Beignets and pyramids

I can definitely say that my new year is off to an excellent start. I started the day with a brunch of homemade beignets, fruit salad and delicious coffee at the home of one of the Navy captains I work with. The food was delicious and it was nice to spend some time with some of my coworkers and their families in a more relaxed environment.

After a lazy brunch, I joined a few people for a trip to Giza, an area on the outskirts of Cairo, most famous for the Giza Plateau, which is home to some of the most famous sites of ancient Egypt - the Great Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza. I always imagined the pyramids being out in the middle of the desert somewhere and was shocked to realize that they are actually just on the edge of the city. If I hadn't been with one of my coworkers who has a car, I could have gotten to them easily by taking the metro to a stop nearby and then taking a taxi for the remaining distance.
Still, the pyramids were impressive. The first pyramid we saw was the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that still exists! The Great Pyramid is also known as the Pyramid of Khufu and was built over a twenty-year period that finished around 2560 B.C. At the time of construction, it is believed that the pyramid was 145.6 meters tall, though due to erosion, today it is "only" 138.8 meters. It's really hard to maintain any perspective of the size of the pyramids when you're standing right next to them; it's just hard to tell exactly how big they are. But once I walked up to the Great Pyramid, I realized that each row of block was at least five feet tall!
We walked up to the entrance to the Great Pyramid not expecting to be allowed to enter since none of us had purchased the specific tickets that allow you to go inside. But after a little convincing and the flashing of a few diplomatic IDs, we were allowed inside anyway. When we first entered, there was plenty of room. The passageway was maybe ten feet tall and a few feet wide so it was easy to walk through comfortably. It wasn't long, though, before we reached a spot where everything changed. The path dropped to a height of about four feet, shrank to a narrow width and switched to an incline that varied between forty-five and sixty degrees! It was definitely not easy to make it through and at a few points I was nervous my claustrophobia might kick in. But I stayed calm and just when we started to discuss how sore our legs and backs would be the next day, we made it to the King's Chamber, in the center of the pyramid. The room was a decent size with a large sarcophagus carved out of a single piece of granite. It was pretty incredible to be standing inside the very center of such an ancient and incredible structure!
After we had finished inside the Great Pyramid, we walked around to a small museum that houses the Sun Boat. The Sun Boat was discovered in 1954 in a pit carved out of bedrock at the base of the Great Pyramid. The boat itself is one of the oldest, largest and most well-preserved vessels that has been discovered. It is made out of cedar planking and is 43.6 meters long (half the length of a football field!). When it was discovered, it was in over 1,200 pieces, but it is still believed that it would actually sail if it were placed in water today. The purpose of the ship is not known. It is the type of ship that would have been used to carry resurrected kings with the sun god across the heavens, but there are signs that the ship was actually used in water. Because of this, some believe that it was used as a funeral barge to carry the king's embalmed body from Memphis to Giza, while others believe it was used as a pilgrimage ship that the king used to visit holy places. Whatever its purpose, the ship is an impressive display, both for its original construction and its painstaking restoration from over 1,200 pieces into a single vessel.
Next to the Great Pyramid and the Sun Boat is the Pyramid of Khafre, Khufu's son. The pyramid is the second largest pyramid at Giza, with an original height of 143.5 meters.
In front of the Pyramid of Khafre sits the Great Sphinx. The Sphinx is the body of a lion with a human head. Although still quite large, with a length of 73.5 meters and a height of 20 meters, I was surprised at how small the Sphinx looks compared to the pyramids. Although the Great Spinx is one of the world's largest and oldest statues, facts including who was the model for the face, when it was built and by whom it was built are still heavily debated.
If today is any indication of the year to come, it's going to be a good one!