On our second full day in Egypt, we toured the pyramids at Giza. Constructed about 2500 yrs before the birth of Christ, they are ginormous structures containing the final resting places of pharaohs. Smaller pyramids nearby are for wives and other royals. There are also deep pits carved into the adjacent bases of the pyramids to hold boats to be used in the next life. Neither of which I realized in my ancient Egypt ignorance. But makes sense - keeping the top three wives nearby for the afterlife reunion. Plus his boats to cruise around. Beneath all of the existing sand and roads, undoubtedly some underneath modern development in this area, there must be many other burials, artifacts, etc.
The Sphinx is about 4500 yrs old, and so they had up some scaffolding for ongoing conservation. I was amazed that some of the pyramids still had a bit of their casing stones after all this time - see the top of the one directly behind the Sphinx. Those are the smooth polished limestone blocks used on top of the building stones to "face" the pyramid by giving it a finished look and protect the primary stones underneath.
Our view at lunch was pretty amazing. On this trip, I got to eat my fill of falafel, hummus, babaganoush and Egyptian flatbread called aish baladi.
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