Egypt: Day 1 - Sound and Light Show at the Pyramids of Giza

JC and I were back at the hotel after a late and long lunch at a nearby restaurant where we had our very first Egyptian meal. There’s nothing much else to do while waiting for our pick up to go to the Sound and Light show at the Pyramids so we just sat there in the hotel lobby, watching other guests arriving and leaving, and hanging around in the lobby just like us.

While we were busy people-watching, the lights suddenly went out. I looked at the reception area to see if they were doing anything about it. Apparently not. No one at the reception area seemed to notice about the lights. It’s business as usual.

I was like, “Oookkaaaayyyyy…”

And then on came a slow, somewhat poetic music from upstairs. And along with the music, down came a procession of guys in a typical Arab white robe, complete with a white skull cap. They walked slowly in pairs down the hotel grand staircase into the lobby, and each one of them was holding a tea light candle. Upon landing in the lobby, they split up and continued to walk slowly to all areas in the lobby where there are candles, and proceeded to light them up.

So that wasn't a real blackout. They just switched off the light for this procession. At other hotels, a staff might just go around with a box of matches or a lighter to light the candles in their hotel lobby. But here, they actually have a procession! It was quite a sight. A mesmerising one. A non-event, a mundane routine at that, has creatively been turned into a quite memorable show.

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Soon after, our pick up for the night arrived. We were driven to the pyramids area again but this time we didn’t go to the pyramids, just to the al Ahram area not far from Valley Temple of Khafre and the Sphinx. 

The queue for the Light and Sound show tickets was quite long already when we arrived. There was no separate queue for VIP tickets so we had to join the queue too as we still needed to redeem our tickets. We just prayed that there’re still some good seats left for us as we watched those who have received their tickets rushed to the seating area which was getting full by the minute. This is not exactly a VIP treatment, I thought.

When we finally got hold of our tickets, we rushed to the seating area too and saw that some of the seats in the front rows were still empty. The first 3 rows or so were separated from the rest with some barriers between them and some staff making sure no one sits there. I asked one of the staff about those seats and showed our tickets before we were promptly escorted to the front. Now we’re feeling like real VIPs, heh heh!

We picked our seat and sat down in the dark. The Sphinx and the pyramids were only silhouettes under the moonlight.

After a few minutes, the lights came on. The Sphinx became alive and started to share with us its illustrated story...

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Further Information

1. A VIP ticket only gives you a seat at the front row. If you can get to the ticket booth early before anyone else, you can still grab a seat at the front of row of the non-VIP section. If you can grab it, chances are your view won't be blocked by the person sitting in front because not many would opt for the VIP tickets/ seats. If you're however late, and would like a front seat, a VIP ticket is probably the way to go.

2. For a more updated info about the show and tickets, please refer to Sound and Light Show at the Pyramids of Giza official website.

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