Around the World Cruise 2018: Cairo, Egypt

From our dock in Alexandria, we road 3 hours each way to Cairo to see the Egyptian Museum and Great Pyramids of Giza. A police escort accompanied about 15 coaches of Viking passengers to Cairo. Just like in other Egyptian cities, there was a heavy police presence along the roadways and armed security guards rode on several of the buses.

The Cairo Museum contains a wonderful collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts. There are statues of pharaohs and gods, mummies, painted wooden coffins, stone sarcophagi, paintings on papyrus, jewelry, and the entire King Tut collection. Although photos of King Tut's gold burial mask were prohibited, you will see the alabaster box that held the canopic jars containing his lungs, stomach, liver and intestines, which was then put into a larger gilded wooden box. The life-size statue of King Tut was found guarding the entry to his tomb.

After an entertaining lunch on a boat cruising the Nile River, we drove to Giza to see the largest pyramid in the world and the only remaining structure of the original "seven wonders of the ancient world." The Great Pyramid of Giza was built between 2589 and 2504 BC for King Khufu (Cheops) during the Old Kingdom period. The pyramid is very near the city of Giza and had many vendors selling merchandise and camel rides. After seeing the Pyramids, we went to see the sphinx, which has lost most of its facial features.

Ancient Egypt is generally divided into 31 dynasties, running from 3100 to 300 BC. Pyramids were built for Old Kingdom pharaohs, while later rulers were buried in tombs dug into rock in the Valley of the Kings. King Tut ruled from 1332-1323 BC, considered the New Kingdom.