Giza Pyramids and Sphinx

With school being finished on Tuesday, I had two days to visit things in Cairo I hadn't gotten a chance to see yet. I had saved Egypt's biggest attraction - the Pyramids - for my last week abroad, despite the fact that they were only located around three miles from my apartment.

I began by taking the metro from Dokki to Giza Station. Although I had been in Giza plenty of times before, I had never been near its center. The term "suburban sprawl" comes to mind, as Giza is an immense suburb of Cairo, heavily polluted and overly crowded. Cairo's second most prestigious university, Cairo University, is located near the center of Giza. I took a taxi from Giza Station to the Pyramids.

The cost of a ticket to the Pyramids grounds is only 30 LE for a student. There are a limited number of tickets to see the interior of each of the pyramids, though I opted not to purchase one, as I heard from many people that the interior is uninteresting. I had expected a great amount of haggling at the pyramids considering what I had heard from people who had visited, but it wasn't too bad at all. Mostly I was just asked a bunch of times if I wanted camel or horse rides. Nothing could compare to the amount of haggling I had experienced in Luxor.

The Pyramids sit on a plateau to the west of Giza. The plateau is entirely desert terrain, and everything to the west of the plateau is desert as well. In other words, the Pyramids are the western edge of the Cairo metropolitan region. Surpringly, there is a great view from the plateau over all of suburban Giza. One can see a cloudy, polluted haze hanging over Giza. It is also possible to see the smaller pyramids of Saqqara in the distance, located a short drive from Cairo.

View of Giza from the plateau.


As expected, the Pyramids themselves are impressive. There are three of them at Giza - the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the smaller Pyramid of Menkaure. You can approach the front of each pyramid, but the other four sides of each pyramid are roped off. The area surrounding the pyramids is sandy and undeveloped. There are a few roads around the plateau, but for the most part it looks like it has for thousands of years. There are a number of smaller structures on the plateau, which are associated with the Pyramid of Menkaure.

The Pyramids.





At the bottom of the plateau is the Sphinx. Though large compared to a person, the Sphinx is dwarfed by the pyramids that surround it. The area around the Sphinx is a little more developed in terms of modern structures.

The Sphinx and the bottom of the plateau.



The Pyramids are perhaps the most visited site in Egypt, and they are certainly worth the visit. The ticket is cheap, they are easily accessible from other parts of Cairo, and the plateau is so expansive that I can't imagine it ever feeling crowded.

I took a taxi back from the Pyramids to my apartment. As I mentioned, the distance is only about three miles, yet the amount of Giza traffic at midday was so intense that the ride took about forty-five minutes.