Friday, January 29, 2010

EGYPT


Tel Beersheba: This is where Abraham was said to have lived and owned wells.
Tel Avdat: another ancient ruin
Wilderness of Zin

Maktesh Ramon: pretty much this huge crater in the earth. It was a really pretty overlook.
Our first siting of the PYRAMIDS!!!
IT'S A PYRAMID!!! We actually got to go in that one too!


The Giza Pyramids
Queen Hatchepsut's Funerary Temple. This lady locked up her step son so that she could be pharoah.


This cave is supposedly where Joseph Smith purchased mummies from that were found with ancient writing from the books of Abraham and Joseph. Just an interesting mormon fact.
The Fertileness of Egypt. If you can see in the background it's desert.
The step pyramid and our mini Egyptian friend :)
Boat ride on the Nile.

Camel Ride!
Natalie and Whiskey
Brooke and Ali-Baba. Her camel had a spazy leg and kept kickin. It was pretty funny.
The Holy of Holies in the Karnak Temple in Luxor.
No joke, this is where a scene from James Bond was filmed. We felt the urge to re-in-act it.




See this, this is the train that we slept on for a few hours. It was an adventure of a life time! There wasn't too much leg room and I personally don't remember too much about the whole affair because I took some Dramamine and then I was out, which I am very thankful for! The train wasn't the most sanitary place. Most of us woke up in the morning with very sore throats, I blame it on all the second hand smoke I have been inhaling, and some people woke up with flea bites, yikes! We got on the train around 7pm and then were woken up at 4:30am for breakfast, which wasn't much of a breakfast, a stale croissant! We were all thankful that we were taken to our Cairo hotel for more breakfast, even though what we really wanted was to take a nap and shower, but alas we had a full day ahead of us. -Brooke
Sketchy-est moment of my life! Gave me the hebe gebes! - Natalie
Our first stop this very cloudy morning was to a Babylonian Fortress! The architecture was so intricate and beautiful!

Then we went to the Citadel and Mosque in Cairo and boy was that so neat! First of all I love pretending to become one with the culture, the head wrap is one of my favorite things, taking off our shoes and walking on freezing stone ground, so that our feet started cramping from the cold...not so much, but the mosque was absolutely stunning! So gorgeous! Everything was so ornate and everything had so much symbolism. In many cultures there is a lot of symbolism outside of the building in the outward architecture but not here, it's all about the inside, and it seems like to make up for the lack outside they double time it in the inside. The gold leafing, lighting, turquoise domes were amazing! The pictures don't do it justice!


Cairo Overlook
Saying goodbye to the Nile :( It was a wonderful adventure and we are so thankful for the opportunity we had to learn so much about Egypt and to really explore and learn about the ancient and modern day Egyptians. ...Later this day we went to the Egyptian Museum, we couldn't take pictures which I am kind of thankful for because it would have been SO hard to see as many artifacts as we could and document it at the same time. The museum had everything in it! It was out of control! There was something to be looked at and studied every square inch of the museum, it was absolutely impossible to see everything. It was clear that there could be a single museum dedicated to just one of the exhibits in the museum. It was really sad to see so much history and knowledge just tossed to the side and not really displayed in the most optimum way, but at the same time, it's kind of like the Egyptian way, not much organization and just so much preserved history it's hard to handle. As we walked in though I was overwhelmed with excitement because there was the Pallete of Narmer! I had studied that in my Humanities 201 class and I was so pumped to actually see it in real life! Super Cool! Also in the museum we were able to see upwards of 13 mummies who are still pretty hairy and well preserved. All of King Tut's treasures and burial possessions are there, he was one rich pharaoh, which is pretty crazy because he was one of the lesser pharaoh's so it's hard to imagine what Ramses II tomb would have been filled with, no wonder why it was plundered.

Oasis in the middle of no where... This one is actually special because it was the oasis talked about in the Bible that the Israelites stopped at.
The First peek of sun on the Top of Sinai! We got up at 2:30 am and started hiking!

WE DID IT!!! SINAI.....CHECK!!!


Moses' Burning Bush
The Red Sea...kinda looks Caribbean.

Overall it was a great trip to Egypt! We didn't get sick and got to see all the sites!

1 comment:

  1. you didn't get sick?! hoooow did you do it?!
    girls these pictures are great. is egypt not the COOLEST place ever? i'm so happy for you! now go back to jru and live it upppp!

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