Another box on the aviation bucket list finally ticked: seeing the Giza pyramids just after sunrise.

Somewhere over Egypt, while sipping my morning coffee and scanning fuel figures in the flight plan, the desert suddenly revealed one of the oldest and most iconic sights on Earth. The silent giants of Giza, emerging from the desert floor in the soft morning light.

What an extraordinary thing to witness from 40,000 ft. Structures so ancient that even according to mainstream archaeology, they have already stood there for around 4,500 years. Long before the rise and fall of empires, before aviation, before almost every story we tell ourselves about the modern world.

Some alternative historians even suggest they may be far older than we assume. A controversial idea perhaps, but one that certainly makes you wonder while staring down at these ancient giants from above.

And even if we leave those fascinating speculations aside, the pyramids remain quietly absurd in what humans managed to accomplish in the distant past. Near perfect geometric structures, aligned with astonishing precision to true north, carrying curious mathematical echoes of Pi and the Golden Ratio, and perhaps even subtle celestial references to Orion. Silent monuments of human ambition, still standing beneath the same skies after millennia.

And somewhere between coffee, fuel calculations and monuments older than memory, I realise once again what a strange privilege this life can be.