The sphinx: little brother to the great pyramids . . .

If the pyramids are surprisingly huge, the sphinx is surprisingly small. It’s large in its own right, but compared to the monstrosities behind it, it comes off looking more like a cute kitty cat.

You have to hike down a hill to get from the pyramids to the Sphinx, so that is part of why it looks less impressive, because your first look at it is from above. And I say “hike” even though it’s a paved road because in Egypt all walking is really hiking in disguise. You have to stumble over rocks, sidestep to keep from twisting your ankle in the many potholes, leap out of the way of taxis that threaten to slam into you as the driver smokes and talks on his cell phone at the same time, hop over camel poop . . . There is no casual strolling here. It is human “Frogger.”
 

In front of the Sphinx there is a stone building that you can walk through that used to be a temple or the house of someone who built the Sphinx. Or maybe not. I think that’s what one of the kids was telling me.

Who needs Lonely Planet or Fodor’s when you have me as your tour guide?
  

There is a stone wall and gates that surround the entire Sphinx, so you can’t get very close to it. By walking through the building you can go inside the wall and get a little bit closer, but not much. However, you do get to see this very exciting version of an Egyptian wishing well: a dry pit that people toss money into.

We realized that Carter is quite the photographer. He took some of our favorite pictures that day, including this one of Josh and me.

and this one.

Poor Camille. Someday she’s going to realize that she slept through all these once in a lifetime opportunities. Maybe we’ll have to come back and do it all again 10 years from now. 

In case you couldn’t tell, I don’t know much about the Sphinx, except the boys told me that Napoleon and his men used to use it as target practice. Maybe that’s where his nose went. I’m sure by the time we leave here, I’ll know more than I ever wanted to know about Ancient Egypt, but this time it was fun to just go and look at everything.

Another of Carter’s photographic masterpieces. He got us all centered in front of the pyramid and intentionally included the smaller pyramid next to it. Too bad he’s not actually in the photo cause then this could be our Christmas card next year. Or not, since now you’ve all seen it. Let’s just call it the Christmas card for this year since we all know I didn’t send any.