Cairo
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The Giza pyramids are impressive to see in person as the magnitude of size and engineering feat is hard to visualize until you're standing in the sand staring at them. Three pyramids were built for a family of pharaohs who ruled Egypt in the 26th century BC |
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Controversy exists about the date it was built, and whose face it resembles. Some believe it is the face of Chephren. Indeed this lion-pharaoh sits high off the ground in front of Chephren's pyramid. But some scholars insist that the weathering patterns do not match that time period. I thought that the sphinx had an abnormally flat face with both his nose and beard missing (why is the beard in a Paris museum, and his nose in London?). But what was most intriguing to me was the fact that this massive structure was buried under shifting sand dunes repeatedly over hundreds of years, and discovered again in the 19th century. Makes you wonder what else is hiding |
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The mosques were beautiful and unique. I found myself preferring to look at the artistic architectural details, absorbing the mosques visually, instead of listening to our guide describe each pattern on the ceiling, walls, dome, stairway and ablution area. At one ablution area, we sat for an hour listening to such details. Information overload. I found myself tuning out. (It didn't help that our tour zipped through lunch. No food or water in that hot sun until 4pm made me a little dehydrated and crazy.) |