Today we went to the Old City of David, where we saw where King David's palace was, and went down underground into Hezekiah's tunnel (if you don't know what it is...2 Kings talks about it. Look it up in the Bible dictionary, it's pretty cool stuff). The tunnel has water flowing through it, and is wide enough to comfortably walk, and tall enough that you just barely need to watch your head in certain spots. We waded through water that went up to our knees as we wound through the tunnel with our flashlights, and I was with a few kids at the rear, a few minutes behind the rest of our group. It was awesome to feel so alone and like some kind of explorer. We turned off our lights somewhere in the middle of the tunnel, and wandered for a few minutes in the dark, just using the walls beside me as a guide. I've never been in any place so dark, but it wasn't scary. I thought of the hymn, "Lead Kindly, Light," and the first verse, which says "Keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me." Or the second verse, which says, "I loved the garish day, and, in spite of fears pride ruled my will. Remember not past years." We couldn't have found our way without the smooth walls that led the way--like an iron rod. If you've ever been in a place so dark that you cannot see your hand in front of your face, you know the feeling--that if you do not have something to guide you, whether it be a light or a wall, you are stuck. Our lives are the same way. Without the light of Christ and the light of the gospel, we are wanderers in the dark, and we will get nowhere fast.
Well, I have SO much to tell about Egypt. Rather than tell all the crazy stories (I could write for hours), I will just put up several pictures and include captions!
On the way down to Egypt, we stopped in the Wilderness of Zin (pronounced like "Sin"). Put the children of Israel wandering for 40 years in the wilderness here. Or Lehi's family here after leaving Jerusalem (and Nephi going back TWICE!). It's HOT. And barren. Can we really blame those Israelites or Laman and Lemuel for murmuring so much? I'm telling you, I'm thinking twice about how harshly I judge them.
After exiting Israel's border and toting our luggage across the Egyptian border (and border patrol...bleh).
Checking another continent off of my list: now I've been to Europe, Asia, AND Africa!
Egypt is very much a third-world country. Besides the trash lining the streets and canals, is just feels DIRTY there. But the cool thing is that people still ride camels and donkeys as a legitimate way to get around and pull their food/merchandise/whatever else it may be. This was as we were first driving into Cairo, and I think one of the first camels I saw. I couldn't believe it was just there, crossing the street!
In front of the pyramids. We look lovely, i know...we'd just crossed the Israel/Egypt border and driven across the Sinai on a bus! Long day. But we went to this sound and light show when we got there, which really wasn't all that entertaining, but the view was unbeatable!
Our first morning in Cairo, we went to the 3 pyramids in Giza (the same ones we'd seen the night before). They're amazing! I never realized how massive they were. And I'd thought they were completely smooth on the outside. They used to be--they are made of limestone and had limestone casing on the outside, but now most of that is gone. Instead, the pyramids are built of giant cube pieces of solid stone, each row alternating the edges so that rain water could easily run down the side. By the way, the pyramids weren't built by slaves--it's true that the slaves would carve the rock to be placed there. But the stones were placed by professionals--slaves couldn't have built perfect 45-degree angles to create a 455-foot high pyramid. There are so many stones around the 3 pyramids at Giza that they could build a wall around France TEN FEET thick and 30 feet high (I think those dimensions are right. Well, you get the idea, at any rate).
Awesome view of all three from far away.
"I'm touching a PYRAMID!" We got to climb around the outside of one, go inside the shafts of another, and just look at the last one from afar.
Pitas are the staple food here (well, in Jerusalem too). We went to a restaurant and saw this woman making them. I've never been so hot in my life before..Egypt is ridiculous. I think the average temperature was like 115 degrees. And here is this cute old lady making our pitas in front of an open oven!!
They say pitas are good for your complexion. I say they are good with hummus, with babaganoosh (sp?), with peanut butter and honey, stuffed with tomatoes and feta cheese...they're just amazing. They do NOT, however, do wonders for your waistline :)
We flew from Cairo to Luxor, and this is our first morning in Luxor. First of all, though, can you believe how GREEN it is?
Along the Nile River, it's as lush a place as I've ever seen! Palm trees, fields of crops, grass--it's all green and humid. Agriculture is still a huge part of their economy, and farmers wake up at the crack of dawn to get out there as soon as they can. This was at like 7 am, and I guarantee you we were already sweating.
Tons of pharaohs were buried at the Valley of Kings, which was really a far cry from a valley, but whatever. The Egyptians believed in immortality and eternal life, but they believed that your body had to be intact in order for your spirit to continue living. That's why they mummified bodies (and, by the way, everyone--rich and poor--was mummified by the ancient Egyptians, but the ones best preserved were those of the pharaohs, since you get what you pay for, and they had a LOT of money). The pyramids are all tombs to different pharaohs, and these tombs at the Valley of Kings were more subtle and tried to disguise themselves in the canyons. However, they were still robbed, despite the attempt to throw off the robbers with fake doors and false chambers. However, one king, who only ruled for 9 years (from the time he was 9 till he was 18) was left undisturbed--King Tutankhamun, or King Tut.
