Going by camel to Mena House Hotel

EXCURSION TO THE PYRAMIDS

Ida Uhse writes the following in her diary:
"13th of Dec. At 10am we went on the electric railway to Old Cairo, from where we took the steam ferry over the Nile to Giza and the Mena House Hotel. Our destination was the pyramids at Giza and we were given the choice to make the journey by donkey or camel, we chose the latter. The pyramids are an hour's journey into the desert. We saw some tents that belonged to a wealthy man who was spending time in the desert to hunt [illegible], otherwise everything was peaceful and deserted. Near the pyramids we surveyed the surroundings. Not a sound could be heard, no bird or butterfly could be seen, only sand, nothing other than sand in long wave-shaped stretches. I did not find it hard to ride a camel, neither was it hard to mount this long-legged animal. After two hours we came back and had breakfast at Mena House. We rode back yet again to the pyramids, the sphinx and the graves, this time on donkeys. We also admired the Granite or Sphinx Temple, built from blocks of ashlar from Sakkara about 5,000 years ago, what a task! Around 6pm we came back and we were not tired despite the riding, the wonderful air contributed much to this."