ancient egypt

Well I'm not sure what to say about the Pyramids. We all know they are one of the only remaining ancient wonders of the world, we know what they look like and we know a bit about the Egyptians, but for most of us thats about it. It's strange arriving somewhere that you have only ever read about in books, to see it in real life brings with it a jolt; the stones that were used to build these monuments, well each one is about 8 times the size of a concrete block. The pyramids are huge, they are bigger than you would ever imagine them to be.

The Egyptian civilisation formed around 3150BC and over the next three millennia it became one of the greatest and most powerful civilisations in the world. The Pyramids were built as tombs for the pharaohs (rulers of ancient Egypt) and their queens (although the queens pyramids are tiny, a tad unfair!). I visited the three largest and best preserved of the 30 that remain today, they sit at Giza, which is just outside the city of Cairo. It is really quite amazing that monuments and tombs of the Pharaohs continue to stand intact today, nearly 4000 years after they were built. I went inside the great pyramid; you have to climb steep steps through a narrow tunnel with no fresh air and eventually you arrive in the tomb, which is really pretty tiny. No bigger that the average kitchen. Unbelievable that these massive massive monuments were built for this purpose.

Walking down the street trying to find the pyramids and all of a sudden, oh there they are!

As you are walking around Cairo, now and again you come across old ruins that have clearly been very important buildings in their day. Its quite tragic that they are not being preserved. One example is in the photograph below, this wall is only just standing and i would say that in a few years it will be gone. It has the most beautiful hieroglyphics carved into the stonework.

Have you ever been to a pizza hut with a more impressive view!!