DAY 3- CAIRO, EGYPT April 9, 2012

Cairo is an extension trip to our Holy Land trip- it added 5 days onto the regular schedule:
Today we left the main luggage at the hotel and packed smaller carryon luggage until we will return on Friday. We traveled by bus to our river cruise boat, Allyssa, where we  stayed for for 4 nights. We toured the Egyptian museum, Royal Mummies Hall, King Tuts Tomb. We learned that there are 3 pyramid finished (50 pyramids in Egypt but only these three are considered finished because others are not true triangles.) I Bought 11 wallets for $10 at the parking lot of the Egyptian museum. We had our first camel picture and men who kept trying to put scares and headbands on us for free then asked us for $1 for them. They never left us alone after that. Interesting e experience for sure. Pyramids were absolutely amazing! We were able to go inside one of them. I did. Layton got too claustrophobic and turned back after the first 15 ft. oh well, it was way cool and the hieroglyphics were so stunning to think that they have lasted all these thousands of years. Pyramids go down into tunnels with several sets of halls that lead to cut out tomb places. The kings and pharaohs decided to have pyramids built because they believed that the steps took you closer to God and Heaven.

Cairo, Egypt

Day 3 (hahaha)

BOOK NOTES: Pyramids were built in ancient Egypt as tombs, or burial places, for Egyptian pharaohs, or kings. The Ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife, so it was very important to them to protect the bodies of their pharaohs. In order to keep the body of the pharaoh safe, the insides of the pyramids were like mazes with secret doors and dead-end passages. The pharaoh would be near the bottom or even underground. Other rooms contained things like jewelry and furniture that the pharaoh might want in his next life. This impressive structure was built fro, around 2580 BC to about 2560 BC. This would mean that it was in existence at the time of the flood in 2344BC. It is interesting that scientists explain that the erosion suffered by this pyramid could only have happened with a large amount of water.

Bro. Michael Wilcox petting a new friend and Engy, our tour guide in Cairo.

THE SPHINX WITH THE 3 GREAT PERFECT PYRAMIDS BEHIND IT.

We were allowed into a papyrus factory and had instruction as to how it is made. So cool! We bought 2 and had
our family name done on the bottom in hieroglyphics  by the artist seen here.

We soon realized that seeing soldiers with machine guns were going to be a common site on this trip.

**From the book notes:
     FOREMOST ARE THE PYRAMIDS BUILT OVER 4000 YEARS AGO AND THE ONLY REMAINING WONDER OFTHE ANCIENT WORLD. WE WILL ALSO VISIT THE SPHINX AND VISIT A PAPYRUS INSTITUTE WHERE WE WILL LEARN ABOUT THE ANCIENT SKILL AND WERE YOU CAN PURCHASE A BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE OF HIEROGLYPHICS. WE WILL ALSO VISIT THE CAIRO MUSEUM WHICH HOUSES THE GREATEST COLLECTION OF EGYPTIAN ARTIFACTS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, INCLUDING KING TUT'S TREASURES. LATE THIS AFTERNOON YOU WILL FLY TO ASWAN WHERE YOU WILL BOARD YOUR 5 STAR LUXURY CRUISE SHIP ON THE NILE RIVER.
***THE SPHINX
     THE ACTUAL DATE WHEN THE SHPINX WAS FIRST BUILT IS UNKOWN, ALTHOUGH MANY SAY IT WAS AROUND 2500 B.C. THE SPHINX IS 66 FEET TALL AND MORE THAN 240 FEET LONG. IT FACES EAST, AND IS THE FIRST TO SEE THE SUNRISE EVER MORNING. HEAVY RAINS OVER THE YEARS HAVE WORN AWAY MUCH OF THE DETAIL OF THIS GEAT WONDER. SCIENTISTS CAN GUESS AT WHEN THE LAST HEAVY RAINS IN THE SAHARA DESERT WERE BY STUDYING THE EROSION OF THE SPHINX AS WELL AS THE PYRAMID. WHEN DID IT LAST RAIN HEAVILY? MORE THAN 4000 YEARS AGO, SAY THE SCIENTISTS. HOWEVER, SOME OF THE DAMAGE TO THE SHPINX HAS BEEN DONE BY DIFFERENT ARMIES PASSING THROUGH EGYPT OVER THE YEARS. SOME ARMIES USED THE SHPINX AS TARGET PRACTICE, AIMING ESPECIALLY FOR THE NOSE. RECENTLY, SCIENTISTS HAVE DISCOVERED THAT THERE IS A CHAMBER BELOW THE SPHINX! SEVERAL, IN FACT. ALTHOUGH ONLY ONE ROOM OF THIS CHAMBER HAS BEEN OPENED SO FAR, WITH NOTHING FOUND IN IT, MANY MORE OPENINGS ARE SCHEDULED TO HAPPEN IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT WILL BE FOUND IN THIS CHAMBER, ALTHOUGH THE MOST POPULAR THEORY IS THAT SOME SORT OF HALL OF RECORDS FOR THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SOCIETY WILL BE FOUND.