Life happened, and blogging did not. But over the course of the semester I had to write several papers about my experiences, so they might be the best way to express what I've seen. I'm genuinely write things out later, and talk about the things that mean the most to me in later non copy and paste posts, but here's a few different entries.
1-29-10
Egypt’s first capital was established in 3800 called Menefer. The name originated from to words, men meaning city and nefer meaning beautiful. This word later became what we know today, Memphis. This began the history of one of the world’s greatest civilizations. This is considered the beginning of their civilization because they established a law code, writing system, religion, and culture. Egyptian history can be divided into three periods, the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom. During the Old Kingdom, the two divided kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were united under one king, Pharaoh Narmer. Ra, the sun god, was the principle god, and pharaoh was worshipped as a god as well. Because the pharaoh was a god, he needed a monumental resting place to help him ascend to the heavens. The pyramids were built for this purpose during this period to honor these pharaohs. They are the most ancient and recognizable icons in Egypt today. Dreams do come true, and I loved getting to see these things I have loved all my life.
1-29-10
The pyramids are as colossal and magnificent as I had always pictured. I learned so many new facts about them from Osman that I had never heard before! Each pyramid took twenty-five years to complete. Contrary to popular belief, they were not constructed by slave labor, day in and day out. Farmers built them in the off season between sowing and reaping. I’ve heard it said they worked as a labor of love for their king, but that might be a stretch. Osman also mentioned each work crew was made up of only 100-125 workers, so each farmer would not have worked every summer. The largest pyramid was constructed with 2.3 million stones, and the two smaller average 1.8 each. Each block weighs an average of three tons. Each pyramid would have been covered completely with a smooth, white limestone casing. This stone can be seen in the Valley of the Kings in all of its blinding glory. The first view of the pyramids in their height would have been amazing.
1-29-10
The Sphinx was such a treat to see. A funerary temple sits at its feet, used only once for the preparation and embalming of one pharaoh. The temple contained three different types of local limestone that gave us good examples of all the building materials in the area; red, black, and white limestone. The pharaoh would have been embalmed inside the temple for 70 days, using henna, salt, linen and a secret, ancient process modern science has been unable to fully replicate, then taken up a sacred ramp past his protector, the Sphinx, to his final resting place, his pyramid. The Sphinx itself is gorgeous. The original detail and some of the color is still visible on his headdress. The nose is long gone, probably lost to an ill aimed French missile, but we can never be sure. His beard was whisked away by those pesky Brits and is now on display in the British Museum. After this last weekend, I’ve now seen it. It’s gorgeous too!
1-29-10
Inside the Cairo Museum, Osman gave us several pertinent facts about Egypt’s names. Kemet, or black soil, is what the classical world would have thought of as Egypt. This black soil lines the Nile River on both banks and gives life to the whole nation. It is incredibly fertile and replenished by the annual floods bring silt from other areas down the Nile and depositing it on the banks. Desret, or red land, is the desert surrounding this black soil. This is what most think of when they think of Egypt. It is barren and desolate, impossible to live in. The Pyramids and the Valley of the Kings are both located in this red land. While cruising down the Nile, it was amazing to see the stark contrast between the two and just how close they really are. It didn’t seem to be a gradual change, but a harsh, abrupt one. The Nile itself derives its name from our hero Alexander the Great. He saw the Nile and called it Nilos, one of the Greek gods, because he thought it was so magnificent.
1-29-10
Howard Carter was working on a dig and found an odd piece of parchment. A new name he had never come across before was written on the scroll, Tutankhamen. In 1914, he was granted a five year work permit to dig in the area that he found the scroll, but World War I erupted and delayed his work. Finally after the war, he was able to being his work but found very little over the course of his time there. His patron grew weary of such little progress and cut off funding. On one of the last few days, one of his Egyptian workers found a single step. This step was part of a sixteen step long staircase to a passage into the earth. It led to a mud brick wall. Howard and his men broke through the wall and were met with their first glimpse of the greatest archeological find of their time. The intact tomb of King Tutankhamen was filled with the greatest cash of untouched funerary splendor ever found. Tut’s treasures show us the grandeur they showered upon the least of their pharaohs; we can’t even imagine what someone like Ramses II would have been buried with.
