The Great Pyramids of Giza | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 2 (Part 15) 01D19

Giza Pyramids & Sphinx, Sakkara Tombs, TiTi Pyramids, Steps Pyramids

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Giza Pyramid Complex

Today’s itinerary is full of activities and sightseeing and at night we will be leaving for Aswan. Let’s start with the Pyramids of Giza.

These are the 3 most famous nearly 4000 year-old pyramids that are the last remaining of the ancient Seven Wonders of the world. The Giza pyramid complex holds the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, the Pyramid of Menkaure, and the Great Sphinx of Giza.

The desert plateau is surrounded by other small complexes from unfinished or broken tombs, ruins from the temples, and smaller satellite pyramids.

The Great Pyramid was the tallest structure made by humans until the Eiffel Tower was completed in Paris, France in 1889.

Giza Pyramid complex is located in Giza, a bustling suburb of Egypt. This is 13 kilometers from downtown Cairo and 8 kilometers from the Nile. Because my hotel was in Giza, it was not far from my hotel.

I thought the Giza Pyramid complex was located in the middle of the desert, but its location has Giza city on one side and the desert on the other side. The view of Giza city in the background from the pyramids looked very beautiful. It has that ancient feeling.

To enter the Great Pyramid, you need to climb up quiet a few steep stone steps to the middle where the entrance passage is located on pyramids and there was always a line of people waiting to get in. 

Entering was not included with my tour. I didn’t purchase the additional ticket required to get inside. Instead, I took my time to walking around the pyramids with my 2 other female tour mates from Canada and Hungary.

I will talk about the surroundings of the Giza Pyramid Complex in the next post.

Alexandria Day Trip – Part 9 | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 1 (Part 14)

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Koshari (Kushari) Street Food | Alexandria Street Food

After finishing our Alexandria tour, we were heading down to our hotel in Giza. We were all hungry and the tour guide gave us options to go to a restaurant, which would kill another 45 minutes, or grab some street food on our way and keep driving.

Everyone chose to try street food without wasting time and there were a few Egyptian foods to choose from. Our tour guide recommended Koshari, also known as Egypt’s national food, and everyone seemed to agree.

This is a very popular food in Egypt. Wherever Egyptians go, they will eat Koshari. Guests are visiting? They will be offered Koshari. Every week Egyptians will eat Koshari at least 3-4 times.

Koshari is made of rice, macaroni or spaghetti or paste, lentils, chickpeas, spicy tomato sauce, beans, and vinegar sauce. Depending on where in Egypt you buy it from, there can be variations in ingredients, but it’s always got the same great taste.

I liked Koshari right away, but it was spicy. It’s a vegetarian dish, but so delicious that you won’t miss the meat. The one I ate had pasta in it. It felt like I was eating pasta, or chickpeas, or something else.

Koshari is savory, has satisfying depth and texture, and is out-of-this-world tasty. The taste was incredible and the memory of eating it while we were driving through rural Egypt was unforgettable.

Next day I will start the actual Egypt tour, starting with the Pyramids.

Alexandria Day Trip – Part 8 | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 1 (Part 13)

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Bibliotheca Alexandrina | Alexandria Library

At present day, The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a revival of the legendary ancient library, which was the largest library in the ancient world. The original Alexandria Library, destroyed in a huge fire around 2000 years ago, contained works by Homer, Plato, Socrates, and many others, and used to be the centre of learning in the ancient world.  

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is an 11-story library that sits along the ancient harbour in Alexandria. The library has 4 million volumes of books and can accommodate eight million books and 2500 readers. I saw carved letters, pictograms, hieroglyphs and 120 different human scripts on the granite exterior walls.

The Alexandria Library is also home to four permanent museums, a planetarium, a conference centre, lots of exhibitions, a children's library, a multimedia library, a library for the blind, and possibly many others.

