Well, so I guess you sort of have to see the pyramids and the sphinx if you are in Cairo. And being a dutiful midlife backpacker/business traveller, I took a trip on the metro to the El Giza stop and then took a 10 pound (egyptian pound) taxi ride out to the pyramids. What did I think? I'm still not sure. They are stark and barren and in that they are beautiful. They are monumental, obviously, and it is sad to imagine three generations of slaves spending their entire lives moving these rocks to glorify a king, but it also tells you something about humankind--something not terribly pleasant but, with these things staring at you, difficult to deny. We are stupid, cruel, and blinded by superstition.

The pollution of Cairo provides what turns out to be nice haze, though for some reason I got some bright blue skies in these photos, but in others, it looks like the thickest of hazes. There are tons and tons of touts. The big thing here is to walk up and "give" you a gift and then ask you for money for it. And there are dozens of guys in horses and camels trying to get you to take a ride with them to some mythic plateau from which you can photograph the perfect panorama. And then, of course, there are kids who walk up and just outright ask for baksheesh. For these kids I had a nice English lesson: "Fuck you," I taught them.