We have a lot of fun watching them and suddenly we realize that it is rather far to the Sphinx. It is around three kilometres to walk. And so the unavoidable happens and we decide to do the same like the others and we bargain for the price of two camels.
And the result: We do not look any better than the others, we too look really ridiculous on the camel back, but – it is better look strange than to walk and so we ride on. The view from a camel is really fantastic, the pace of the animals is strange and we have again a lot of fun , but now about ourselves.
Quckly one foto for the family album, and another one from the side and thus we head to the sphinx.
You imagine the sphinx much bigger than it is in reality, but nevertheless it is faszinating and we wonder about the original idea of the sculpture. The name sphinx derives from the Greek, because it looks similar to the greek mythological monster with woman sculp and lion body, which after the legend asked riddles and killed everbody who could not solve it.
The sphinx was built from the stones of the acess ramp to the Chephren pyramid, it probably was at the tie when this pharao was in power and thus the face of the shinx is said to look lake this pharao. The nose was damaged between the 11th and 15th century. During the 19th century adventurer stole parts of the beard. Today the sphinx has a big problem, because it is eaten up from its inner side. The exact reason for this is still unknown. It could be polution, or the rising ground water level.
Being fascinated we forgot the time and we take a taxi back to the campsite. During night traffic in Cairo is more dense due to the climate because during daytime it is very hot so activities are postponed after sunset. The taxi is suposed to bring us back to the campsite, but the driver has no idea and we go through the city for a very long time. It is not necessarily common that taxi drivers know their way, frequently they have to ask for the way, navigation devices are here unknown.
Next day we want to go south of Cairo to Dashen to the red and the bend pyramid.