Look! I'm searching for aliens!

[onager]

Didn't find any, though. The sneaky little bastards are hard to catch.

This is a picture of me the last time I was in Egypt, in January.

I'm the biped.

For the curious, that's Chephren's pyramid. The second one built at Giza, and the only one with part of the original marble cladding left on the top.

I leave tomorrow to go back over there. I should be able to check in with you lunatics from time to time, though.

[beam me up scottie]

1. Wow, how cool is that ?

You have to post pictures and keep us updated. (especially for those of us who live in areas where Taco Bell is considered exotic food)

[Bill McBlueState]

2. wow, pyramids

Did you know the ancient Egyptians knew about the stars, and built things that were aligned with them? They were like, so smart, man. They must have been aliens. Woo, woo, I say! Woo, woo!

[beam me up scottie]

3. Ha !

Either that or they had a really good psychic.

[onager]

4. W00 W00! Even all the pyramids are aligned!

That's actually an incredibly beautiful sight I'll never forget.

If it's a (rare) clear day in Cairo, you can stand at the site of the first pyramid built, the "Step Pyramid" at Saqqara, and just barely see the Giza pyramids WAY off in the distance. They look like a mirage from that far off, or like they're floating above the sand.

Also in the same line-of-sight: the Red Pyramid and "Bent" Pyramid. The Bent Pyramid kept falling down, so the builders kept making the base wider.

The aliens must have been slacking off on that one.

I always like the reaction of the practical Romans when they first saw the pyramids at Giza: "Useless buildings."

The Romans had figured out the engineering principle of the keystone and arch, which is simply the OTHER way of holding up massive stone structures. (Or you use a lot of big columns.) The Egyptians and the Mayans hadn't figured it out when they built their pyramids.

The real story behind all this stuff is a lot more interesting to me than the alien claptrap.

[beam me up scottie]

5. The real story

always is.
I pity people who have to make stuff up to see the beauty and wonder in the world.
All I have to do is look at an anthill on my lawn or listen to the mockingbird who sings all night outside my window.
Who needs a deity ?



edited for lousy grammar

[progressoid]

10. Gosh, thats soooo true!

They knew lots more than us.

Like the brain is a useless organ. And...

um...

shoot, I can't think of anymore right now. (I bought cheap aluminum foil for my hat last week so I can't concentrate).

[reprobate]

6. You must have found them! Looks like an alien that you're sitting on.

[onager]

7. Heh! Well, it was an alien critter to Egypt...

...until around the First Century CE.

An Egyptian tour guide told me that's one of the most common questions he gets asked:

"Why aren't camels ever shown in ancient Egyptian art?"

He liked that question because it's easy to answer: "They weren't here yet."

[trotsky]

8. That's awesome, onager.

I would love to visit Egypt someday. You are so lucky.

[onager]

9. Thanks!

I know I'm lucky!

BTW, I'm taking Michael Shermer's "Borderlands of Science" with me. That book really annoys the woo-woo's. They've tried the usual trick of invalidating everything he says because one researcher claimed Shermer misrepresented him in the book.

Hmm. Now that I think of it, many of the books I'm hauling deal with history & religious/woo-woo insanity. "God Wants You To Roll" looks good, and "Reading 'Lolita" In Tehran." (A book about how educated women dealt with the rise of the Shi'ite ayatollahs in Iran--they locked themselves in and kept studying Western literature.)

I have a fear of getting caught without something to read, so I usually schlep half a damn library with me on these trips.

[GOPFighter]

11. I was ROFL after looking at your camel

She (he? ) is a real HAM! Looks like she thinks she's the subject of the picture!

Your critter looks more domesticated that the camel I confronted in Libya years ago (Air Force). My "friends" tried to get me to sit on it so they could take my picture, but I could tell the camel was just waiting for some fool to climb on. Coward I may be, but alive I still am.

Good luck on your trip. Spead the joy of living godless. A watch those camels! :evilgrin:

[onager]

12. You're right!

She was a real ham! I have another picture of her resting. When I raised the camera, she looked right into it. Just like she was posing. (I'm pretty sure it was female, anyway.)

The camels around the Pyramids are all really gentle beasts who don't scare the tourists.

