by thadmin | Jan 6, 2013 | Travel
Spectacular arrival in Alexandria! Well, let me preface that with what I thought first on creeping through the outskirts: what a dump. The roadside was festooned with diesel axles, oil spills, overturned barrels, torn metal sheeting, upturned vehicles in mud,...
by thadmin | Jan 5, 2013 | Historical, Travel
Last day in Aswan. We arranged yesterday while still on the felucca to Elephantine to once again engage Moses Abdullah and his son. We wanted to hike up to the small domed tomb on the far ridge across the Nile, Qubbet al-Hawa, taking in some tombs below it on the way....
by thadmin | Jan 4, 2013 | Historical, Joy, Travel
We had been building ourselves up over a few days for what we thought would be a Big Day: taking mum by felucca and then camel to the Monastery of St. Simeon’s, a 7th Century complex just a km or so out in the desert from the Nile. “Pray for us” I...
by thadmin | Jan 4, 2013 | Historical, Travel
At last. An hour or so of photography that thoroughly engaged me. But I will admit to some careful and measured guilt at its location: the Fatamid cemetery in Aswan. I found myself asking why it is no problem for me to wander through a Christian graveyard, when I felt...
by thadmin | Jan 3, 2013 | Historical, Travel
(“fee-lay”) Rather short day yesterday. A short boat ride out to an island when the temple of Phillae is now located. During the inundation of land when the Aswan High Dam was created and the waters of the Nile backed up to create Lake Nasser, the temple...
