Blogs from Egypt, Africa - page 6

After breakfast we went back across the Nile by boat again to the Valley of the Kings area. This time our focus was the Ramesseum, the massive memorial temple of Ramses II, the Pharaoh of the Exodus. We saw the massive inscription of his 80 year reign, full of references that bring alive the story of the Exodus and the building of the Mishkan. The temple is surrounded by mudbrick storehouses that date from the period of the Exodus. At this site we entered several tombs. Migo and Rabbi Berman pointed out many relevant hieroglyphs and coloured images. Their explanations helped us understand how the Egyptian kings told their story through artwork. In particular they highlighted elements which could relate to biblical references. . On the bus we all had PCR tests for Covid, required before ... read more

Eine Tauchsafari in Ägypten: Das steht bei vielen begeisterten Tauchern auf der Prioritätenliste weit oben. Das lang gestreckte Rote Meer zwischen dem Golf von Suez und dem Golf von Aden gilt als Tauchmekka für Profis und Einsteiger. Es zeichnet sich durch eine überraschende Vielfalt an Fischen und eine Fülle an interessanten Tauchplätzen aus. Klares Wasser mit sehr guten Sichtweiten erlaubt, die Tier- und Pflanzenwelt unter Wasser ausgiebig zu bewundern. Nicht zuletzt lockt das Rote Meer mit einem besonderen Erlebnis: Hier gibt es Stellen, an denen sich verschiedene Haiarten beobachten lassen. Schwimmen mit Haien: Was ist zu beachten? Grundsätzlich gilt: Haie sind Wildtiere, deren Angriff ein Mensch kaum etwas entgegenzusetzen hat. Entscheidend beim Schwimmen mit Haien ist, eine Angriffsreaktion nicht auszulösen. Die Aggressivität ist bei den Haiarten sehr unterschie... read more

What a treat we had in store today! Today we got on the bus to visit the Pyramids! These are from the 4th dynasty. Whilst in the bus we learned some old Egyptian. The area we passed through is called Memphis which is a Greek name. The original name of Memphis was Menefer - Men = harbour and nefer = beautiful. To get to the pyramids we crossed to the east side of the Nile and passed the tomb for a minister from the 6th dynasty. At this time many vizirs were stronger than the kings. As we approached the Pyramids of Giza we were aware of these large edifices standing in the middle of the desert. The shape of them relates to the creation story. The world was flooded and as the flood subsided the ... read more

Up and out a bit later than usual and off to Fustat, the old quarter of Cairo. For me it was a bit disappointing that we were unable to visit the Genizah. The Genizah is being refurbished. The Genizah (literally meaning the treasury) is a treasury of old documents which contained Hebrew letters and which people didn’t want to throw away. So they were deposited in the Genizah. Holy books are buried but the fragments of the documents are an amazing pot pourri of social history. The documents were in Hebrew, Aramaic and Judea-Arabic. Fragments of ketubot (wedding contracts) are particularly interesting as they set out not only terms of the marriage – what each side will bring – but also what will happen in the event of divorce; they are a bit like prenuptial agreements. ... read more