Out of the 105 million people living in Egypt, 23 million (1/4) live in ONE city…Cairo… and 90% of these are Muslim. You see lots of men wearing flip flops and robes (that’s their casual wear… like our jogging suits) and most women cover their hair…and some TOTALLY covered their entire body in black robes and scarfs, with their eyes being the only exception. With over 90,000 mosques, there’s one on every corner. Less than 10% of the population is Christian with 2,200 churches, and there are only about 200,000 Jewish folks with 22 synagogues.

A high level of security is everywhere. Everytime we entered the hotel property or a public place, guards searched the trunk, and surrounded the car with mirrors and sometimes dogs. We never left the hotel without our local driver and guide. We stayed at the Marriott Mena at the foot of the Pyramids and our rooms had a view of the Grand ??? OR great????Pyramid. The streets are full of trash, (obviously no fine for littering or concern for recycling), most buildings look like ruins, and everything is dirty, old and dusty from the Sahara desert sand in the air…BUT you gotta remember there’s lots of treasures here…some over 5,000 years old… that’s right…3,000 years Before Christ! Hard to even imagine.

As I mentioned before while in Luxor, Ancient Egyptians adamantly believed that afterlife was more important than their first life on earth…and everything they did during their lifetime was based on their dream of immortality. They believed it was more important to preserve their tombs than their palaces, so palaces were built of mud bricks and the tombs were made with limestones.

We were fortunate to get a private tour of the new GEM (Grand Egyptian Museum). It will supposedly be opening in 2 months…but when I was here in 2019, they said it would opening with 6-9 months…and here it is 4 years later…and “no banana”. I will admit, it’s come a long way towards completion…but they don’t have many artifacts on display yet. When completed it will hold over 100,000 ancient artifacts, many the public has never seen.

In the main lobby, when you walk in, stands the 24 ft???? famous statue of Ramesses the 2nd, weighing over 80 tons. It is carved from a single block of red granite. Ramesses ruled Egypt from the young age of 22 until his death at 92…70 years total! He supposedly had ??? wives and 127 kids . This statue is so large, they built the museum around it rather than try to move it in AFTER the complex was finished…so I had seen it in 2019…still VERY impressive and awesome to admire.

AND, of course, we visited the pyramids, up close and personal 😜Of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World, the Pyramid is the oldest and ONLY one remaining. The Ancient Egyptians were brilliant people…for example, they invented the first calendar…and amazingly it lists not only the horoscope signs, but also months, days and time that we still live by today. There were 31 dynasties over a period of the 2800 years BC. The first 500 years are referred to as the Old Kingdom and included 6 dynasties. The idea of a pyramid shape tomb (to reflect the way the suns rays shine down on earth) didn’t come along until Pharaoh (King) Sakkara in the 3rd dynasty when he saw a vision.

The Pyramids of Giza that you see on postcards today were built in 2500 BC by the 4th Dynasty of Cheops (or Khufu). These are a truly remarkable site to see! It’s so hard to imagine how they were ever built BY ALL MANUAL LABOR…no equipment. The largest, the Great Pyramid, is 455 ft high. It took 20,000 men over 30 years to build and it consists of 3 million stones, weighing 2-1/2 tons each on the average, but some blocks up to 30 tons. The second pyramid was built by Cheops’ son on higher ground, so it could look taller….but in keeping with tradition, it was actually a little smaller; and, the third pyramid is even smaller, built by the grandson (but he used red granite instead of limestone so it is more preserved). There’s one puzzle scientists have yet to figure out…why every item placed in the Great Pyramid can be preserved in at its best quality…and item placed in the other pyramids either wither away or spoil….. unexplainable.

No trip to Egypt is complete without admiring the Sphinx…the largest statue made of one block of limestone. You can’t help but notice the nose has been removed…this happened when the Arabians took control of Egypt long ago. Several Arabian men set out to prove this was a worthless statue. The Sphinx has the body of a lion and the King’s head…. It’s said to be the Guardian of all the kings’ tombs…. And by removing the nose, the Arabs were proving that’s a false claim since he can’t even protect himself. The English came along much later and tried to move the entire statue to England, and after deciding that feat would be impossible, the chiseled off his beard…which currently resides in the British Museum in London.

Connie and I truly enjoyed our 24 day trip exploring the African continent …including meeting new friends , taking numerous outstanding photo safaris, and treating ourselves to several afternoon “siestas” and a few spa visits….but I think we’re both ready to see our family and friends…and, of course, eat some Mexican food. 😜. Remember, I don’t need to have it all…I just want to see it all. 🥰