Nicki and I, along with three other couples, headed off to the pyramids at Dashur and Saqarra.  They aren't as impressive as the ones at Giza but more accessible.  Our guide, Alfie, was a mine of information.  Another memorable day, especially with being able to finally get down inside one of the huge structures.

The entrance down into the burial chamber of the Red Pyramid

The very weathered face of the Red Pyramid.

We had to give this local a bribe (baksheesh) so we could take photos in burial chamber.

Making our way 60m down into the Red Pyramid.

Climbing up to see the burial chamber.

Amazing to think that thousands of years ago, a pharaoh lay here surrounded with all his wordly possessions.

The Bent Pyramid.  Unbelievably, the engineers got the angle wrong half way up!! 

Looking back at the Red Pyramid.

Yes, we have now been there and done that!!

A close-up of the limestone covering many of the pyramids had.  The blocks are huge!!

An amazing sight! We called him the camel peacock :-)

One of the statues of Ramses saved from the flooding when the created Lake Nasser behind the Aswan High dam.  It has been carved out of one solid block of limestone.

The burial sarcophagus of a long ago stolen raided pharaoh.  This was only down a 20m tunnel.  Amazing, amazing amazing!!

This burial chamber was totally decorated in hieroglyphics.

Looking down into the sarcophagus at the hieroglyphics.

Coming out of the small pyramid.  You can see how corroded it is.

A fairly typical street scene- filth and rubbish everywhere :-(

A close up of one of the weathered limestone blocks used to build the pyramids.

One of the Saqarra pyramids that is currently being carefully renovated by an international effort. 

This was one of the very deep entrances to the burial chambers.  This was filled with sand to discourage tomb raiders.  The stairwell has only been there for the last eight years.

Our group of adventurers posing in front of the Red Pyramid.

We have a local Souk, which is an arabic market.  Although ours is quite modern, with modern shops, it is very dirty and smelly! Quite funny really because there are a number of beauty salons sitting in the middle of this squalor :-)

Now you can see where some of the smells come from!!

He was being very careful not to nick this stomach, which was chocker with smelly undigested grass!!!

It seems that you can buy almost anything in Egypt.  Sadly, these two looked really bored :-(

Here's a few shots from around school.  I would have put a few more on but unfortunately I'm not allowed to post full face shots of children.

Every floor has its own security guard!

Looking out across the Suez Road motorway to the gun and missile emplacements, which are a left over form the Egypt/Israel war in the 1960s.

Girls will be girls anywhere you go in the world.

One of the number of playgrounds in the school.  This is in the quad where we line up ready to head back into class.

The soccer field in the middle of a very springy athletic track.

We have already enjoyed the pool.  Hopefully, now that the curfew has eased, we will be able to have the occasional after school swim.

Our Trip to the Pyramids of Giza

Here's a collection of shots from our cool trip today. All of the "staged" shots were taken either by our "guide", who turned to be a bit of a scam artist, or a security guard. We didn't go into any of the pyramids. Thought we would save that for another visit. Still buzzing from this amazing experience.

On our way to the pyramids, we saw this guy trying to stop bricks from falling of the back of the truck while it was going along the motorway. We had to dodge a few!!

So amazing to be finally here.

Our tour guide insisted on this shot.

The Queen's pyramid with some of its limestone cover still intact.  The limestone used to cover all of it.

They have very, very big gnarly looking ants here!!

Some of the hieroglyphics at the entrance to one of the tunnels.

A real desert scene.

Sadly, we couldn't go down into this pyramid, which is the smallest of the big three.

But I did get to finally touch one!  A boyhood dream!

A panoramic shot of the three big pyramids and the small guardian one in front.

This time it was the security guard who insisted!!!

A couple of very happy travellers :-)

These can be quite grumpy!

Certainly wouldn't want to get lost out there!

The Sphinx- the Head of Man, The Hair of a Woman (for beauty), and the body of a Lion for strength.

Spot the tail!

The top half is very badly eroded :-(

This was our first view of the pyramids as we travelled along the motorway towards Giza.