"+ 54 Celsius, 3 Pyramids & 1 Sphinx " a Pyramids of Giza Travel Page by Zandra

The summer I worked in Ayia Napa on Cyrus, two friends and I decided to do something "cultural", so we went on a weekend cruise to Egypt with Louis Cruise Lines (see transportation). Usually, I try to avoid convenient "everything included trips", but since we didn't have time to arrange everything on our own, it was rather cheap and this was the period when it was unsafe for tourists to travel within Egypt, I made an exception. It was in the middle of the summer, and the day we visited the Giza Plateau it was incredibly hot; around 54 degrees Celsius. My advice for those planning a trip to Giza during the summer is to bring several bottles of water, sun lotion and a cap! I'd also advice you to go out to the Giza Plateau as early in the morning as possible. That way you can avoid the rush traffic, it'll be cooler, less tourists and street vendors.

I had always thought that the Pyramids would be located far out in the middle of a desert, so I was really surprised and also a little chocked when I realized how close they really are to the center of Cairo. The 20-million city is constantly expanding and modern buildings are being built closer and closer to the Pyramids. The whole plateau itself is very touristy and commercialized, but despite of all visitors and annoying street merchandiser, it is still a magical and mysterious place. The Pyramids and the Sphinx can not really be described. You have to experience them yourself! When I was standing in front of these enormous stone monuments, I couldn't stop thinking about how on earth people could have built these giants. It was tempting to believe the Swiss author Erich von Daeniken (http://www.daeniken.com), who claims that aliens helped the Egyptian people to construct the Pyramids and also provided the tools for the construction... However, the Sphinx is not as big as one might think, but it's still impressive!

"Man fears time, but time itself fears the Pyramids"
- Arabic Proverb