Egypt (Days 3-4)

4/5/08
Waking up exhausted, I head off for a quick breakfast. It was then on the tour bus. We visited the pyramids and sphinx on the West Side of the Nile. I guess they are on the West side, because Egyptians bury people on the side that the sun goes down. I was amazed at the size of the pyramids. I believe Cheops, the tallest, was originally 496 feet. I knew they were big, but not that big. I was also impressed with the amount of tourist there. They were everywhere. During the morning we had our first “pre-arranged” shopping stop. Our guide would tell us not to buy from street vendors and instead buy from the shop of his choosing. However, I got the distinct feeling that the places we stopped gave our guide a nice cut of the profits from our visit. We weren’t given too much time at any shopping place either which meant that we couldn’t really bargain much. Anyway, I bought a simple painting on papyrus. In the afternoon, we visited the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. There was a phenomenal amount of stuff there. I was surprised that they weren’t doing a better job of preserving what they had there. The crowds were huge. King Tutankhamen’s stuff was impressive; gold and more gold. There was no shortage of mummies either. On the way back to the hotel we made another shopping stop. It was over the Nile River and back to the hotel.

Picture 1: Standing in front of Cheops, the tallest of the pyramids.


4/6/08
I had no problem sleeping during the night. We left Cairo early for Sinai, the peninsula in Eastern Egypt. The desert on the way out was very dry and barren. We crossed under the Suez Canal in a tunnel. We could see the big ships passing along the waterway. We stopped at what is believed to be Marah (springs of Moses) and the oasis of Elim. We could see the Gulf of Suez before heading toward Rephidim and Mt. Sinai/Horeb. There were quite a few Bedouins along the way. We arrived at the base of Mt. Sinai and had a quick dinner before catching a few hours of sleep. The hotel was primitive.

Picture 1: Marah, which was surrounded by desert.

Picture 2: Hotel near base of Mt. Sinai. It is not Mt. Sinai the background.