Post A Photo, A Real Photo

[Meerkat]

pyramidsView attachment 43319

Lots of unusual facts about those pyrimids. Rusty thats a very nice picture .I see the Nile is still there too .

 

[Haertig]

pyramidsView attachment 43319

Is that what it really looks like? I've never been to Egypt. But I imagined the pyramids were these majestic things out in the middle of a vast desert. Here, they look like a mining operation surrounded by urban blight and slums. Definitely not what I expected.

 

[Meerkat]

Is that what it really looks like? I've never been to Egypt. But I imagined the pyramids were these majestic things out in the middle of a vast desert. Here, they look like a mining operation surrounded by urban blight and slums. Definitely not what I expected.

Haert, you just described our major cities now,only more violent and rat infested.

 

[Sentry18]

 

[Peanut]

@Meerkat It was probably Calycanthus Floridus Or Eastern Sweetshrub. It's a lawn ornamental seen all over the south.

 

[Meerkat]

@Meerkat It was probably Calycanthus Floridus Or Eastern Sweetshrub. It's lawn ornamental seen all over the south.

View attachment 43345

Thats it Peanut I'm surprised I reconized it.BEAUTIFUL!

 

[Peanut]

Is that what it really looks like? I've never been to Egypt. But I imagined the pyramids were these majestic things out in the middle of a vast desert. Here, they look like a mining operation surrounded by urban blight and slums. Definitely not what I expected.

That photo is from the plateau on the west side of the Nile Valley looking eastward across the city of Cairo to the Giza plateau with the pyramids.

I took this photo while on the Giza plateau looking northeast to the pyramids. The city of Cairo is to my right and in the distance at the very right edge of the photo.

 

[Meerkat]

That photo is from the plateau on the west side of the Nile Valley looking eastward across the city of Cairo to the Giza plateau with the pyramids.

I took this photo while on the Giza plateau looking northeast to the pyramids. The city of Cairo is to my right and in the distance at the very right edge of the photo.

View attachment 43346

Peanut did you know that the pyrimids were designed ot perfectly match the circumference of the earth layout and they used pi aka 3.14 if memory serves me,plus the windows in the ig one point to constilations certain times.?Maybe Pleides and Draco 'spl'?

 

[Haertig]

That photo is from the plateau on the west side of the Nile Valley looking eastward across the city of Cairo to the Giza plateau with the pyramids.

I took this photo while on the Giza plateau looking northeast to the pyramids. The city of Cairo is to my right and in the distance at the very right edge of the photo.

View attachment 43346

This is more like the picture of the pyramids I have in my mind. They appear large, close to each other, and out in the middle of the desert. But now I know that's not so. They're right there next to a huge city. Oh well, my bubble has been burst.

 

[Meerkat]

This is more like the picture of the pyramids I have in my mind. They appear large, close to each other, and out in the middle of the desert. But now I know that's not so. They're right there next to a huge city. Oh well, my bubble has been burst.

Same way I pictured them too.

 

[Peanut]

Oh well, my bubble has been burst.

What was disappointing was the inside of the great pyramid…

The entrance is 56ft up. I had to climb up granite stones, each are 6ft tall.

Once at the entrance I descended 93ft, the passage was 3.1ft tall. I had to back down a ladder on all 4’s at about a 45degree angle.

Then I went up the ascending passage for 129ft, still on all 4’s with a 3.1ft ceiling.

I finally got to stand when I reached the grand gallery (not so grand). I walked up the 45-degree angle board steps for 153ft.

Then I reached the Kings Chamber… just a big empty granite sarcophagus. Bells and whistles... not!

I had to go back out the same way, 375ft… 220ft on all 4’s, 129ft going backwards.

THERE WAS NO VENTILATION… over 100-degree temp with about 95% humidity from people sweating and breathing…. oxygen levels were so low it gave me a headache... construction lights kept the temp above 100 degrees. It stank worse than any gym locker on the planet.

Welcome to Khufu’s pyramid!

Edit to add... the last two photo's... Those people cheated. They had hand rails. There were no hand rails when I was there, just walking on all 4's.

Also... there wasn't a plank floor, just a crude ladder with small logs lashed to larger logs on the sides. The lights were construction lights on little tripods lashed to anything that'd hold them. Industrial power cables ran up one side of the passages, sometimes hanging from hooks driven into the walls.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Also, it isn't flat between where the people are standing and the pyramids. They are standing on the edge of an embankment that goes down to a lower level. I used to ride the edge to a path down and then we would all let the horses race across to the pyramids where we got up close and personal.

The thing that shocked us the most about the great pyramids when we first saw them, was how slummy/trashy the road of horse stables along the front of the pyramids was and the next thing that hit us was that when we turned around from gawking at the Sphinx, we were smacked in the face with a pizza hut right across the road. The location is not very romantic at all. There is a wall between the pyramids and all that now.

I used to ride every day, through the desert from Giza to Sakkara (13km one way) and back. The endurance races went from Giza to Sakkarra around the Bent pyramids at Dashur and back. It would be too dangerous to do that these days.

