Frank and Joan's Adventures in Northern Cyprus
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Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....

November 16

- The tour company we booked with had organised a trip today to see all the regular things such as camels, pyramids and of course the sphinx. We were very surprised to find that the pyramids were so very close to the city. You always get the impression when you see pictures that they are way out in the desert, not true. The whole area around the pyramids is swarming with touts trying to sell all sorts of tat but it was noticeable that there were large quantities of tourist police around trying to monitor things. many of them were on camels as it is recognised that these things can move very fast indeed.

We actually went in to one of the pyramids to see the central underground burial chamber, just a large r

oom really which must have been full of all sorts of treasure when first opened. This chamber is very deep under the foundations and to get there we had to bend almost double and climb up and down a very steep staircase, not a good idea if you are in any way claustrophobic, or for that matter unfit.

The pyramids are in fact quite massive and it is very difficult to imagine the effort required to build them with thousands of solid stone blocks all those years ago.

From the pyramids we went via a perfume factory shop to the centre of Cairo to visit the Cairo museum. We were not allowed to take cameras in to the museum, which is a little unfortunate, but when you are in there and see the hundreds of tourists you can appreciate their reasoning behind the ban. Personally I was a little disappointed in the museum. There is an immense amount of history in this huge building, but to me it seemed to be just pushed in there, with no attempt to correctly display or logically present the history. Our tour guide was extremly knowlegeable and did her very best to guide us through the throngs and through a pocket Egyptian history.

After the museum we were let loose in the bazaar for a couple of hours. This was just like any bazaar in these sort of tourist places, hustle and bustle, big discussions about prices for things you don't really want to buy anyway, but a fun place. The four of us found an ouside bar which served good local beer and left the others to haggle.

In the evening we went to restaurant recommended by our guide and had a superb meal for very little money.
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