Blogtober Day 20 - Favorite place I ever visited

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Last Updated on December 4, 2020 by scottkandh

This Blogtober post features pins from the favorite place I ever visited: Cairo, Egypt.

I was in the United States Air Force (U.S.A.F.) for 24 years and retired as a Master Sergeant (E-7). During that time I had the pleasure of traveling to many different countries. I’ve been to nearly every continent with the exception of Australia and Antarctica. I was stationed at Thule Air Base in Greenland for a year so I’ve been to one of the two polar ice caps. But this blog is not about Greenland (I’ll save that for a blog some other time).

This post reflects on that wonderful journey I had to a place called Cairo, Egypt. I spent many a day at the Milwaukee museum. The one attraction that always drew my Dad and me to it was the Egyptian exhibit. That’s when I wanted someday to visit Egypt and see the pyramids. So going to Cairo was a dream come true.

While I was there me and a few of my friends (about two dozen of us or so) had the good fortune to be taken on a VIP tour of Cairo. It was a whirlwind tour, because the time was 2004 when I was there and there was a lot of tension.

I can break up the tour into three elements:

The Sphinx
The Pyramids
Papyrus paper company

1. The Sphinx

As the bus pulled up closer to the pyramids I didn’t see the Sphinx right away. For some reason I was thinking that it was in the front of the pyramids. But based on what I saw it’s located at the back of the pyramids by a couple of miles or so.

The head of the Sphinx was enormous and off in the distance, you could see the pyramids. What was really strange though is that depending on where you stood to look at the Sphinx giving you so many different perspectives that you normally don’t see depicted in pictures. While looking at the Sphinx I couldn’t wait to arrive to the pyramids which was coming up next.

2. The Pyramids

The tour guide warned us not to climb up the Great Pyramid. Believe it or not there’s a lot of people that climb up the pyramid and it’s very difficult to get down from it.

One of the things I did because seeing the Great Pyramid was such a great dream that I kept touching it over and over (instead of pinching myself) to say this is really real. COOL.

But the best was yet to come, there’s a little pyramid to the far right. There’s a cluster of three pyramids (by the Great Pyramid – the one in the middle with a Gold cap on top). I was able to go into the belly of the smallest pyramid and see the paintings on the murals.

I was sadly disappointed that at the bottom was just a plain old area with stark white walls. But walking down into the pyramid was an experience I’ll never forget. Because the further you go down, the more you have to bend over because of the narrowest of the descent into the bottom. I’m 6’4″ and walking down I had to stoop over really low.

3. Papyrus paper company

Before going to dinner that evening, the day ended with a trip to the Papyrus paper company where tourists are able to buy Papyrus paper.

Before buying the Papyrus paper we were provided with the information that for so long no one knew the secret of how to make Papyrus paper like the Egyptians. But with the discovery of hieroglyphics historians were able to reconstruct the ancient process of pressing paper together to make Papyrus paper.

I purchased a set of Papyrus paper for my wife and I that had our names (Scott and Mary Beth) on them that to this day still hang in our office. I’ll get out the camera and try to take a good picture for you to see.