1-29-10
Akhenaten, called the heretic pharaoh, changed the face of Egypt during his reign. He decided to move the capital from the traditional location, Thebes, to the middle of nowhere. He built a new city called Amarna today and moved the whole of Egyptian society to his new city. He abandoned the centuries of worshipping the traditional 888 gods and adopted monotheism centered around a previously minor god, Aten. He also reestablished pharaoh worship and made himself a deity. I’ve always been fascinated by this man and what drove him to change the life of his nation completely. I have always loved the depiction of him and his wife Neferiti with their children. They are pictured in very comfortable and lifelike poses, loving on their kids. The art changed in his time to depict more realistic views of people and their interactions. His statues had a little belly and unique facial expressions that set him apart from all the other nameless, identical statues.
1-29-10
In the Cairo Museum, they have assembled the most famous mummies into one room. It required a little bit of money to get in but was completely worth it for me. All the big names were there; Ramses II, Seti I, and all the Thumoses’. I could still see their eyelashes, Ramses II’s silver hair, he died an old, bald, but lucky old man, and all the details of each face. Seti I was the mostly true to form. I could really picture what he would have looked like in life. My favorite pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut, was given a bad wrap. They called her an obese old woman with bad teeth, but I thought she still looked beautiful and was lucky to have made it to old age as a powerful female pharaoh. There is an extraordinary story behind the finding and reestablishing this particular mummy as the queen herself , and it was amazing to see her restored to her former glory with the heart box that held the tooth, the missing piece of the puzzle that identified the mummy, right there in the case with her. Fascinating!
1-29-10
After leaving the museum, we drove across Cairo back to Giza and the Pyramids. Along the way, we saw slums, busy, dirty streets, every kind of vehicle from nice, single family sedans, to fifteen passenger packed taxi-vans, to a family of four on a moped. Laundry hung out on lines of an apartment fifteen stories up. The streets were dirty, the buildings dingy, but I loved it. Every sign was in Arabic, every conversation. I loved being a foreigner in a truly foreign land for the first time in my life. Several girls were complaining about how dirty, dangerous, and scary the city was. They complained that the museum was dirty and boring, that none of this mattered to them. I finally had to blast my music to tune them out. I loved Egypt as a whole, the old and the new, the dirty and the grime. It was a total experience for me.
1-30-10
The drive to Abu Simbel was totally different from anything I’d ever seen before. We drove three hours into the barren desert, completely devoid of civilization or vegetation. I’m from Tennessee, surrounded by the gorgeous green forests and Smokey Mountains. I’m used to cities, and if I’m not in the city I’m going through farmland and agriculture of Arkansas. Driving through this utterly desolate wasteland was a total shock for me. Abu Simbel was gorgeous. The temples were built as remembrance temples to Ramses II and his beloved wife Nefertari. They are completely intact, and were originally carved into a sheer cliff side. Ramses was a bit of a megalomaniac, and it shows in this temple. He is seated in a position representing life and power four times outside, on every column inside, and twice in the inner sanctum. The famous depiction of Ramses in his chariot is on the wall here. We got there at sunset, and it could not have been more beautiful. This temple was saved from being flooded after the dams were constructed by taking it apart piece by piece and rebuilding it on the spot it now rests. Such a modern miracle!
1-31-10
Edfu Temple was amazing! It is the only complete standing monument from the ancient world. It was completely covered with sand for centuries until the French restored it. It took twenty-five years to construct but 165 years to decorate. Every inch of this massive temple was covered in beautiful artwork or amazingly intricate hieroglyphs. The ceiling still stands, all the interior walls are complete, and the holy of holies is intact. I literally felt like I had stepped back in time and was seeing this great culture I love alive for the first time. I have never been so amazed by anything in my life. It was a Ptolemaic temple, meaning it had some outside and later influences, but it gave us an amazing view of what could have been. All the storerooms and stairways to what would have been a second floor were decorated, and a replica of the Arc of Horus stood in the holy of holies. I think I’ve now seen the original in the British Museum, which is so cool! We were able to really explore this amazing temple and have an amazing Indiana Jones moment. Very cool.