The library building is a feast of architectural marvel combining ancient and modern styles. It spans 160 meters in diameter, 32 meters in height, and 12 meters into the ground in its circular, tilting form.

The timeless and bold circular design represents cyclical fluid knowledge throughout time and its tilting, glistering roof represents the ancient Alexandrian lighthouse providing Alexandria the light of knowledge.

I saw a reflecting pool and an open plaza surrounding the building. I also noticed something like a footbridge or overpass linking it to the nearby University of Alexandria.

The construction started in 1989 and completed in 2001. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina project was made possible by the global cooperation of 18 countries, oversighted by UNESCO. The architecture was completed by Norwegian Snøhetta, consisting of ten members from six different countries, who won the contract among 1400 entries.

A funny thing that makes me laugh to this day is that inside the museum I was so immersed in taking pictures and videos that I lost my group and had to complete the tour alone. I was able to meet them after the tour at the exit gate.

Alexandria Day Trip – Part 7 | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 1 (Part 12)

Qaitbay Citadel | The Fort Qaitbay Castle

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The Citadel of Qaitbay in Alexandria sits on the northern tip of Pharos Island on the Mediterranean Sea coast and was built in 1477 AD by Sultan Qaitbay. The purpose of this fort was to defend Alexandria from the Ottoman Empire, but it didn’t work out when the Ottomans took over Egypt in 1512.

The fortress was heavily bombarded and damaged by the British fleet in 1882 and later reconstructed in the early 19th century by Muhammad Ali Pasha – the father and founder of modern Egypt.

The Citadel of Qaitbay was erected on the exact location of the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria – one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Citadel was built with stone salvaged from the lighthouse.

The Citadel has three floors. There is a huge mosque on the first floor. The second floor has an octagonal corridor and halls, and the third floor was where the king used to sit.

I found that the 2nd floor looked like a maze with lots of cubbyhole-like mini tunnels for the guards to watch the sea outside for approaching enemy ships. It’s easy to get lost looking for exits, but my guide was there to maneuver us through the castle. 

At present, the Citadel is a popular tourist spot and also has a small naval museum. I noticed lots of couples also enjoying the solitude by the Mediterranean Sea, away from the city’s hustle and bustle.

Another thing I noticed was that young Egyptians like to take pictures with tourists, especially if you are a girl with blond hair and blue eyes. One of my blond tour mates has been getting stopped for pictures every minute. Eventually, she just couldn’t keep up and had to refuse to strike a pose.

Our next stop will be Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Alexandria Library.

Alexandria Day Trip – Part 6 | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 1 (Part 11)

Pompey’s Pillar | The Temple of Serapeum

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Pompey's Pillar, a massive 30m column made from red Aswan granite and 2.7m at its base, was originally part of the Temple of Serapeum, a temple dedicated to Serapis. Pompey’s Pillar rises out of the sparse ruins of the temple, which was also a magnificent structure in ancient times.

Pompey's Pillar is named after Pompey, a Roman general murdered by Cleopatra’s brother, but the pillar was not connected to Pompey.

Pompey's Pillar was built in 297 AD to celebrate the victory of Roman emperor Diocletian and to support a statue of the emperor. Diocletian ruled Rome between 284 to 305 AD.

Underneath the column lies the ruins of the temple of Serapis, now badly damaged. Serapis was the hybrid Greek and Egyptian god of Alexandria.

At the platform side, there was a basin, which was used for purification. Two galleries exist at the back of the temple. One is a black statue of basalt and the other is the Daughter Library, where scrolls and copies and overflow of texts found. The Daughter Library is also said to be a burial for the mummies of Anubis. 

Pompey’s Pillar on top is the only ancient monument surviving whole and standing in Alexandria today.

You will also see two other surviving monuments that are Roman copies of the Sphinx, but much smaller than the Great Sphinx at Giza.

Both Sphinxes, showing the body of a lion and the head of a man, are made from pink granite and of an earlier date than the pillar.