Thursday, August 18, 2011

Great Sphinx, Pyramid & Dinner Cruise on Nile River



First destination on the 2nd day - Egyptian Museum ie is our focus in the morning.

Let me put into perspective about this fantastic museum by cutting and pasting from Wikipedia.

The
Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display, the remainder in storerooms.

HUGE huh!

Apparently if we want to learn and understand even the bare minimum, you require at least 2-3 days, and we did it within half a day focusing on specific areas only. Even that was tooooo overwhelming to us.... phew... Mind you, we have to absorb 7000 years of histories in half a day. It ain't easy babe! That much I can tell you. Personally I feel, one whom like to cover Egypt should take at least 2 weeks and not to rush it; else it's pointless. This is one trip you need to digest, comprehend & appreciate, after all; it's the history of the beginning of civilization. Just my thoughts.


I can't remember the 2 mummy coffin (can I say this?) covered in gold but I can surely remember 1 of the area we went in (the above said area in the museum need additional entrance fee and it is all locked up and grilled up).

But one thing that caught me and stuck in my memory till this date is 3rd entrance fee that we paid to take a look is
Ramses II. He was mummified and lay in a glass controlled temperature coffin, the one story about him was that ...

Ramses II has been identified with at least two figures in the Bible, including Shishaq and the pharaoh of Exodus. Some suggest Ramses II is the pharaoh that ruled during the time of the Biblical Exodus story. The story is about the Israelites that are forced to work for the Pharaoh. The Hebrew god Yahweh helps them by imposing the Ten Plagues upon ancient Egypt, after which the Israelites manage to escape the Egyptian army at the Crossing of the Red Sea. However, these claims are controversial at best.

Another story was that...


This Egyptian King in the era of
Prophet Moses (pbuh). Its age is approximately 3000 years old and it was found by the Red Sea.

Whatever it is, I was in awe of what this museum held.

Next stop of what we all be waiting for..... Don't thing introduction is required here. But I will still include an intro...

The
Great Pyramid of Giza (also called the Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years.

Need I say more..... speechless huh.

In 2002, the tourist buses is already that many.... now? Probably DESERT of BUSES.

Desert shopping.

Check out the ratio. Remember! This was built without any technology or machinery! This is a wondrous feat.

Of all the stuff we here, I guess the one that intrigue us most will be on the curse of the pharaohs to those who found or dig or stole (from) his tomb.

The first of the "mysterious" deaths was that of
Lord Carnarvon. He had been bitten by a mosquito, and later slashed the bite accidentally while shaving. It became infected and blood poisoning resulted.

This might be coincident of course but.... it's more fun with mysteries like this huh. Spicing it up a notch.

What is Egypt trip if I did not cover The Great Sphinx of Giza? Right?!?!??!

A sphinx is a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head. It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high. It is the oldest known monumental sculpture, and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558–2532 BC).

As usual, and this is the part I hated most, all travel agents tend to take us to some local shop where by they will force us to buy and the agents will get commission. Sigh.... ANNOYING!!!

This time, he took us to papyrus outlet, the history is kinda fascinating though, so I don't mind do much. One thing caught me off-guard is the nature of this papyrus tree. Below is a pic... And I always thought it as big as normal tree. Sigh.... doink Lily!

Before we call it a day, the tour agent asked anyone of us whether we would like to have dinner on The Nile River cruise which of course cost additional money needed, and I thought to myself; when else am I coming back here right? So why not? I went checked with my brother and he is okay with it (obviously since am paying for his whole trip!!!)

This was just before I boarded the cruise, nice cruise ship huh!

The top floor was allocated for meal package with culture show - Dervish dancer, but all of us opted for..... JENG JENG JENG.....

BELLY DANCER package. Hahhahaha....

My brother gotten himself high after peeping on the Dervish dancer whirling.... yup! We were allowed to peek for while into the top deck :)


Planning Egypt as your next destination?




Hyperlink credit : Wikiedia



15 comments:

Unknown said...

Emm mengenangkan Egypt terlalu byk benda nk tgk & explore, confirm kene cuti lama kan, baru leh cover Alexandria, Cairo, Luxor ngn Abu Simbel skali gus or maybe another African country huhuhu..best best.. :p

Malaysia Asia said...

Wow, Egypt is one of the places I would love to visit and I'm glad you had the chance of doing so. Awesome stuff Lily!

LifeRamblings said...

looks like a wonderful tour. i'd love to visit Egypt someday.

Mark H said...

I was disappointed in the Egyptian Museum. Incredible priceless collection of antiquities but so poorly labelled and set out. Could have been much more educational about the whole civilisation.

Unknown said...

nak pegi egypt la...best2

Lily Riani said...

na,

i feel that its too heavy and the best is kena ada tour guide, tak terbaca buku tuh semua. and also am sure tak ada bus/train gi sampai ke desert tuh. ehheheh

david,

i couldnt believe i get to go too

life rambling,

i pray hard that you get to go there someday

mark,


oh really! i didnt realise, perhpas becos i had a tour guide.

Linnea said...

Looks like you and your brother had a really fun time on your trip together. I'd love to visit Egypt someday. Thanks for sharing these pics and thanks for stopping by at my blog!

Liudmila said...

Did you enter inside the pyramids, too? They say, it's possible to "touch" the Univerce Forces there...

இ Baŋäŋaz இ said...

Love Egypt my dream came true. You didnt go inside the pyramid? Need lots of crawling and squatting in and out of the tunnel. Learned only two words ie Habibi & Sukhran haha.

Lily Riani said...

edy,

dgr kata aa nak fly sana, betul ke?

linnea,

thanks for dropping by, i do hope you will reach egypt one day, you wont regret it.

liudmila,

unfortunately no, am claustrophobic.

bananaz,

lucky you, you beat me to it. anyway, i am claustrophobic, no way i will ever go in man! heheeh.... ya hanini ya maulana!

Rafael Lam said...

Egypt is amazing! Everything are attractive!
Really need to prepare to go there!

George said...

I'm envious of all that you were able to see in Egypt, even if your schedule was rushed. The pyramid is truly amazing.

J_on_tour said...

A trip of a lifetime to see so much ancient history, I've often fancied it. The curse of the Pharaohs is interesting. It's a shame that you are forced to buy souvenirs but it seems a country that wants to make every penny it can from their heritage. I can't quite take in how large those pyramids are or ... err ... how small those camels are !!

Lily Riani said...

rafael,

i can imagine you be snapping pics all the way :)

george,

i believe you will enjoy yourself immensely there.

J_on_tour@jayzspaze,

hahhahah..... i like how you put your last sentence. i thk i agree with you, the camel is awfully small.

Pinoy Boy Journals said...

take me to Egypt. It's so beautiful! Thank you for those incredible photos! I love every single one of them. :)







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