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If my checklist for Thursday had looked like this:

  • eat authentic Egyptian felafal
  • pet a camel
  • learn how to make papyrus
  • see a mummy
  • climb 200 feet down a shaft I barely fit in
  • touch one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world

Then I would have been able to check off everything with no problem.

I traveled with 3 American brothers from Utah to 3 different pyramid sites: Dashur, Sakkara, and of course, Giza. I learned a lot about Egyptian history, and was harassed for being a tourist on many occasions. I also got to experience the desert first hand. It is nothing but sand and rock and the sun beating down on you. Competition for shade was fierce at the busiest tourist spots.

The shaft inside the Red Pyramid of Dashur was perhaps the most memorable event for me. The climb down took a good 10 minutes, and I felt that if I were even slightly claustrophobic I wouldn’t have been able to do it. Climbing inside all of the tombs and seeing multiple sarcophogi really gave me a profound respect for how the ancient Egyptians had stoneworking down thousands of years before their neighbors.

The pyramids themselves are incredibly massive, and held the record for the world’s largest structures for many centuries. Touching one feels like putting your hand on a piece of history. It was an impressive and tiring day.