I saw some camels like you mentioned in Saudi Arabia. They can be mean and nasty critters. And they only look "smooth" from a distance. Up close their coats are rough, with all sorts of bugs living in them.

Did you ever have one spit at you when they're mad? Unpleasant experience!

In Saudi Arabia we used to occasionally drive down the highway toward Mecca (which we couldn't enter, of course.) We always passed a big Used Camel Lot. Hundreds and hundreds of 'em for sale!

[GOPFighter]

13. Yes, it spit and bucked

although with one of it's leg tied it couldn't move far. They are ugly creatures up close - and very tempermental I'm told. The one you were on is much nicer than any I saw in Libya.

I saw a few "used camel" lots in Tripoli but most had no more than a dozen camels for sale. Personally, I'd rather have a Camero...

[onager]

14. I'm here, everybody!

:hi:

Just got to Alexandria today, after one night in Cairo.

The "bad" news...we're in an older hotel. A-w-w-w-w...

The good news: I'm sitting here listening to the Red Sea surf pounding, less than a hundred yards from my window. And we're right in the middle of the noise, people and general fun action of any big city.

Woo-hoo!

The work is grungy and hard. We didn't knock off until about 7 tonight. But this hotel really makes up for it.

Will check in again later!

[beam me up scottie]

15. Glad to hear it !

Kiss a camel for me.
:evilgrin:

[onager]

16. Ack! That was stupid!

I MUST have been tired last night. Unless there has been a major geological shift, what I'm hearing in Alexandria is the Mediterranean surf pounding. Not the Red Sea.

BMUS, I will find a camel and pass along a kiss from you!

:evilgrin:

[trotsky]

17. How old is the hotel?

What kind of features does it have?

Glad you arrived safely & hope you have a great time!

[onager]

18. Well, "refurbished" is the word they use...

I don't really know how old it is.

It does have hi-speed Internet access. What more do I need? ;-)

And a jazz-themed bar/cafe. Last night they were playing a recording of "Compared To What?" Complete with the bit where the singer stops and yells "God damn it!" That must have got lost in translation. Heh...

Egyptian Hotel Trivia: if you're ever watching "Lawrence Of Arabia," there's a scene with him on a HUGE marble staircase in a palace. That was a real palace once, but it's now the central part of the Zamalek Marriott hotel...located right on the Nile in downtown Cairo. They just built two big hotel towers around the old palace.

BMUS, no camels spotted yet. Lots of donkeys, though. Our commute to the work site goes thru several villages where life doesn't seem to have changed much in the last millenium.

Thanks for the good wishes (and complete lack of prayers)!

And keep hoping our driver doesn't kill me...

:scared:

[beam me up scottie]

19. What did you do to that poor

driver ?

You didn't tell him any camel jokes, did you ?

[onager]

20. Believe me, I did nothing to him...

It's just that he's even more insanely aggressive than the usual Egyptian driver, which is saying a lot. This morning he was tailgating a humongous trailer truck, flashing the lights and blowing the horn and uselessly screaming at the guy in Arabic. We almost got the back of that damn truck right thru the windshield when he stopped suddenly.

I guess they don't teach elementary physics over here.

And I blame the whole thing on religion, at least partly. Several guys have expressed the opinion that it doesn't matter how they drive, since Allah knows exactly when they will die anyhow. I guess it's the same nutty idea that makes Xians say things like: "God won't take me until it's My Time To Go."

:scared: :scared:

Tonight I went on a long solitary ramble thru the neighborhood. Lots of street vendors, selling everything from fresh slaughtered goat meat to cell phones and Nike shoes. Everybody was really nice. People who knew a few words of English used them on me.

I got a few funny looks, but only of curiosity, not hostility. You know, like "WTF is HE doing back here?"

[beam me up scottie]

21. Well, don't white american

tourists stay away from the locals ?

-Idiots go to foreign countries and then stick to the "safe" areas...

My parents got a kick out of the "American Ghetto" in Brussels.

There were all these beautiful villas available and most of them moved into a subdivision of ranch houses.
:banghead:
With all the pretty pastel colors it looked just like a scene from Edward Scissorhands.

I figured you'd get along.

They are just as curious about foreign cultures as we are and appreciate the interest, no doubt.