GIZA

Listening to: Keep the Faith - Toni Childs

Hmmm...I have very mixed feelings about my experience yesterday. Dave had a different and hopefully better experience than I as he had nothing to compare it with, although he shared a lot of my sentiments. Sometimes returning to old and favourite haunts disappoint.

Where do I begin? Take in a deep breath - this is difficult to write for I feel quite emotional about it all *gulp*. Expect to be hassled upon arrival (this is nothing new) for camel and horse rides to and around the pyramids. In fact it begins in the village that precedes the site. If you take a cab, expect to be stopped by touts trying to sell camel and horse rides as the distance between pyramids is so great etc and so on. I stopped them in their tracks when I said, 'NO - I've been here before.' The driver apologised and slowly our vehicle crept through the throng of people, cars, horses etc - it was also a weekend which meant not only shit loads of tourist buses to contend with but locals were out for the day too! The latter being far nicer than these big stinking buses that not just come to the entrance anymore, but all the way up and behind every pyramid.

The climb up past the amazing Sphinx that is literally decaying from the inside due to pollution and rising ground water is spectacular and again I'm so very glad we've seen it before it maybe will be no more as efforts to restore it has just sped up the decay!

Anyway, where was I? Yep, I remember. The climb up was alwayz a pain in the arse with the touts selling miniature pyramids, postcards etc and the hassle to ride camels but competing with not just the crowds, but cars, buses, horses and carts, and camels was almost too much. I veered right at the Great Pyramid of Khufu the oldest and largest (146m high - now reduced by 9m due to 46 windy centuries) and the teems of buses and cars just never stopped. So I stopped. And I cried. I couldn't believe what tourism has done to this ancient site. I know tourism is important - I'm not knocking that for a minute BUT really what's wrong with parking at the entrance, like I swear they used to (I will have to look into that) and climbing up yourself, or giving the money to the camel drivers and horse riders who will gladly take you where you want to go. After all - they need to make a living and feed their families somehow and I believe the hordes of tourist buses are actually taking that away from them. It's much tougher on them which also makes them hassle a lot more than they used to. They now have police on camel back to stop them annoying the tourists and razor wire around certain parts of the site - it has got that bad. I blame the tour companies!! Or the Government, oh shit I don't know who to blame but someone is at fault here!!

Once I got over my disappointment we headed up to the second largest pyramid of Khafre 136m high. This is were Dave and I managed to walk away from the madness and step into more of the desert plains. The buses now mere dots in the distance although the blasting of horns did somehow take away the wonder and spiritual atmosphere these amazing structures would've once had.

We caught great shots through the lens of our camera of 'camel caravans' sweeping through the sand dunes in the distance, horses being herded back to the stables, the perfect opportunity for Dave to take some video footage and as a bonus the herder put on a show by rearing up and doing a high ho silver before galloping off after the herd, all of this topped off by the sun setting behind the smallest pyramid Menkaure 62m high.

Now it was time to take the trek back down the steep hill and take in the enormity of the day and ponder the wonder that has been here for 4000 years. Ponder the placement of stones precise to the millimetre, the numerological significance of the structures dimensions and it's not hard to believe the different theories that the Pyramids were constructed by angels, the devil or aliens. For me, I'll stick with the alien theory because until you've seen these awesome structures in real life it's only then that you yourself will wonder about its unearthly origins...

Midnight rambler signing off...