Brian Bobroff

Flight Centre’s Brian Bobroff joins us with a blog post about his travel to Egypt on an On the Go Tour. Brian’s posts will go way beyond your normal holiday information because he explores the science and history of The Great Pyramids. Brian’s enthusiasm and knowledge is sure to put a visit to Egypt high on your list of vacation destinations. Let’s turn this over to Brian – The study of ancient religion and ancient astronomers has been an interest of mine ever since graduating with a major in History. People have always asked what you do with a history degree, and now I can finally tell them that I use it to plan my travel itineraries! I am also intrigued by the divide between Egyptologists and scientists and researchers of other disciplines who seem to see the same monuments very differently. Egypt has been a huge interest of mine for some time now. Numerous books have appeared on my bookshelf over the past few years which led to an ultimate desire to see everything for myself. The Great Pyramid and all the mysterious and astounding science, astronomical alignments and encoded measurements behind it alone is worth a visit. Thanks to an educational visit put together by On The Go tours, that became a reality for a bunch of Flight Centre agents from across Canada and the UK. Certainly, we learned just how much more the ancient land (that the locals call Misr) has to offer in addition to their ancient monuments. On the way down we flew via London on Air Canada (love watching Louis CK on planes, it makes time fly by) and then on to my premiere voyage with BMi (the other being Egypt Air, which was mostly unremarkable due to my sleeping through most of it). Being able to play original Nintendo Entertainment System games in my seat was pretty nostalgic but their cameras that stream the video of what is happening beneath the plane was really impressive…when not flying through a cloud. They were also quite generous with their libations, which is not something you are used to when flying with North American carriers. It was on this flight that a few of we Canadians encountered the Brits and it was pretty clear from the beginning that we were going to be in for a great experience.

Our arrival in Cairo was made very simple by reps from On The Go who greeted us as soon as we entered the arrivals lounge and helped us obtain our visas. Having recently returned from Playa Del Carmen (swine flu free), I breathed a sigh of relief when it seemed I was the only person not asked if had recently been in Mexico. Getting through customs was fairly painless. It was at the luggage that I began to immediately realize the importance of having small change in Egypt. I tipped a man five US bucks where he might normally expect a dime. It was his lucky day! It was after this that I read the On The Go guide and how it mentioned to carry a lot of small change for people who help you out like that, or allow you into the washroom. We met our guide and Egyptologist Sherif, and he started to tell us about all we were going to do and see while giving us plenty of information on Egypt — both the past and present. Sherif was a ball of enthusiasm and energy and was ready to mug anytime a camera was pointed in his direction. He also had a penchant for talking about how aliens created whatever we were looking it should a passerby listen in on his normally astute explanations. He only speaks to a paying audience and that made us laugh many times. We stayed at the Oasis close to the Pyramids. Our hotel was quiet, comfortable and well kept. This is where the entire group of us finally converged and the tour began. It was at our initial dinner that we got our first glimpse of the history I had come to see. Our patio dinner at a nearby restaurant offers great views of the Pyramids at night when their lights come on. Our first view was the pitch black night, then with a flick of a switch we could see the tops of the Great Pyramids of Giza! We would get up close and personal the following morning. Our day began early to avoid the crowds. However, those crowds were not really there. It could be that the threat of Swine Flu, which was at its extreme media overload peak, was slowing down visitors or our own dumb luck, but there were no real lines and no huge crowds. I did not get to go deep into the Great Pyramid, which was a let down but we did get to enter into the Pyramid of Kephren. Certainly interesting and something strange must have happened as the rain started to drizzle around this time. This is not a common thing in these parts and it is my second visit to a world monument that is not used to rain. The first being Uluru in Australia, which created waterfalls all over the Rock. This is where the divide between Egyptologist and some of the other authors I have read was very explicit. There was no mention of how the base of the pyramid is to scale with the circumference of the earth or how apothem of the pyramid (the tip of the pyramid to one of the bisected sides) is to scale with the radius of the earth. This information came from a Harvard professor who was the world’s leader on ancient measurements (Livio Stecchini) and not someone just trying to sell books with wild claims. Nor were there mentions of alignment of the pyramids with the stars in Orion’s belt. What I have always found the most telling, is that the Great Pyramid of Cheops/Khufu is given that name based on a tiny sculpture found hundreds of miles away and a poorly written bit of graffiti on a stone that was never visible. There are no wall paintings in the Royal Chamber that is anything akin to what you see in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings or Queens. In fact, there are no inscriptions in that room at all. Nor is there any evidence that there was ever a lid to the sarcophagus. That may be explained if it was made of something of value. However, most sarcophagi are made out of one main material so that may not be the case. Peter Tompkins asserted that the Royal Chamber also encoded all of the world’s ancient measurements (with the research of Stecchini) into the room. He also thought that the room may have been used as an observatory prior to the completion of the Pyramid. The point is, there is certainly more to this monument than a mere tomb for a megalomaniac. Also interesting is that the ancient Egyptians clearly used the Pythagorean Theorem a couple of thousand years before Pythagoras existed. Is it a coincidence that Pythagoras spent a great deal of time in Egpyt? There are clearly volumes that are written about these incredible facts so it is difficult to do this topic justice.