack on Israel (in what we call the Yom Kippur War). She can see the Pyramids from the living room of her high-rise apartment. She said buying gold or apartments is Egypt's only “safe” investment, not banks. She bought her new apartment three years ago, which has already tripled in price.

After leaving Alexandria, we traveled 2+ hours on a good, multilane highway. There was no desert, primarily irrigated farmland and groves of olives, citrus, and grapes. There were also factories and small developments/towns. Egypt is a Muslim country, and every factory, development, or town had a prayer tower or Minaret with speakers to notify the faithful of prayer time five times a day: dawn, noon, late afternoon, sunset, and night.

THE PYRAMIDS –

The three Giza pyramids were built during the 4th Egyptian Dynasty, 2,575 – 2,465 BCE. The Great Pyramid of Giza was the first pyramid in Giza, beginning in approximately 2,550 BCE. The Great Pyramid is the only remaining of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In addition to the Great Pyramid, the seven wonders included, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

It was very exciting to get our first glimpse of the Pyramids across the city.

John is a proponent of the Ancient Astronaut theory of pyramid construction (we went to hear von Daniken speak years ago). Nothing we saw “up close and personal” changed his mind! The pyramids were closer together than we realized; you could easily walk between them and see them all at once from the right position. John thought they were larger than he expected. I thought they were smaller, but I think it’s like seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time; you don’t have a good perspective because they don’t seem real after seeing them in so many photographs. You hear about the three pyramids of Giza, but there are also three smaller pyramids known as the Queen’s Pyramids that were built for the Pharaoh’s wives, Queen Meritites and Queen Henutsen, and his mother, Queen Hetepheres. Fascinating to look up at the Pyramid of Khafre with part of its granite casing still in place and see how thick it was. The hole is the southside of the Great Pyramid is known as Vyse Hole. It is named after Howard Vyse who made the hole in1830, looking for a potential entrance on the south side of the Great Pyramid.

Giza is a busy tourist place with many people trying to sell you something, take a picture, or get you to ride a camel! John took a funny picture of a dozen camels and riders lined up like a taxi stand to offer rides to tourists. In the background, on the ridge, you can see another camel ride with tourists traveling a short distance across the desert a la Lawrence of Arabia! Our guide warned us to be aware that when they offer you a camel ride for free, “don’t fall for it, free to get on, but you have to pay to get off. “There’s a full-time maintenance person with a scoop and bucket whose job is to scoop up camel poop!

The Sphinx –

We spent forty-five minutes at the pyramids before boarding the bus to view the Sphinx. We were surprised to learn that the Sphinx was close by, just on the opposite side of the pyramids we had been observing. The Sphinx was cut from limestone bedrock and appears to be the face of Pharaoh Khafre and the body of the lion representing strength. It measures 240 ft. long from paw to tail and is 66 ft. height from base to top of the head. There’s a popular myth that the damage to the Sphinx’s nose occurred when it was broken off by cannon fire during Napoleon’s Egypt campaign of 1798 but there is earlier artwork showing the damage and descriptions of it as early 15th-century historian. There has been some restoration done to support the Lion’s head. There are fences now to keep the public from getting too close but while we were there, the was a small group in the fenced area. Our Guide said, that was a private tour at a cost of $10,000 – guess we don’t need to get that close after all. John took a close-up picture of some of the large stones near the base of the Sphinx. Some of the stones appeared to be about the size of a 26-foot U-Haul Truck and according to his calculations they would weigh approximately 130 tons, based on the fact a cubic foot of sandstone would weight 150 pounds. Hard to imagine how ancient Egyptians could have moved those stones no matter how much sand, ramps, levers and pulleys they had – back to the Ancient Astronauts!

Lunch on the Nile – Belly dancer included!

After a mandatory shopping opportunity (all Excursions have them, fortunately this one was only 30 minutes) we boarded our floating dining room for our Nile cruise. There were two large boats; ours held 2 buses of “excursioners”, the other larger boat help 4 bus loads. The large dining room was decorated with historical Egyptian figures on the walls and large windows for a view of cities we floated by (Cairo on one side of the river, Giza on the other). Large tables were already set for lunch and designated either Orange 5 or Orange 6 (our Excursion bus numbers). The main Buffet contained chicken, beef, fish and Kofta, a seasoned ground lamb & beef dish shaped into link sausage –and grilled. There were also mixed vegetables, potatoes & rice plus a separate table of salads and an eight foot spectacular dessert table! Most of the desserts were beautiful but typical dessert buffet fare. I went for a variety of small Egyptian pastries, some filo, some small cake balls soaked in a sweet, flavored syrup – think Baklava without the nuts. They were good (I admit, I sampled them all) but too sweet for my taste.

I was bemoaning the fact we didn’t have a window seat until the unexpected show started! First, there was a beautiful, costumed belly dancer (I know I never had a body that looked like that)! After several dances, a male dancer took the stage. He started out spinning like a Whirling Dervish while juggling five colored flat drums. Then, his “skirt” became an “umbrella” that he unfurled with one arm over his head, and he went around the room posing for pictures. He must have done that for ten minutes – spinning the large heavy circle of fabric over his head with one arm – incredible endurance. Then the belly dance returned in another beautiful costume for more dancing.

After the entertainment, we move to the top open deck to watch some of the most elegant parts of the city pass by including a Four Seasons and Hilton Hotel. We were lucky enough to hear the afternoon prayer call from a minaret we passed. After a beautiful and peaceful two hours of cruising the Nile River, I wonder if this is how Cleopatra felt sailing on her barge! We boarded our buses for the long ride “home”. We arrived back at Zuiderdam at 7:30 PM, exactly 12 hours after we started.