Day 1 or is it day 2?

 After leaving San Francisco Saturday evening, we were finally on our way to Munich and after arriving there we had a 4 1/2 hour layover. Finally got on the plane about 10 and arrived in Cairo a little after 1:00 am Egyptian time. Who knows what time my body was on since I didn’t sleep on either plane and was very tired. We are staying at the Movenpick Media City in Cairo. According to our guide Cairo was a well planned city for 4,000,000 people, but has now sprawled to 24 million which is not so well planned! After getting to my room, which was quite a hike from the main building, I was finally able to get into bed and get some sleep before it was time to get up and get going. I was able to grab a quick breakfast and then we were on the bus about 10 and off to see our first pyramids. 

We first went to Lake Fayum in the Fatyum basin. We also saw the Bahr Yussef (The waterway of Joseph). The landscape is very bleak due to the limited amount of rain. No a tree in sight around the lake plus it had a wonderful sewer smell! Everywhere is covered in dust. As for the traffic rules, our guide informed us that there are none!

We saw what was left of the Hawara pyramid. It was the burial place of Amenemhat 111 who was the pharaoh under who Joseph served as vizier of Egypt.  after He interpreted the kin’s dreams and  predicted the 7 years of plenty and the seven years of famine. Amenemhat 11 placed his tomb near Bahr Yussef rather than with the other kings in honor of Joseph.

Then we moved on to the Il-Labuan pyramid. The pharaoh buried here was Sesostris 11 who had the dreams Joseph interpreted concerning the famine (Genesis 41). Next was the Meidum pyramid built By Sneferu and his father (Huni). The pyramid was a stepped pyramid (mastsabas stacked one on another) once covered in smooth white sandstone. The sides of the pyramid were built at too steep of an angle so the sides soon collapsed. He built the bent pyramid and finally built the first “true” pyramid called the Red Pyramid both the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid are located at Dashur. 

Meidum Pyramid

We saw many random sights today. We saw houses still occupied that had had rooms cut off so they could widen the freeway. Some inside walls were exposed, wallpaper and all! A man was riding his donkey while talking on his cell phone. There were miles of greenhouses with walls surrounding them with guard towers periodically spaced on them. They were not being use at the time so I am not sure what they are going to grow. We had 2 police escorts the entire day - one leading us and one following the bus.  They even stopped traffic for us if we needed to make a U-turn or anything else. Evidently, the length of our tour is much longer than most. Most tours are about a week while ours is 2 weeks. We also had an armed guard on the bus, too. Each time we came into the hotel we had to put our bags through a security check.