Day 19 -- Cairo (Giza, Sphinx, Saqqara)

Early start today and the hostel hired a car for the day so I could check out the Pyramids at Giza/Sphinx, Saqqara and Memphis. My driver Ibrahim was really knowledgable about the area and knew the best order to see everything. Stopped in at Giza and the pyramids are crazy in person. I'm not sure if I think Petra was more amazing, but both have their beauty...still hard to imagine the age on these things. The pyramids have definitely been worn over the centuries and I got to Giza too late to get a ticket inside, but I got an opportunity later to get inside Titi later. The Sphinx is not what I expected it to be, but still marvelous. I definitely expected larger and it was pretty big in scale compared to the Pyramids but still not big enough...ha! Spent a few hours wandering around getting hassled at every turn for a camel/donkey/horse ride around the area...Egyptian people are pretty persistent. Its been amusing that since I've gotten a good tan I blend right in so most try their sales pitch in Arabic and when they hear me speak they move over to English! Stopped in at a local takeway for some really tasty chicken shwarma at $1 USD and falafel for 50 cents...i might need to stay here longer. Next we went to Saqqara, home of the Step Pyramid, Royal tombs and Titi Pyramids. Step pyramids was the first in Egypt and it was cool to see how the evolution of pyramids evolved over time. Went inside Titi Pyramid which was small, cramped and easy for someone whose claustrophobic to get sick. Inside there was detailed artwork on the walls and I sneakily took some pics with the flash off. Last stop Memphis where my camera battery died so no pics to show, but its really an outdoor museum housing artifacts from the ancient times. They had this huge statue of Ramses II which I wish I could have taken a snap of but no big deal. Back to Cairo where I packed up, checked out of the hostel and jumped on a night train to Aswan.