After a good sleep, we were ready to start doing touristy things. The first stop had to be the pyramids so after some coffee and tea, we caught taxis to Giza. 

If you’re picturing seeing the pyramids immediately when landing in Cairo, this is far from the truth. It’s about an hour away from the airport and so for us, it was about a 30 minute drive to Giza Governate. 

The first spotting of the pyramid was quite cool and we were really excited to finally see it. 

Our taxi dropped us off right at the ticket office where we proceeded to purchase tickets. It’s 700 EGP for area entry and 900 EGP to go inside the Great Pyramid of Giza (which my brother and I opted for).

The first pyramid we saw was the Great Pyramid of Giza. It is the largest standing pyramid ever built. It originally stood at 146.59m but is currently 137m. It is made up of approximately 2.3m blocks. For nearly 3 800 years it was the tallest building in the world. 

We then spent some time walking up to get different views of the pyramids. After about a km of walking, I spotted Ladurée and we were ready for some coffee and lunch. 

We ordered some burgers and hot drinks while waiting for our parents. I would’ve happily stayed here and chilled but my brother and I had to go inside the pyramid since we bought our tickets already. 

We caught a horse and carriage down to the Great Pyramid. It was a bumpy ride but much better than walking down in the cold. It was 250 EGP for both of us. 

We arrived at the Great Pyramid only to find that we had to stand in a long line. The worst part of this was that the line was not only for going into the pyramid but also for people who wanted to take a picture at that point. We stood in the line for about half an hour and made friends with the people around us. 

They scanned our tickets at the entrance and then we stood in another line until we got to stairs.

We climbed up the stairs and then you had to bend down and climb a slanted wooden plank with metal bars until you get to another point where you can stand again. You then climb a few steps and then proceed to climb another wooden plank to the top.

As you are climbing, you can feel the temperature rising. You eventually get to another point where there’s a short tunnel that you crawl through and then you’re in the tomb. We saw the tomb for about a minute and then went back down the same way. 

This was one of the few times in my life where I have seen humanity united. The people coming down were assuring us that it wasn’t that bad and it isn’t that difficult to climb, they were telling us to take our jackets off because it gets really hot and we proceeded to do the same when we were the ones climbing down. It really was a “we’re all in this together” moment. It was honestly the best part of this whole experience. 

We met up with our family again and then we proceeded to look for the Sphinx. It was on the other side of the Great Pyramid but I’ll be honest, the Sphinx was not as impressive in real life as it is the in the pictures you see online. 

We then walked out of the pyramids area and found taxis to go back to the hotel. I even spotted a little bit of the sunset near a pyramid before we left. 

We got back to the apartment, rested for a bit and then went to find some food. 

We ended up on the walkway near the Nile where we found some really good karak and chapaatis. I really enjoyed the vibes here. There were friends chilling and families drinking tea and a lot of hustle and bustle for 10pm on a week night. It was really good to soak in some of the local Cairo. 

We then caught our taxi back to the apartment and once again, enjoyed the absolute chaos of Cairo traffic late at night. 

Step count: 13 934