Left : The sight of the Pyramids of Giza rising from the desert sands is a striking contrast against the cityscape that lies beyond them .
Among the many mysteries surrounding the Great Sphinx : How and why did it lose its nose ?
Let Egypt tell you its stories in stone during Ancient Egypt & the Nile River .
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appropriate : He was resting exactly where he should be , hopefully at peace , just miles from his treasures .
Finally , on the second-to-last day of the trip , we alighted at the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx . Maybe it was saving the best for last , but it was a fitting sendoff — the cherry atop a crash course of Egyptian mythology , history , and current events . As our bus approached the only surviving wonder of the ancient world , we spotted the pyramids rising surreally above the buildings of Giza amid the urban activity , like some trick of rear projection . Within moments , we were there . Tour buses parked at the base of the Great Pyramid , the 26th century , B . C ., tomb of the pharaoh Khufu , its perfectly aligned point gesturing to the sun god Ra .
The site covered 13 acres and contained more than 2 million stone blocks , each weighing between two and 30 tons . We know the builders hauled the granite blocks from a quarry in Aswan , a process that itself took 10 years , then another 21 to build it , but beyond that , Egyptologists only have theories about its construction . Staring up at it , the devotion of its architects still ripples , its impossible sense of geometric perfection radiating from each cracked and stained chunk . As with Abu Simbel and the other ancient sites , there was business to be had here . Bored camels with frilly saddles rested along the rim — idle Ubers awaiting riders at $ 10 a pop . Roving vendors tried to sell you shawls and hats and Chinese-made pyramid tchotchkes , barking out misleading prices , but by this time we had all learned the most important syllable in the Arabic language — laa (“ no ”).
It was impossible to be truly alone with the pyramids , but if you had the mental gymnastics for it , you could compartmentalize the hive of people and cameras and tour guides and buses and just bask in the awe , like you were one of those astronauts who discovered the monolith in 2001 : A Space Odyssey .
But then , a welcome distraction : A clutch of puppies spilled from a crevice near the base of the Great Pyramid , in black , brown and white , of the Generic Dog breed that lazes around Egypt in numbers nobody bothers to control . They trotted clumsily among the stones , scavenging for food but otherwise leery of human contact , and it was delightful to see that this burial chamber was now , in the 21st century , a sanctuary for new life .
Then , after only an hour or so , we departed . We had a schedule to keep .
18 DISPATCHES • JUNE 2023