By Sunday morning I was pretty much back to normal (partly thanks to one of the local versions of Immodium, Antinal, aka Nifuroxazide), which was good because this was the morning of the Big One - or should I say Big Ones. Yep, it was Giza time! The morning mist and pollution haze did their best to obscure the gigantic structures, but up close there was no way to hide just what massive feats of engineering they represent.
My parents had been inside the pyramid of Chephren on a previous day trip from Port Said, but Simon and I were keen to go inside the Pyramid of Cheops, so thanks to our guide getting us there early, we secured two tickets from the mere 150 allocated for that morning, and after a brief walk around the base of the pyramid, we left Ilona (who's a tiny weeny bit claustrophobic) to go to the Solar Boat Museum whilst we climbed up and into the camera-free interior of the Great Pyramid.
After crouching our way through the narrow entrance passage, cut roughly into the limestone blocks of the pyramid by early Arab explorers, before entering the low, awkard ascending passage to its junction with the tunnel to the so-called Queen's Chamber, and then into the Grand Gallery, a magnificent ascending hallway made of huge, polished limestone blocks, and tricking your eyes into thinking the passage is horizontal.
At the top of the Grand Gallery is a very low passageway, with an antechamber of red granite partway down it. Finally, we arrived in the King's Chamber, an impressive chamber made out of smooth granite blocks, with no markings of any kind inside, which I think adds to the mystery and sense of wonder, and nothing but an empty, lidless box of granite at the far end of the room.
We spent a few all too brief minutes in the main chamber before clambering back down and out of the Great Pyramid, Simon thumping his head in the ascending passage on the way out. Ouch.
Then it was back on the bus for the brief trip past the pyramid of Chephren, with its impressive intact polished limestone peak, to the plateu from which we could view all three pyramids at once (and be accosted by the usual motley collection of traders).
The final stop of the morning was, in case you hadn't already guessed, the Great Sphinx, along with the valley temple of Chephren.
As we returned from Giza we stopped off at the Merit Papyrus Institute to see how papyrus paper is made (and for them to attempt to sell us overpriced paintings).
In the afternoon we took the optional trip south from Cairo, through the Nile Delta to ancient Egypt's very first pyramid, the Step Pyramid of Zoser at Sakkara.
Part of the complex was the Serapium, where the mummified remains of sacred bulls were placed. To get bulls into the serapium, they filled a large sqaure hole with sand, put the mummified bull (in its sarcophagus) on top, and dug it out from the bottom to lower the bull into the Serapium.
From there we travelled to the capital of the Old Kingdom, Memphis.
We skipped the optional evening Nile cruise, but did phone the "other" brother, John, who was back in Blighty celebrating his 33rd birthday.
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