pyramids

We went to see the Pyramids of Giza today. What can I say about The Pyramids? The Pyramid experience basically goes like this:

1) OMG I'm at the Pyramids! This is so amazing, the Pyramids, right here in front of me!
2) So. Here I am at the Pyramids...should I be doing something?
3) Oh, I guess there's really nothing else to do here. I...guess we should go now?
4) Repeat at another pyramid/tomb/pile of rubble.

So yes, they're amazing. But I mean, they're also pretty much what you already knew they were. It's an amazing thing to do, but not a particularly exciting thing to experience.

Come to think of it, I think that's exactly what I was told would happen.

Also, you really can't photograph the pyramids. Once when I was little my godfather remarked that there was no point in photographing landmarks because you can inevitably buy a postcard that is far superior. Pyramids are particularly challenging, because they are huge; close-ups look trivial and landscapes look trite. However, my proximity to pyramids has been documented, at least. The sphinx is more fun to photograph people with.

The other thing about pyramids is that if you climb more than a few blocks up, the "Tourist and Antiquities Police" start blowing their whistle at you until you climb back down. They are, however, spaced thin enough that if they go off to chastise someone else, you might be able to make a break for it; this is unverified.

It wasn't like Jerash, where I had this history of connection and interest and study. Although I did think back to my 8th grade research project on the Osiris myth. I also started to appreciate Egyptian art for the first time. There was a cow giving birth in the fresco we saw today. Mostly, though, I could not stop thinking about Amelia Peabody. No one else had heard of the books, which was horrible, because I was super-excited about Amelia Peabody and her family. (Oh man, Ramses.) Instead of mentally frolicking in mythic histories of mummies and pharaohs, I was giddily galavanting around with a fictional Victorian archeologist.