After a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam, and 11 hour delay and lovely stay in a tube hotel called Yotel, and many miles of walking the airport—I arrived in Cairo at 4:30am and after meeting my room-mate and talking about the world, we got up and decided to adventure to the Giza Plateau ahead of schedule, while awaiting the rest of the tour to arrive. Our hotel was conveniently located blocks from the front gate.

Walking around the plateau I found a sea shell fossil and many pieces of obsidian glass, most likely meteoric in nature as there are no know volcanoes near Giza. There are also fish and whale fossils. Around the great pyramid can be found massive shafts, as well as many cut marks and grooves that look machined in ancient times. There are a few mastabas (tombs) as well surrounding the Giza plateau, not to mention 4-5 levels of tunnels and remnants of a 4th pyramid, which existed and like the 3 remaining, was quarried to build structures in Cairo.