The Giza Pyramids

Amazing.

Away from the buses and tourists, there is a little side-street hidden away near the Giza Pyramids which is home to a man called Mahmood. He promises an experience of the Pyramids like no other and that is certainly what we got today. Within five minutes of arriving in our taxi (arranged by Mahmood), we were sitting on our transport for the next few hours; Mickey Mouse and Luvva Luvva: two lovely-natured camels that I was given free reign over for the entire journey (well, it seemed like that anyway).

Our guide for the day was (and this name deserves a line all to itself)...

"Mohammed No Problem."

Genius. This guy was superb. He had the perfect mixture of patter, humour, expertise and charm (after establishing that Larissa was married to me, he offered her 2,000 camels for her sister). He took the two of us around the back of the ancient site along a strip of desert which had amazing views of the Pyramids. We stopped off at all the best points for photos, seldom crossed paths with other tours and, amazingly, even got to climb up a little of the middle sized one. All throughout the journey, Mohammed No Problem kept the aggressive money-grabbers (mostly the police, funnily enough) away from us so that we could enjoy the experience without having to fret about baksheesh.

Shortly after noon, we reached the Sphinx where even Mohammed couldn't make the tourists disappear, but that only served to further emphasise just how incredible it was that we hadn't encountered any until then. Within the Sphinx area, the most beautiful little Egyptian girl was standing in an alcove selling postcards. I caught her attention, gestured to my camera and, with the help of a couple of LE, was provided with one of my favourite shots of the day, which you can see by clicking here.

I chose to post this one however. Not a lot of people get to see the Pyramids like this and I am very lucky in as much that I have.

(For a view of the city from the Pyramids, click here.)