After rejecting both the 4am minaret alarm and the 9am alarm that we set, we settled on getting up at 10.  Danni and I walked out onto the balcony to find that the mosque below was in the process of slaughtering and preparing a cow for the Muslim festival of Eid.  The festival is a family time and is marked by the traditional preparation of half an animal for the family and the other half for poorer people.  This was what we saw happening and watched with fascination as the head was hacked off, the skin torn off and the guts pulled out by a group of around 10 men.  The reason that I haven’t been able to get on a computer until now is that the internet cafes have been shut for Eid - just like the Grand Bazaar was shut when I was in Istanbul for Eid last year.  An annoying coincidence.  We still had an appetite for breakfast after the slaughter however and ate before we got a taxi for the Pyramids.  Tom had already been, so Danni and I lost our Arabic speaking guide.  We were still able to travel the 12km to Giza on a combination of the Cairo metro (which rivals any that I have been on in the west) and a taxi. The outgoing journey cost 11EGP for the two of us - about one british pound. 

Me and Danni in front of the Great Pyramid

There are two things that struck me first about the Pyramids.  The first being just how much they dominate the surrounding area of city, which comes right up to it (they would be visable from most of the city if it weren’t for the Cairo smog) and the second being just how small the Sphynx is in real life.  We paid our entrance fee and wandered towards the base of the Great Pyramid, past people selling all kinds of Ancient Egypt minatures and offering rides on camels and rather ill looking horses.  It was here that we picked up the camel owner who, after following us and lowering his price as he went, we chose to give us a tour.  This meant that we had to partake in the terrifying, but worthwhile experience of getting up on to, travelling around on, and getting back off, a camel.  They are remarkably tall, because the passengers sit on the hump which towers above people on the ground.  The tour lasted for about an hour and yielded several once in a lifetime photos.  It was ridiculously expensive (in Egyptian terms - we are now all massively stingy and will quibble over as little as 50p) but we were willing to pay as he had been friendly and had warded of the numerous little kids who spent their time riding around on horses, trying to scare the camels and in doing so cause them to throw off their tourists.  Our guide even said he loked like his son - which was a nice attempt at making me like him, but was pretty inconceivable considering that I have yet to see a ginger Arab.