The Red Sea and The Pyramids

I was following the16th Century Afonso de Albuquerque's footsteps, the first European to have sailed in these waters.
The Red Sea, The Erythraean Sea, is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia.
It has the warmest and the saltest water.
The Red Sea was formed by Arabian being split from Africa by movement of the Red Sea Rift. It is still widening. It is believed that it will become an ocean in time - not in our lifetime though.
The highly salinity of the water is not hospitable to living organisms.
The Red sea, however, is rich and diverse in ecosystem. Lots of coral!
It is where the Exodus took place - the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt. (The story of the Israelites crossing a body of water - the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt.) 
  
The Suez Canal was built and opened in 1869. One of the marvels of the world. The ship was to go through the Canal. The passengers were given the option of staying on board or getting off the ship for an excursion to Cairo, to the Pyramids, one of the Seven Wonders of The Ancient World. I opted to take the excursion. Years later, I had the chance to cruise down the Panama Canal - and I was glad that I went to the pyramids instead of going through the Suez Canal when I was in Cairo. Sure the Canal was a marvel of engineering, but the opening and closing the locks, slowly and repeatedly, were tedious and monotonous. Suez Canal may be bigger (?) than Panama Canal, but the process was the same. I would have missed King Tut if I had stayed on board.

So, I went into the desert!
I know now why all the people covered themselves from head to toe in this Heat - the sand was everywhere! And the sun was unkind to exposed skin.

A number of us passengers disembarked at the entrance of the Canal and boarded several buses to the desert. We rode for a long while. Then we saw the little triangular structures in the distance. In the vast desert, the structures looked small. But wait until you get closer! Wow! The monumental Sphinx of Queen Hatshepsut, with the body of a lion and the head of a man, dwarfed us. And the enormous Pyramids!!! We realized how small we were in this Big  world. How insignificant we human beings were! Ants on a giant surface!
Guess what? I had the wonderful opportunity to go inside one of the  pyramids, through the narrow tunnels, into one of the death chambers. It was a bit eerie.
At that time, almost all the treasures were taken out of the tomb - by thieves, by robbers, or by archaeologists. There were merely a few pieces of artifacts placed there to satisfy the tourists (most likely by the Department of Tourism in Egypt).
Luckily, a lot of the treasures found by archaeologists were  preserved in the Museum in Cairo, and I did get to see them when we got back to Cairo - at the time, my interest in history was such that I did not realize how lucky I was, for much of what I saw was what later exhibited in a museum in TX, the Treasures of King Tut. Of course, if I had called the Pharaoh Tutankhamen, King Tut, my history teacher would have not only "tut-tuted" me, but probably slapped me on the face. How dare You! She would say.

I also got to ride the camel. Believe me, you needed a sea-sick pill before getting on one of these creatures. They were decorated with beautiful carpets, colored shawls, bells and whistles, and other do-das for the tourists, and they were adorable (if you hold your nose somewhat). It, nevertheless, was fun. An event to remember!

We, then, were bused back into the City of Cairo.