Tuesday, December 15th. (Pyramids, Meeting Sammy,
After meditating and a quick breakfast we were FINALLY ready to head out for our first pyramid visit. Outside the Holiday Inn Pyramids it was bedlam! Dozens of Taxis were lined up to pick up fares and they were all honking at each other, for no apparent reason. Bell boys were scurrying about with guest’s luggage. A swarm of souvenir vendors and tour guides were hawking their wares and services, non-stop. It was difficult to move, it was difficult to talk, it was nearly impossible to even think straight.
One potential tour guide caught our eye right away. He was lean and wiry and browned from the sun.
“Are you looking for a good guide to show you around the Pyramids?”, he asked politely, “I’m Sammy,” he handed us his business card, “But they call me ‘The Champ’ because I ran up the side of the Great Pyramid faster than any other guide!” Sammy pulled a bent and wrinkled photo from his pocket and showed it to us. It clearly showed Sammy hanging by his hands from the wooden structure that sits on the very top of the Great Pyramid to show how high it originally was. “I’ve lived in Giza my whole life. I know all the guards and guides. I’ll take good care of you.” “How much for your services?”, we asked him. Sammy replied, “Let me show you around, if you have a good time you pay whatever you like.”
“Sounds good!”, we replied, “Let’s go!”
We walked over to the Pyramid complex and bought admission tickets.
At the time, there were separate admissions for each pyramid. The Great Pyramid was $4. Khafre was only $2. Today it cost $14.50 for General Entry to the complex. For an extra $30 you can visit the Khufu (aka ‘Cheops’) Pyramid and for an extra $6 you can also visit Menkaure’s Pyramid. That’s more than $50 to visit just 2 of them.
We spent the day walking around the outsides of all the Pyramids, the Great Sphinx, the Temple of the Sphinx, the Valley Temple of Khafre, the Valley Temple of Menkaure, and many other buildings, tombs, quarries and causeways. . One of the lesser known, but fascinating sights was a reconstructed Solar Barque, a complete boat buried next to Khafre’s Pyramid. One explanation of these ships (they have found many of them) is that they were used by the Pharoah on his or her trip to the Afterlife. (Cleopatra and Queen Hatshepsut were both female Pharaohs.)
Sammy also made sure we stopped by to see his ‘good friends’ at various local businesses, including a Perfume Factory, a Papyrus ‘Museum’ that demonstrated how Papyrus was made and sold beautiful hand-painted Papyrus sheets decorated with Egyptian Hieroglyphs other images. We figured that Sammy got a little kickback from his friends, but that didn’t bother us a bit.
The highlight of the day was going inside the Great Pyramid, aka the Pyramid of Cheops, or Khufu. The original entrance was (supposedly) behind a secret door, which was a stone on a hinge. If you didn’t know exactly which stone it was you would never find it. Over the ages it’s location was forgotten. In 832 AD the Abbasid Caliph Al Mam’un had his workers blast their way through the massive stone blocks. k They eventually connected with the Descending Passage lm from the original entrance and the Ascending Passage leading up to the Grand Gallery r and the King’s Chamber s. Those are the only areas the public is allowed to visit: k-o-r-s. So on this day that’s all we saw: Al Mam’uns Tunnel, the Ascending Passage, The Grand Gallery and the King’s Chamber.
The Queens Chamber, the Descending Passage, the Well, and the Subterranean Chamber (aka the Pit) are all currently off limits to the public.
The Great Pyramid is the most mysterious object we’ve ever seen. It’s huge – except in the connecting passageways, which are all too small. It’s fascinating. It’s unbelievable. It’s very mysterious. Go see it, if you can.
We gave Sammy for $30 that day and thanked him for all his guidance. “But Sammy”, we continued, “tomorrow we want to do some things that are not normally allowed. First, we want to climb the Great Pyramid (it’s forbidden). Then we want to be left alone in the King’s Chamber for an hour so we can meditate. After that we want to visit the Queen’s Chamber (closed to all visitors). We want to go into the Descending Passage, ‘The Pit”, and see The Well Shaft, all those places are strictly ‘Off Limits’ and are protected by gates with locks.
“Ohhh!”, Sammy replied, “All of that is very difficult!”
We’d only been in Egypt for less than a day but we were starting to pick up the local lingo: ‘Difficult’ meant ‘expensive’. ‘Impossible!’ meant ‘more expensive’.
“How about this, Sammy? You arrange all of that for us tomorrow and if at the end of the day we aren’t in jail, we’ll give you $120. How’s that sound?”
That sounded great to Sammy so we arranged to meet the next morning at 6:00 am. Sammy gave us a few pointers on what to wear for the climb and we said “good night!”
As we walked back to the hotel in the dark, the friendly hashish vendors offered us some of their finest product. What a country! We declined to buy anything just now. “Maybe later!”, we told them.
We were asleep by 8 o’clock. Unfortunately, we were awake by 10:30. We ordered room service, kofta and kebab, some gin and some beer. Probably Stella Export. One of the only two kinds of beers available in Egypt at the time, with the other beer being Stella.
We set our alarms for 5:00 am and returned to our beds.