July 3rd - Our Photo Album is back. We have a new Photo Album that presently contains all the images from the old PhotoBlog, but without captions or comments. I'll add those as we go, meanwhile it's going to be a challenge for those of you who have not seen these images before to figure some of them out. LOL. Once we are up and running a bit, we'll allow viewer uploads of Pyramid Pics and the Photo Albums will be directly linked (bridged) to our Forums so members there can upload also. Our first goal will be to collect Pyramid Pics from as many different countries as possible - an ambitious first target is 50, and we'll put them on a map for you.
June 15th - Finally got around to updating the Archives Section. If you go there you will find an image for each hour of the day going back to at least Jan 1. Don't forget to bookmark us and tell your friends and family about our website. Thanks...
BirdCam - While we wait for some more hardware to extend the network at home so Stoker the Cat can have her webcam back, we will feature in the meantime our bird feeder at home in Saxonburg, PA. We put on quite a feed for the birdies of the area - 50 lb bag of stripped sunflower seeds a week. Sometimes we see some rare ones.
PyramidCam on Google Earth - Here you should find our placemarks that locate the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Sound and Light Show and our camera position. You will have to have Google Earth installed to view.
Weather - Go here to have a look at the latest weather activity in Egypt.
Best Images Slideshow - a Google Image Album of some of our best images captured over the past two years at PyramidCam.
Welcome to PyramidCam. I've carried out a minor redesign to allow the page to load faster and to make it possible to better organize our content. The image gallery needs a total overhaul and I'm working on that. We capture an image every 30 seconds and have been doing so 24/7 for the past 30 months - do the math and you'll see what we're faced with.
The Forum is back up and there you will find a number of friends checking in who are deeply interested in Egypt and the Pyramids. We also have a rolling news feed that ferrets out and posts articles about Egypt, the Pyramids and Egypt archaeology. The Forum is a good place to check in before you begin your plans to visit as many of our members have made more than one trip to Cairo and can help you with most any of your questions about what to expect and what to do after you arrive.
Background - PyramidCam was started in 2005 by Jim Sorenson and Vance Kozik with the indispensable support and assistance of Rami Siag of Siag Hotel and Travel. Our camera is deployed from the top of the Siag Hotel in Giza, the best possible vantage point to view the entire Pyramids Plateau. StarDot Technologies provides our IP webcams, which produce the highest quality images possible - and which are so reliable that we have not had a single minute of down time due to camera failure over the past two and a half years.
Support - Our site is entirely "not for profit" and therefore we very much appreciate it when you check out the ads and the websites of our partners - The ads go some way to support the project, but not nearly far enough to prevent us from going out of pocket from time to time to keep things running. Donations via PayPal are also very much welcome, indeed.
Purpose - PyramidCam was conceived principally to provide a unique high quality view over time of the Pyramids at Giza for those around the world who might never have the opportunity to visit - we meant for it to be the next best thing. We also wish to encourage Egypt tourism and judging from the millions of viewers we are reaching and the many many emails that we have received praising the site, wondering at the unique power and beauty of the Pyramids and (the writers) promising to make a visit at the first opportunity, we know we have succeeded, at least in some small degree.
Weather - the NetCamXL IP webcam that we are running features an external weather station and you can read the real time temperature, humidity and barometric pressure directly from the station's sensors if you check just under the date and time in the upper left hand corner of every live image. Each image will give you the actual date, time and weather conditions in Cairo as well as a live view of those weather conditions.
PyramidCam Items and Features - In the past we have posted images, stories, reviews of local trips, movies and other items of interest concerning Egypt and the Pyramids here on the home page. We will continue to do so, but in brief. The main body of these features will accessible through a link to another page on the site. To see what we have covered over the past six months, go here. This is still very much a work in progress.
Odds and Ends - We try to be "live" on a 24/7 basis, but there will be times when the system goes down. At those times we will substitute a recent static image in the frame until things are working properly again. Like everybody else in Cairo, we were affected by the recent cable cuts. We sometimes have issues with power and have to shut down until power is restored. The Giza Governorate has been upgrading telephone lines and we may temporarily loose our line from time to time. Despite these problems, the camera has reminded live over 98% of the time since it first went on the air in 2005. Also, you may hit the site when it's pitch dark here in Cairo and there does not seem to be a lot happening on our black screen. However, we've had many interesting image captures of meteors, setting planets, the moon, satellites, airplane lights and even fires during the nightime period. Watching the Pyramids Plateau at any hour of the day and night can have its surprises - check out our image galleries to see what I mean.
I'm way behind on emails - I've just recently deployed from Cairo to Saxonburg, PA and am just beginning to catch up with my correspondence. The only difference it will make for PyramidCam is that I'll be living here and visiting there for a change. We've got a great crew at the Siag Hotel, so not a lot will change.
Please support us by bookmarking www.Pyramidcam.com, visiting our Google ads; and by checking out the websites of our partners.... Please also tell friends and family about us. If you want to put us on the 6 O'clock news, that would be great also.....
Many thanks
Jim
