by thadmin | Jan 13, 2013 | Contrast, Historical, Travel
After returning from Alexandria, we had a single day left (the 10th of January), before needing to catch an ungodly-early flight on the 11th. Man, did I want to go back to Dahshur. Dahshur is a pyramid group further down the road from Giza than Saqarra – quite a...
by thadmin | Jan 9, 2013 | Historical, Travel
It should have been clear. It should not have been raining – all day let alone in Egypt at all. But I was profoundly moved by the weather as we stopped first to review the military museum at El Alamein, and then the British and Allies’ War Cemetery. I have...
by thadmin | Jan 8, 2013 | Historical, Travel
Huh. Rain in Egypt. And lots of it. I had no idea, and I guess that’s pretty naive. But its an interesting new vantage on what I had always thought of as a desert civilization. But I think I’ve had enough of it. Its made it cold enough to remind me of the...
by thadmin | Jan 7, 2013 | Travel
A few pictures from this afternoon, when Carrie and I went for a walk and were greeted by many, and warmly, and wandered through what I think was close to the downtown core of Alexandria. Number of tourists we saw besides ourselves among the thousands of people we...
by thadmin | Jan 7, 2013 | Historical, Travel
I find I really quite like Alexandria. It makes me think of what Shainghai might be like, or european even. It even has rickety, old streetcars, narrow as the streets they run on. We visited the old Roman-era catacombs (no cameras allowed, sadly) this morning, then...
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...
