Day2: The Great Pyramid of Giza

The visit on the second day began around 9.00am after a nice breakfast at the hotel restaurant. The same private minivan waiting for us at one of the hotel entrance.

The journey to Great Pyramid of Giza took around 45minutes. On the way, we enjoy the city view with busy traffic, building and nile river on one side of the road.

We saw a lot of unfinished apartments with metal structure on the "roof", it's like another floor will be built. Even it is not fully completed, the lower floor is occupied. According to the tourist guide, the apartment was built in stages according to owner's cashflow. They will continue the higher floor when they have enough money.

From far we can see the pyramid standing strong. It getting bigger and bigger while we approching the site.

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The Great Pyramid of Giza (also called the Pyramid of Khufu and Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering with Cairo on the other side of Nile river and is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that survives.

It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian King Khufu and constructed over a 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC.

The Great Pyramid was the tallest man made structure in the world for over 3,800 years.

According to construction theories, the pyramid was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place.

There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The so-called Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the main part of a complex including two temples in honor of Khufu, three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles.

--- I took this article from eWikipedia.org, the website I went to read about ancient egypt before the trip. ---

I went down to one of the Khufu's wifes chamber in one of the small pyramid with my dad. It is about 15meters down the pyramid base. It was scary at the begining going through small chamber, with head bend and stepping backward . I was shaking going down the steps while my dad holding my back giving support.

The Great Pyramid's chamber is about 20 times deeper. Luckily it was not part of the package. Even if it is part of the package, I won't go. The Khufu wife's chamber enough to make my tight muscle pain.