Welcome to Egypt (and the Great Pyramid)

I was pretty excited about going to Egypt. After all, I’d read a lot about Egypt in the Bible and it was thrilling see a land spoken of in the Bible. We purchased an excursion from the cruise line for Egypt because we knew better than to try finding our way around by ourselves. Also, the port was Alexandria, which is 3 hours by bus from Cairo. And Cairo is where everything interesting is (since both the Ancient Library and the Lighthouse of Alexandria are gone). The Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, and the Step Pyramid of Sakkara are all just outside Cairo. Our tour was to go see them all: plus lunch at a resort, a camel ride, and a jeep safari. Whatever that was.
I knew that Modern Egypt was a 3rd world country, containing nothing of the glory of the Pharoahs, but that didn’t quite prepare us for our first introduction to Alexandria at 6:45am.

Yes, you're seeing right. That is a container ship. Capsizing. Just Wait, after this vista of sunrise over Alexandria it gets better:

Those are all wrecks. No explanation. They are quite rusty, three are mostly submerged, as if they've been there a really long time an no one has bothered to move them. The rest of Egypt is pretty much the same way, except without water. With a few exceptions:

After our cruise ship successfully navigated through the huge and carcass ridden harbor, we docked, went through some semblence of Egyptian border security, and sat in our buses for an hour and a half because a truck had tipped over on the desert road in the night and spilled sand all over it. This, unlike the sunken container ships, they were endeavoring to move. Eventually, we got underway with a police escort to push our way through Alexandrian traffic.

In Egypt, you can get a plot of desert from the government and if you can make it grow a crop--any crop--in 3 years, the land is yours forever, tax free. So we did drive past farms and orchards aplenty. A little less than 3 hours of bizarre traffic patterns later, we arrived in Cairo. And Cairo comes right up to the Pyramids.

If you happen to go, don't give your camera to anyone. Not even a policeman. You may never see it again, or have to buy it back. We had this picture taken by a fellow American bus-mate. See the policemen? For a price they'll let you touch the side of the Pyramid. Which is tremendously silly, because you can just walk around the front and climb up legally.

Like so: (looking out at Cairo)

(and looking around)
See! We're on the Great Pyramid! We didn't go that high, but look how small the crowd is?
If you walk right up to the base and look up it's really hard to tell what you're looking at. Or have any concept of how big it is.

The area was brimmed with camel drivers and young men on horses or driving little carts--everyone clamoring for you to take a picture, or a ride (for a price, of course. Nothing is free in Egypt)

To Be Continued....