Pyramids of Giza November 7th

After sleeping on the sleeper train, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it through the day. But I kept positive because today we went to see the awesome pyramids, sphinx and step pyramid! Our first stop was the Pyramids of Giza. While we were driving, you could see the pyramids from almost anywhere...

Ki-ops is the largest "great pyramid" and has about 2.3 million blocks. One block is a minimum of 8 ton.  It is the tallest man-made structure for over 3000 years. It was built during the 3rd and 4th dynasty. Each pyramid took around 20 years to build. 20 YEARS! Can you imagine that? I would be very impatient. For all three pyramids, it took a total of 65 years. I found this to be interesting: The builders were farmers of Egypt. What they would look for before building would be 1) high ground 2) strong bed rock 3)close to their house and 4) edge of the green valley. Some of our group wanted to go into one of the tombs, but Ashlee and I opted not to because we were told there really isn't anything in there. So instead, we tried to take some cool pictures with the pyramids. Then this vendor came and took over her camera and started taking awesome pictures for us. It was hilarious. After he helped us, we looked at what he was selling and both bought a necklace from him :) Then when we were walking back to the bus, this man came up to us trying to sell us a statue and claimed "but my mother made it last night..." hahaha. We died laughing so hard right in his face! Then Ashlee got out her camera and made him say his sales pitch to us again. And he did and we got it on video...HILARIOUS. We laughed the whole day about it.

one of the cool pictures the vendor helped us out with :)

besties :)

Then we went to the museum that was at the pyramids. We were able to see one of the ancient boats there. It was one of the boats that would take the dead kings' body and coffin from where they lived to where they were buried (sometimes in the pyramids). This particular boat was found in 1954 and was 120ft by 120 ft. It is considered the second biggest finding after the tomb of king Tut. I thought that was very interesting...

After this, we went to the sphinx! This is the largest monumental statue. It was built by Khafra in 2500 B.C. I found it interesting that it is missing it's beard and nose. Apparently that means that it was added later, and must have fallen off. There are different theories for the reasons of that.

Notice my new necklace? :)

Last stop for the day: The step pyramid! The step pyramid is the oldest stone structure on earth. Crazy huh?

Then tonight we went to the papyrus shop where we got a demonstration on how they make papyrus! It was so neat! Then we got to look around. There were some really pretty designs that I liked a lot. After that, we still had time to kill before we went to Osmans house for dinner, so we decided to go to a cotton shop! Here, I bought two bandanas that I will use to wear around my neck :) They are really egyptian looking, and I love them! Then we finally went to Osmans appartment and met his wife and three kids! They were so nice and the food was delicious! We all crammed in there and sang for church and also had communion. It was a really great night.