His tomb was among the smallest of the pharaohs, but it is unreal how much treasure was stuffed in there. We can only imagine how much treasure had been in the more prominent pharaohs' tombs! The other tombs, though empty, still had amazing hieroglyphs covering their walls--the paint has lasted over 3,500 years!!! It's unbelievable. We went into three tombs that were absolutely beautiful, and then King Tut's. You are forbidden to take pictures (we know from experience...one boy in our group snuck a pic with his really expensive camera, and our guide had to yell at the guard to give it back!), so all we have is this picture outside of King Tut's tomb.
We rode a boat across the Nile and rode camels for about an hour. They ran out of camels for us, so Ash and I had to wait with my professor and his wife while they brought in reinforcements. It was OK, though...it just meant we got to run the whole way to catch up to everyone else! Surprisingly, riding on a camel is MUCH easier than riding a trotting horse! I loved it!! It was really neat to see the life and neighborhoods of people that lived along the Nile. And I could've come back with an Egyptian husband...I, along with every other girl in the group, was offered an Arabian husband and as many camels as I want. Tempting...
Shoot, I have got to fit a ton of info in, quickly. I'll just condense. The Karnak and Luxor temples were absolutely amazing. I learned so much, and I have waay too much to write to do any of it justice right now in my hurry. So I'll just have to leave up pictures, and may/may not ever get around to telling some of these amazing things I've learned. Here is the Hall of Columns in the Karnak temple...just think of this, though...these columns are 23m high, and made of stone. How would the ancient Egyptians build such things?
I'll quickly tell you so you can get a glimpse of how brilliant they were (and we're talking 3,500 years ago!!). They built these columns piece by piece, stacking one cylinder on top of the other (much like the Greeks at the Parthenon). They would put down the base, then fill the whole temple with sand, then put down another piece, and fill it up with more sand until they got to the top of the column and the entire temple was filled with sand. Then, they slowly removed the sand as they began carving the columns, one level at a time, until they had again reached the bottom of the temple. It took DOZENS AND DOZENS of years!
The picture below is the Luxor temple, just a mile or so from the Karnak temple. The two were connected by an avenue of sphinxes.
The sphinx represented strength (lion body) and wisdom (human head).
I'm sorry I just don't have time for explanations!! It's all fabulous though. The Egyptians' religion was strangely threaded with pieces of truth. Except for the fact that they worshiped multiple gods and didn't have the priesthood, their purpose for temples was similar to ours. Here are a few similarities: you had to be deemed worthy to go to the temple, a place of light and truth. because it was a place of instruction, not just anyone was permitted to go. They believed in eternal life, as I mentioned, and such instructions were reserved only for those who had proven they could keep such information private, so that the instructions would not be mocked by the world. First was the initiation. One had to be physically prepared to enter the temple. A washing of the body; the purpose was to bestow a health blessing upon each area of the body—everything is blessed so that it may properly function forever in eternity. It’s not good enough to have a brain that thinks; it must think right thoughts. It’s not enough to have a breast that feels; it must feel the right things. A process of justification; getting everything to function how it should in the eternities. After being washed, next was an anointing. Anointed to become a king and a priest: the coronation. Once you’re washed, you put on a white garment (a royal garment), and is given a Re name (name of the god), one of which you cannot speak.
Egyptian portrayal of being anointed.
Well, like I said, you can see the similarities, but the Egyptians obviously did not have the priesthood, so they had no authority! It's fascinating though, and these are the kinds of things we have been learning about and learned about all while we were in Egypt. Tons more to say, but not enough time!
Egypt was simply amazing. Our schedule was packed--we went to a papyrus factory, went to an Egyptian bazaar (the vendors there are PSYCHO. Literally. They are SO aggressive over there; I've never seen anything like it), ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (it felt so good to feel AMERICAN!) and all 80 of us even got on their stage and danced to "YMCA" and a few others. We never fail to provide cheap entertainment for those around us, and we're having a blast, of course! We also had sacrament meeting services in our travel clothes in a meeting room of our hotel on a Friday! It seems like I just can't get the hang of our schedule for having the Sabbath day here! It was so neat, though.
Last of all, we got to go snorkeling in the Red Sea on Saturday!! So fun. I loved it. The Red Sea is absolutely gorgeous and it was a blast. Don't mind the white-ness...we've been in the SCORCHING sun, but covered from head to toe!
Well, that's all. Thanks for hanging in there and actually reading this. It's more for selfish purposes--so I can remember all we've been up to. Yesterday we went to the Holocaust Museum and just spent two hours there, but I could've spent the entire day there. So interesting, and so sad. It is so interesting to learn about such a horrific event in a land where the Holocaust hits so very close to home.
Sorry to end this so abruptly, but I have to go!! I hope you are all LOVING July and having a wonderful day! Till next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment