We explored the Pyramids on foot and learnt the subtle art of the Giza sweet talkers.

Our one day exploring the Giza Necropolis

It's been Lisa's dream for ever to see the great pyramids. When we got there I felt the blocks were a lot more rough and not as big as I imagined. But inside there were some big pieces of stone that made me think "aliens".

Image: For some reason I imagined that all the blocks would be perfectly cut and twice as big.

To get to the pyramids we took the metro and then Uber'd the rest of the way

Our Hostel was in Downtown Cairo which was super convenient but it also meant we'd always be stuck in crazy traffic. To get to the Pyramids you first have to get out of Cairo and we thought we'd be smart and catch a metro out of town to Giza station then Uber the rest of the way but things are never that easy when it's your first time!

Image: Cairo roads are super dusty!

Getting the metro

The nearest metro stop from our hostel was Mohamed Naguib. We found it pretty easily using Google maps. A ticket to Giza station costed us 3EGP each.

The first challenge was to figure out which platform. The maps were in arabic but the direction of travel was in English. A quick google search on the name and we figured we needed to head in the El Monib direction

We got on the train at about 10:00am on the Sunday and it wasnt too packed. 

There is a girls only carriage!

Right in the middle of the train there's a carriage for girls only. so Lisa went in there and I went into the next mixed carriage. A lesson learned was that I didn't tell Lisa which stop or how many stops until Giza. I thought I could just call her. But there's no reception in the metro until just before Giza so this made the ride a bit stressful.

Image: the only map I saw at the station was in Arabic

Now when you get off Giza station get prepared to be hassled. Teenagers selling taxis or seemingly nice people wanting to get to know you.

There was one guy at Giza station who said he was visiting the pyramids as well. He had his "son" in his hand and said it's his first time and that they were from Luxor. He tried to talk us into getting on a bus together with them and when we said no he conveniently had his taxi friend nearby ready to help us. I thought he was a tourist like us! 

If we went with him my guess is that we'd be stopping at multiple gift shops the whole way there.

We wanted to walk in a different direction then what he suggested so we we got off the other side of the station walked to the end and called an Uber.

 Image: Purple line shows the direction the Father&Son wanted us to go. The yellow line is the path we took just to avoid them.

In hindsight, we should've just booked an Uber from our hotel. Dealing with the hawkers at Giza station and finding a safe place to get picked up by Uber there was kinda annoying. Our Uber from Giza station costed 84EGP and I'm sure it wouldn't have been much more if we just got picked up from our Hostel.

Special note about taking UBER:

Cars in Egypt use Arabic numbers for their license plates! But the UBER app shows normal Roman Numerals so you will need some kind of cheat sheet to help you find the right car

Image: License plate of cars are in Arabic!

Image: Keep a Google search for Arabic numbers handy when calling an Uber 

The Pyramids

My first experience at the pyramids was using a public bathroom. There's a guy sitting infront of the toilet who you have to pay. I'm not even sure if he's a cleaner or a random! But I paid 2EGP to use it.

Image: I quickly learned that there's no such thing as a free public toilet in Egypt - At least at tourist sites anyways. 2EGP at least to use!

We then get our tickets and we're in!

Image: All tickets to major tourist sites in Egypt we visited had the same ticket template. Very nice souvenir for us :)

More hawkers!

Get through the ticket gates and walk straight to great Pyramid and you're a marked tourist. We get a guy who greets us asks if we want a tour and when we tell him no and proceed to take photos we can see him standing there waiting for us. He shouts arabic at other Hawkers saying we belong to him and stalks us continually upselling himself until we reach what must be another hawkers territory as he gives the other guy a look of approval saying they're yours to try now lol.

Image: Photo taken by a Camel hawker. I think it's a pretty good photo. Costed us 15minutes of listening to his pitch, worrying he would hold my phone as blackmail and finally 10EGP as a thank you tip (which he snatched out of my hand in disgust because he wanted 200EGP) 

Image: Mr Camel hawker. Watch out for this sweet talker if he doesn't get you on his Camel he'll take photos of you then ask for a tip.

The Sphinx

Tired of the hawkers we wanted to get away from the Pyramids so we started walking to the Sphinx. This was a good idea although there's no real escape from these guys lol.

Image: The Sphinx has a connecting temple made from large stones. No Hieroglyphs but I liked the way the stones fit together here.

Image: on the Sphinx side there are souvenir stalls. I was looking for food but couldn't find any. Just drinks. So make sure you bring your own snacks!

Walking back to the pyramids you walk towards the middle sized one (the one with the pretty capstone) so there's some good opportunities for photos here.

We stopped here to eat our snacks and then made our way into the pyramid.

Going inside King Khafre's Pyramid

Entry to the cap-stone pyramid (King Khafre) costs an extra 100EGP. it's a narrow corridor to the end and there's an Egyptian guard who pinches your elbow for Baksheesh (photography money). We didn't want to pay the guard so we skipped taking photos in the main chamber.

Image: I can't remember if the corridors were painted or just highly polished. But they were white!

We then walked back to the Great Pyramid to go inside

Image: nicely cut stones 

Image: Instagram husband is a high pressure role lol

When we get back to the entrance of the Great Pyramid there's plenty of tourists!

Going inside the great Pyramid

When you go inside the great pyramid the security guard confiscates your camera. He tools Lisa's GoPro and we were a little worried he wouldn't be there when we returned...

Once you get through the narrow steep corridor there's a really steep but high ceiling gallery.

Get to the end, duck one last time and we're in the main chamber

It's very hot inside and there's plenty of people but we got one quick shot of us and the box.

Image: It's a nice room. Very precise. No Hieroglyphs 🤔

Then back out the tiny corridor. 

In total we were at the Pyramids from 11am to 3pm. Decided to Uber all the way back to Downtown Cairo (just 106EGP) where we went straight for dinner at a roast Pigeon restaurant.

Make sure you check out our post on all the food we ate in Egypt here!

Thanks for reading!

- Sang