Our time in Alexandria was not complete. The next morning we drove to an archaeological site from the Roman period. From my extensive wanderings over the years, this site felt familiar despite it being my first visit. It’s filled with all the usual furnishings that Romans would find familiar: baths, a theater, lecture halls, and more. Alexandria was the second largest city in the empire in the first century after Rome itself. The previous day was the lighthouse. What else is Alexandria famous for? Its library! While that is long gone and its location unknown, the reputation has remained. In […]
Category Archives: Travel
Alexandria Arrival
It’s been awhile; it’s time to get back to my traveling tales from Egypt! We departed from Cairo after breakfast, driving north to the coastal city of Alexandria. Situated at the western end of the Nile delta, it was founded by and named after Alexander the Great. (It would also become his burial place) It became the new Egyptian capital during the Hellenistic period that followed. While looking at its ancient ruins, I could have forgotten that we were talking about Egypt. While maintaining Egyptian ideas, it had a heavy blend of Greek and Roman influence to see and explore. […]
Papyrus
Our tour van maneuvered the crowded Cairo streets to our final stop for the day: a papyrus shop. There we learned the art of making papyrus paper. Gathering around a demonstration table, someone showed us a long papyrus plant. Taking a chunk of it, he cut off the outer green and then proceeded to slice it into thin strips. Then he took out a mallet and hammered the slices to compress it and make it stronger. Next, it was placed in water to soak for some time. Then he started laying out the strips in a crisscross pattern. Once complete, […]
The Cairo Museum
A new day dawned, and we hit the road to arrive at our first destination of the day: the Cairo Museum. Last time I was in Egypt, we had rushed through it in an hour because of our packed day. While we got to see the highlights, there was much left unseen. Thankfully that was mostly corrected this time, spending about 3 hours there. The museum is over a century old. The artifacts are jumbled around it, separated by time period and category. They’ve been working on a new museum for over a decade, which should be open “soon”. We […]
Dusty Old Books
During our time in Old Cairo, we also visited the Ben Ezra synagogue. While the current building dates to a remodeling in the 1890’s, its predecessors date back probably another millennium. The Jewish story in Egypt didn’t end with the Exodus. There were thriving communities by the time Jesus’ family sojourned there and that continued until modern times. When the modern state of Israel was born, most Jews moved there, effectively ending their long presence in Egypt. What makes this synagogue remarkable is that there were many old documents found there dating back as much as 1000 years, ranging from religious […]
Jesus Comes to Egypt
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” Matthew 2:13 There are not many countries that can say Jesus visited them. Egypt is one of them. It’s part of the Christmas story in Matthew 2. When King Herod tries to kill Jesus, viewing him as potential competition for his throne, Joseph takes the family and escapes by fleeing to Egypt. The […]
The Permanence of Pyramids
The first thing people think of with Egypt are the iconic pyramids. After Memphis, we visited the location of the first “pyramid”, the step pyramid of Djoser. This structure was the architectural transition point from the old mastaba (bench) style of tombs to the pyramids. The complex around it is among the oldest surviving structures in the world. Columns were carved to look like trees bound together. The goal was to make a lasting world. Wood rots, but stone remains. (and those stones have remained nearly 5,000 years) This kicked off the pyramid fad of the Old Kingdom, a period […]
Arriving in the Capital
What do you think of when you hear the name “Cairo”? The most populous city in Egypt, it has a population of nearly 20 million (technically Cairo is 10 million, lying on the east side of the Nile with Giza, also 10 million, on the west, but they form a single metropolis). It is a bustling, dirty city. We landed at Cairo International Airport on a Thursday evening. After making our way through customs, we had a shuttle prearranged to carry us across town to our hotel in Giza. The 19 mile drive through rush hour traffic took about 1.5 […]
The Return to Egypt
The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you. Deuteronomy 28:68 I’ve been slowly reading through Deuteronomy this year in Hebrew. I took more Hebrew classes this year and have spent most mornings translating a couple verses. On November 20, I opened up to 28:68, reading the opening words as “The Lord will cause you to return to Egypt…” Why am I mentioning this? Because that day I […]
The Bible Closer to Home
It’s been awhile, but rest assured this blog isn’t dead! I just have had other priorities. I have more travels coming up which I will write about in due time. A couple months ago I visited the Horn Museum of Archaeology at Andrews University. This is not a world class museum by any means, but it’s full of some nice artifacts and replicas from the Middle East. Besides, it’s much closer to home. The central room is dedicated to different eras from the Bible. They have a Bedouin tent set up (brings back fond memories of a year ago in […]