2,400,000 stones were used to make this pyramid, and not just any stones but huge blocks. They are pretty tall -- they reach just below my shoulders!
Nancy Standing by a block of the Great Pyramid
We had only about 45 minutes to spend at this wonder, which is okay because they only sell 150 tickets to get inside each day, and they pyramid is really rather big so it would take a long time to walk around it. After climbing around the area you're allowed to climb on we were all sent back to the bus.
We went to the "panoramic outlook point" so that we could actually fit the pyramid into our camera lens. The Great Pyramid (on the far right) is so huge that you can't fit it into your frame at the base of the camera. The pyramid that looks the biggest in our panoramic shot is actually smaller than The Great Pyramid. It is shorter and uses fewer blocks but it was built on a higher piece of ground in order to make it appear taller.
And The Sphynx. Rather a sphynx that happens to be very famous, and like most famous things it was a mistake. When the second pyramid was being built (not the Great Pyramid but the one built to look bigger than it), they were carving an alley and ran into a big rock. Instead of removing the rock they decided to make a statue. Probably a good idea considering how big it is!
We went to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities after the Sphynx (we were allowed only 20 minutes at the Sphynx, 2 1/2 minutes at the panoramic view, and 45 minutes at the Great Pyramid). We were there for 3 hours or so. It was a pretty good museum but not very well organized or documented. We did, however visit both King Tut's treasury room and the mummy room. It was really pretty cool. I wish that we had been allowed cameras...but then again, I did have nightmares that involved those very mummies just a few days ago, so maybe I'm glad we didn't have a camera so that I don't have to sort those pictures later!
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