The ship landed at Alexandria, Egypt's chief seaport and second largest city.  From there, we immediately took busses to the Cairo area to see the pyramids.  Cairo is 140 road miles from Alexandria and the bus trip south across the desert took almost three hours.  The convoy of about fifteen busses was accompanied by several jeeps full of armed guards. Once there, we went first to the pyramids of Giza and the sight of the pyramids against the stark, hot sky is really dramatic.  The temperature was between 95 and 100°.

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The pyramids area was full of vendors selling everything from postcards to camel and carriage rides.  The vendors were very aggressive.  Off in the distance, one could see downtown Cairo through the haze (69).

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Although the pyramids look smooth from a distance, they are far from it up close (63).  The Cheops Pyramid has 2.3 million stone blocks, each weighing 2.5 tons.  Construction around 2000 BC was an incredible accomplishment.  A few, hardy souls go inside the pyramids (66) through a very narrow, short passageway.  The same passageway is used to go in and exit and the walk is not for those subject to anxiety attacks.  Vicky tried it and said it wasn't too bad but someone else earlier tried it and had a panic attack midway.  All traffic stopped until the person could be escorted out of the narrow passageway.

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