Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Riding a Camel at Giza



My camel finally did agree to pose with me in front of the pyramids, after which it threw a bit of a snorting fit and became uncooperative when asked to kneel down to let me off its back. When sitting on the back of one of these amazing creatures, it becomes easy to imagine trekking across the desert for hundreds of miles. They are incredibly tall and powerful animals. The Arabian Dromedary Camel (with one large, visible hump although they also have a smaller, underdeveloped hump which is often overlooked) can travel 115 miles in 12 hours (that is the record speed and probably would not result in a happy camel if you tried to force one to do that more than once in a week). I've heard that camel drivers never sleep with their camels close by because they have a habit of taking their revenge on their owners if they're tied up nearby while their owners are sleeping. More than one rider has met his fate being trampled to death by his otherwise faithful servant.

A nice link describing the dromedary:
http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Artiodactyla/Camelus_dromedarius.html

And... an interesting account of travels in the Middle East:
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/travel/Eothen/toc.html

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