Cairo City

Day 8 (31/10/08): Cairo "City Tour"

Arrive Cairo, meet and transfer to your hotel. Following to check-in today, we will be off to Islamic Cairo where the 12th Century Citadel of Salah El-Din stands, within the walls of the medieval fortress is the Alabaster Mosque and El-Gawhara Palace built by Mohamed Ali:

Tomb of Muhammah Ali:

This was followed by a visit to Christian Old Cairo where the Romans constructed the fortress of Babylon. Built over the ruins of the two towers of this fortress, the Church of Saint Mary known by the Hanging Church. Break for lunch, and then we drive to the Egyptian Museum where the treasures of King Tut Ankh-Amun and most of the pharaohs, are kept.

If you're blonde, you're automatically of Paris Hilton-esque celebrity in the streets:

Day 9 (01/11/08): Alexandria

Early morning pick-up to drive on the way to Alexandria, the city on the Mediterranean founded by Alexander the Great. We will start our tour in Alexandria with visits to the catacombs of Kom El Shokafa and Pompeii's Pillar:

Next we went to the Roman Amphitheater:

Weirdest looking ant/spiders all over:

and the Fort of Qait-Bay:

Break for lunch and then we will continue on to the newly-reborn Royal Library of Alexandria, with its amazing architecture, and next we explore the Royal Palace of El Montazah.

Alexandria Library (honestly PSU stacks were 100x more impressive than this joke of a library):

Royal Palace & Grounds:

Super sweet Egyptian Beer composed of 10% King:

Kid that looked exactly like Goldberg from Mighty Ducks:

School field trip that found us the most entertaining people ever to look at:

Day 10 (02/11/08): Depart Cairo (B)

We traveled back to the Great Pyramids of Giza and got to go inside the Pyramids which was the only time in my entire life I have felt claustrophobic, with a sense that the entire pyramid was going to collapse down on the tiny two foot by two foot shaft we shimmied through on our descent to the burial chambers. Also the air inside has never been circulated so you find yourself sweating uncontrollably and gasping for air even though it wasn't physically taxing to descend the ramp. I stood panting for a good amount of time and was happy to hear the in shape woman next to me struggling for air also, so I didn't feel so out of shape. Terrifying but very worth it.