Giza, Egypt

That's me, kissing the Great Sphinx of Giza
Giza. Ancient burial place for three of Egypt's Pharaohs. It's ancient. It's iconic. It's famous. I've been there. If you have not, you need to GO THERE.

Giza is home to the Great Pyramid, which is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that still remains (the others are all lost in time ... the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Temple of Artemis, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia).
Great Pyramid with Tourist Line Climbing to the Entrance
The Ministry of Tourism lets you climb and enter the Great Pyramid. That blew my mind. I climbed up (clinging to the wall the whole time ... I am not fond of heights). This structure is 455 feet tall; we went up maybe 50 of those 455 feet. I did not go inside; my guide explained that it is narrow, hot and steep in there, sort of like going up the arm of the Statue of Liberty (which I also very specifically have not done). But tourists are allowed into the structure.

Pyramids of Khafre and Khufu, Giza, Egypt


The pyramids at Giza were built between 2589 and 2504 BC. That, dear reader, is 4,500 years ago. Wrap your head around that fact. These people transported this rock from Aswan to Cairo (the theory is that the Nile's course 4500 years ago ran essentially to the base of the Great Pyramid, making the distance they dragged the rock over land far less than the five miles they would have to drag it today). They engineered this structure to last (the ancient Egyptians were all about immortality). They constructed the structure. They did this six times over in the space of 85 years. We could not do as well today, with all of our modern gadgets.
Nancy on a camel...

Of course, no trip to Giza is complete without the obligatory camel ride....

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