After arriving in Egypt, I wanted to get a bit of rest. I always wonder how traveling makes me so tired – I mean I’m sitting around do nothing the whole time – but this trip was especially rough since I flew overnight and only grabbed about 45 minutes of sleep during my connection.

 

 

 

I had plans to meet up with my dad in Egypt but he was off exploring lesser known tombs so I had a moment to curl into bed completely neglecting the breakfast laid out for me. Not even the bright sunshine from our balcony window or the rattling wind from the sandstorm outside could keep me awake.

In the afternoon we headed across the street to the pyramids, braving the sandstorm that whipped swirls of dust into the air.

At the ticket window the man roughly yelled “no change” at us when we failed to produce the exact 80 EGP required for entrance. After we stood there blank-faced for a few moments he pushed a few bills back at us looking annoyed. We walked into the entrance of the pyramids complex and were immediately pushed through a hoard of men grasping at our tickets and insisting on becoming our private guide. We kept our heads down and placed our belonging on the conveyor belt, waking through the security scanners. On the other side a man was waiting to pull my ticket from my hands and when I held it tight he yelled not to keep my ticket from him, he was a guard. He clearly was not and when I pushed past he did not follow.The pyramids complex was almost entirely cleared out due to the sandstorm but it did not stop the few remaining hecklers from following us for a distance. Unfortunately, Giza is overflowing with similar scenarios – men trying to push you onto camels, into tuktuks, trying to grab your camera to snap a picture then turn around and demand a hefty tip. I’ve found the best approach is to ignore them entirely (I’m not the only one). After all, they assume you speak English but don’t really know for sure. So when we kept our heads down and continued walking past, they slowly dropped away.

Men stand at the front of many of the pyramid entrances requesting you pay a fee to enter. It seems these men are unofficial so just ignore them.

We veered off to the left after seeing the Sphinx and found ourselves hiking through ruins, no real path to be found. We hopped from roof to roof heading towards the upper terrace. I couldn’t believe this epic, historical spot had no path, direction or obvious protection. The tourist police had all been sitting in cars around the entrance and the watchman, identified wearing long government robes, did little more than yell out and point in a different direction when he saw us walking through the unmarked area.

I’ve heard of different experiences at the pyramids so I’m wondering if the organization issues and lack of guards was due to the sandstorm. What do you think?