Last Saturday, after seeing a Fayrouz-soundtracked dance concert on the war in Lebanon (more to come on that), I packed into a cab with 4 others and went to Giza. We arrived around midnight. After a few unpleasant offers - men running alongside the cab and holding the driver’s side door, shouting in that yes, they could give us horses - we were in a back alley, where there was a stable. I have never been on a horse other than pony rides, but soon 5 of us were trotting through narrow alley ways, past one room houses, resting camels, quiet shisha cafes of old men, and a few kids smoking hash sitting on a dumpster. The Pyramids were in sight after we left the alleys, heading up a trail past an old cemetary and up into the sudden desert. There is a high fence guarding in the protected area of the Pyramids, and we cantered along it, then turned more to the open sand. Our horses started a few brief gallops and the Pyramids loomed in the dark on our right, casting twin shadows even in the dark. The lights of Giza and Cairo stretch in dots all around, and the Pyramids are partially lit. Even from a distance, and in 1am desert dark, they were commanding, though not enough to come out in a photo (though my newest roommate took a long exposure shot that I’ll post later).
We stopped for tea at the top of a large, rockier dune, a planned part of the excusion on the part of our guide, who would ride alongside throwing tiny firecrackers or cracking his wip to make our horses gallop. The were a crowd of rocks and a man boiling hot water and extra sweet mint tea for the various horse riders who come out to the desert late at night. We galloped back across the expanse of desert to the alleyways, a 30 min trip, thereabouts. On the return, I was on a different horse who took off - I was 100 yards or more ahead of everyone else, galloping more than I had on the way to the tea, the Pyramids on my left horizon this time. Cantering hurts - I am still a little soar from all the quick ups and downs - but galloping, you flow more, the horse feels lighter, even if it’s dark and the sand is a little shapeless, and you can’t hold your camera for proof.