2-1-10
At the Temple of Luxor, I made a startling realization. There are several theories about the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and while none are conclusive, all are interesting. One theory says that Thutmoses II could be the Pharaoh of the Persecution and Thutmoses III the Pharaoh of the Exodus. If this is true, that means that Hatshepsut, my favorite pharaoh, would have been the pharaoh’s daughter that found baby Moses and saved him from the Nile and sure death. He would have lived alongside her, studied and worshipped in the Temple of Luxor, and been apart of all the drama surrounding her life and reign. Moses could have sat on the column I rested on while listening to this story. Moses. This was a beautiful site, with architectural elements from all the greats, Ramses II, Hatshetsut, Neko, and Thutmoses III, and a gorgeous obelisk, but the fact that Moses was probably there and maybe with of on my favorite women in history just made the site that much more special.
2-2-10
The temple at Dendara to Hathor was mindblowing. It houses a building used by fifth century Christians as a church because no one would look for them there. It gives us great examples of early Christian symbolism like the ankh as an early cross, the disk of Ra symbolizing the light of God, and the first symbolic crosses in progression. What was most amazing was the Temple itself. Inside, the original sky blue paint still remains completely intact. I have never seen anything like it. All the hieroglyphs, murals, columns, and ceiling were covered in paint. It was so enlightening to see it shown this way, instead of the carved, colorless walls we see everywhere else. It was like seeing ancient Greek statues and temples with their original paint, priceless. They are currently restoring the paint that was covered by soot from the early Christians’ fires inside the temple. It was so amazing to see the work being done.
2-8-10
The Temple Mount was such a moving experience. We saw the Wailing Wall from a distance and could watch all the worshippers. That was fascinating. The Temple was built by Solomon, and then destroyed by the Assyrians in 586BC. Then Herod the Great restored it past its previous glory by 65AD. It was then completely destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. It laid in ruin for many years because the Byzantines cared nothing for it, but the Muslims eventually took control because Muhammad ascended to heaven here. They have constructed two mosques on the Temple Mount itself, the most famous being the Dome of the Rock. In comparison, the Dome is so much smaller than Herod’s Temple. The area is hotly debated over today, and probably will be until the end of time. Seeing this amazing place that has meant so much to so many generations of people from so many different faiths and is the center of our faith was truly amazing.
2-9-10
The Garden Tomb was one of the most touching places in Jerusalem for me. All of the ‘traditional’ sites are so built up, crowded, and gaudy it was impossible to get a feel for what the places would have looked like, or even feel anything at all. We went to the Garden Tomb on a warm afternoon. Our guide was a young guy, but his passion was so evident and his knowledge so through that it made the whole experience very special. It is located outside the old city wall on a major highway into town. There is a large outcropping of rock that looks like a skull. There is a tomb with a track for a stone to be rolled in. There was a cistern, proving it was a prominent man’s property. It was just so beautiful and peaceful that it was easy to picture the most important moment of our faith happening there. That meant so much more to me than the churches and icons. The phrase ‘All that glitters is not gold’ comes to mind. It may not be the place, but it gave me a wonderful visual for the wonderful story.
2-9-10
The Garden of Gethsemane was the most meaningful part of my trip. We were able to look out over the city, see the location of the Temple and all the surrounding important sites, and also a vast Jewish graveyard. They place stones on top of the raised graves instead of flowers. That was so interesting to see. We went down the hill into an ancient olive grove and saw 3,000 year old trees. They were knarred and knotted, twisted and bent, but absolutely beautiful. We then went into the Church of Nations and listened to a few moments of a Spanish service. That was very beautiful. We were given the opportunity to take some time to ourselves for the first time in many days and be still before God in the place where Jesus prayed for us. What a sobering a moment that was. I loved feeling that near to the Lord’s heart.
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