Journey to Egypt: Temple at Kom Ombo

December 31, 2018 Kom Ombo Temple is probably my favorite of all the ancient Egyptian sites I saw on this trip. It has several interesting features that make it unique. About 30 miles north of the city of Aswan, Kom Ombo is located in a region that has a large Nubian community that was resettled […]

Worship in the Middle East

Frank Jansen at Dutch Goes the Photo has selected worship as his photo challenge theme for Holy Week. I share the sadness of the world for the devastating fire at Notre-Dame de Paris. But there are many holy places around the world that inspire awe where people worship. Below are photos of worship from Judaism, […]

CFFC: Walkways I Have Traveled

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week is about the sidewalks, trails and walkways we walk on, usually without thinking much about them. Rio de Janeiro is famous for its wide sidewalks with mosaic designs – common places to walk, jog, and meet – and play with dogs. (Nove. 2016) In July of 2017, we spent […]

One Word Sunday: Vertical

Debbie S. at Travel With Intent has a challenge called One Word Sunday. This week the word is vertical. You know spring is coming when you see vertical shoots emerging from the ground in your garden! Des Plaines, Illinois, USA Vertical columns at the ruins of Caesarea, Israel Upright slab (stela) with vertical symbols at […]

Journey to Egypt, Part 11: Esna & the Temple of Khnum

December 28, 2018 Most of the members of our group opted to take a balloon ride over the west bank of the Nile. We, however, did not go because Dale is afraid of heights and I was very tired because I had not slept well in either of the hotels we’d stayed in so far. […]

Thursday Doors: Church of All Nations, Jerusalem

On January 13, our Maranatha tour group visited the Church of All Nations, which is right next to the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. The Garden of Gethsemane has several olive trees that are thousands of years old – that is to say, they were already there when Jesus went there to pray before his […]

Journey to Egypt, Part 11: Luxor – Lunch, a Ferry Ride, & Dinner with a Local Family

December 27, 2018 A Walk to Lunch Back in the city of Luxor (about 850,000 population), our bus driver dropped us off in the vicinity of the place where we would have lunch. The restaurant was a few blocks away down dusty streets, and we had to walk. I was glad for this because as […]

Journey to Egypt, Part 10: Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut & Memnon Colossi

December 27, 2018 All the funerary temples and tombs are located on the west bank of the Nile. The ancient Egyptians believed that death was associated with the sunset, and thus all the temples to the deceased were to be built on the side of the setting sun. All temples of the living (such as […]

Journey to Egypt, Part 9: Valley of the Kings & Howard Carter’s House

December 27, 2018 (This post is part of my travel journal, and also for Your Daily Prompt 3/8/19: Nobility; and for Norm’s Thursday Doors 3/7/19 ). This morning we visited Valley of the Kings, where there are 62 tombs of Egyptian nobility – specifically, pharaohs, including Tutankhamen. They date from Thutmose I of the 18th […]

CFFC: Patterns Around the World

For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Patterns, I am going multicultural! November 2018: At a Chicago Sinfonietta concert celebrating the Indian festival of Diwali, during the intermission, audience members (especially children) made their own Diwali patterns using glue and glitter on preprinted patterns. Here are two of my favorites. December 2018: In Egypt, we visited Al-Azhar […]