Journey to Egypt: Temples of Abu Simbel

January 2, 2019 We disembarked our vessel, Aida, this morning and boarded a bus for a 2-hour + ride to the town of Abu Simbel, for which the temple was named. The landscape along this route is mostly desert. The town of Abu Simbel is a good place to be introduced to Nubian culture. The […]

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 […]

Journey to Egypt: Horemheb’s Temple & Gebel Silsila Quarry

December 30, 2018 This afternoon we arrived at the narrowest stretch of the Nile, an area that the Egyptians called “Khenu” or the place of rowing. At Gebel Silsila, high sandstone cliffs come down close to the water’s edge. The Temple of Horemheb is small and not well-known. Nile cruise ships don’t stop here because […]

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, […]

Journey to Egypt, Part 14: Edfu and the Temple of Horus

December 29, 2018 After a relaxing morning cruising the Nile on the Aida, after lunch we were ready for more discoveries. We docked at the city of Edfu, where we were transported to the Temple of Horus via horses and carriages! Our driver: The horses clip-clopped through the dusty streets of Edfu. Mosque as seen […]

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. […]

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 […]

CB&WPC: Murals

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge this week is Murals. The word mural comes from the Latin word for wall. It is defined by Bing as: a painting or other work of art executed directly on a wall. Wikipedia goes into further detail: A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on […]

Journey to Egypt, Part 6: Coptic Churches & Ben Ezra Synagogue

December 25, 2018 We left the Egyptian Museum ready for lunch. We boarded our bus and headed to Old Cairo, where we would go to a restaurant for lunch and to the Christian Quarter of Old Cairo. At Felfela Restaurant we were greeted by this hookah-smoking dwarf. The restaurant had interesting décor. Our tummies satisfied, […]

WPC: Going Up & Looking Up

Sue W. sponsors the WP Weekly Photo Challenge prompt and this week the word is Up. Up makes me think of stairs or other means of ascending. These are photos from our most recent trip to Egypt and Israel, Dec. 2018-Jan. 2019. One of the women in my Egypt tour group confided to me (partly […]