We crawled down the Bent pyramid and it was a horrible experience. A tiny little room at the bottom of a crouching height tunnel going sharply down and into a toilet. (That's what the guards used it for)

We were in Egypt six years and could never force ourselves to go into the Giza pyramid after that experience.

 

[Peanut]

Thats it Peanut I'm surprised I reconized it.BEAUTIFUL!

We had one in the yard of the old house that was blown away by a tornado in '74. Once you see the blooms or smell them... sort of hard to forget.

Also, it isn't flat between where the people are standing and the pyramids.
We were in Egypt six years and could never force ourselves to go into the Giza pyramid after that experience.

I was young, military, physically fit... glad I saw them and climbed inside. Would I do it now with my health issues? Probably not.

What I left out... there were other tourists who for what ever reason (claustrophobic, heat) decided part of the way in to go back out... Made it even more difficult for everyone else... We went in and back out in groups. just one person who freaked out made a mess of things.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Peanut,

The claustrophobic thing happens a lot. That is why we tried the Bent pyramid first. There wasn't anyone else there.

We had been told by other company employees to pay the private middle of the night fee and not try to go during the day because of people getting injured when getting pushed from behind by panicked tourists and than getting jammed by those trying to come back up. We couldn't do the 'private' night time tour because the Swiss showed up and started trying to clean things up. They are the ones who paid to have a wall built between the pyramids and the rest of Giza. I can tell you a few things about how to NOT build a wall.

The pictures of the Giza tunnels are down right roomy compared to all the other pyramids. Fun fact: there are 26 pyramids near Cairo, not just the three that most people know about. Egypt has the most incredible antiquities.

During the 2000 millennium celebrations, Saudi Arabia was going to cap the Cheops pyramid with gold. We had a roof top rug reserved over a horse stable to view the occasion. Wiser heads prevailed, and the plan was scrapped due to fear that the weight of the gold cap might damage the pyramid. We were treated to fireworks instead and an outdoor opera in that valley I just mentioned at the foot of the pyramids.

 

[rusty]

Another one of mine.

 

[rusty]

mine......

 

[rusty]

Always wanted to be a photographer.

 

[rusty]

winter river

 

[Peanut]

@ClemKadiddlehopper I don't blame the folks who were over powered with claustrophobia. I was feeling it also, the oppressive heat, lack of oxygen, my mind could have run away with me had I let it. The ascending passage was the worst. I've been down in one coal mine. It had more room and was less oppressive than the great pyramid.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Yep, there is nothing down those hell holes worth bothering about. You put it mildly about the heat and oppressivenes. There is nothing that could get me down there or anything even remotely like them, again, ever. The only thing that kept me sane is that I couldn't run over my own kids.

The good news is that someone did all the nasty work and one can go to the national museum to see the formerly buried treasure.

 

[RidgeRunner]

Rusty,
When I was in high school I told my mother I wanted to be a photographer for National Geography magazine. She convinced me I would enjoy the work, but starve to death. I changed my ambitions, but still enjoy photography too.

 

[Frodo]

 

[phideaux]

Jim

 

[rusty]

Rusty,
When I was in high school I told my mother I wanted to be a photographer for National Geography magazine. She convinced me I would enjoy the work, but starve to death. I changed my ambitions, but still enjoy photography too.

My wife took a college photography class about 10 years ago and had to buy an expensive camera for the class. I would take a $20 one and take better pictures. I don't set up pictures or wait for the perfect shot. I just take what I see. I did buy a Nikon 5100 a couple years ago. I cannot take good pictures with a phone. The pictures I post I took several years ago. I don't get out just to take them much now.

 

[Meerkat]

View attachment 43411
Jim

Haven't had that in a year.

 

[backlash]

I have a 35mm Minolta 5000i camera with a Sigma telephoto lens and the original 50mm lens.
I bought it in 1990 while I was working in Hawaii.
The autofocus does not work and it needs a new battery.
The lens will work on some of the new Sony digital cameras but I don't know which ones.
They are the bayonet style.

If any of you can use the camera or lens let me know and I will give it to you.
I will even pay for the shipping.

 

[rusty]

I don't know if it would fit my Nikon 5100 or not. I bought a Tamron lens for it because it was a 1/3 the price of a Nikon.
Looked it up. According to Nikon, they should fit my camera. I would love to have them. My wife also has a Nikon 5100.

 

[zannej]

Grilled cheese & tomato soup. I found grilled cheese sammiches taste better with a little garlic salt on the bread (I sprinkle some on after buttering the bread)

Back when my 300yr old oak tree fell over, a nice guy from the neighborhood cut the remains off of the stump & found it was hollow inside & a little frog came out. Some kind of fungus was growing on the inside.

Also found this lizard inside the stump.

 

[Bacpacker]

Tamron lens are.decent. so are Sigmas. Not quite quality of Nikon, but close.

 

[rusty]

Tamron lens are.decent. so are Sigmas. Not quite quality of Nikon, but close.

Agreed, I can't see much difference between my Tamron lens and the Nikon one my wife has, except price.