The Great Pyramids at Giza

The Great Pyramids at Giza. The tomb of Khufu. Camels and dust. Travelling during COVID, there weren’t many tourists – definitely worth the price of admission (loads of paperwork and carefully scheduled Covid tests and wearing masks for 24hrs+ during trans-Atlantic travel).

Cairo smelled like an ashtray. Maybe because Egyptians are fond of smoking or because of the poor air quality, likely due to carbon emissions from the 25 million inhabitants. I did some color corrections on a few of these images because the light is intense and the smog heavy. The landscape pictures of the Giza complex were heavily corrected. I wanted to do them the justice the smog did not, because they are so incredible.

The pyramids are as amazing and iconic and giant as they seem on TV and in photos. It was awesome, in the true sense of the word – in awe, awe-inspiring. I did crawl into Khufu’s tomb. It was hard work and I fell at one point, and a tinge of claustrophobia (thank you meditative breathing), and so, so very hot. But, I went inside Khufu’s tomb. That’s pretty dope.

From Smithsonian Magazine: “Khufu’s monument was built from 2.3 million stone blocks, each weighing on average more than two tons and cut using nothing more than copper tools; to realize that its sides are precisely aligned to the cardinal points of the compass and differ one from another in length by no more than two inches, and to calculate that, at 481 feet, the pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for practically 4,000 years—until the main spire of Lincoln Cathedral was completed in about 1400 A.D.”

This was day three.