the antipodean adventurers

The Museum of Philistine Culture is an archaeological museum in Ashdod by the southern coast in Israel. The museum is dedicated to the culture of the Philistines, the ancient people who inhabited the maritime part of Israel from the 12th century BC. It is the only museum in the world completely dedicated to the Philistine people. it held our for a few hours and were impressed by the exhibits and clear explanations. Using our own smartphones we followed a free self-guided online tour in audio and text. Several languages are available and we chose English, as did the couple who accompanied us. The Philistine people dominated the Mediterranean middle east for 6 centuries from From the 12th to 7th century BCE. Their kingdom centered in ancient Caanan with its seat of power on the southeastern Mediterranean ... read more

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

When I said we were up early, I meant early! 0400, bags outside the room at 0430 and on the bus at 0500. We just had time to grab a bite to eat and make our sandwiches for the day. We arrived at the airport in no time - there is little traffic at this time of day - checked in and sitting around waiting for our flight to Luxor. The name Luxor is the modern Arabic name meaning palaces. The ancient Egyptian name was Waset, meaning the city of the sceptre. It was the ruling centre. The Greeks renamed the city Thebes and it became the capital of Egypt. The Arabs couldn’t say Thebes and so it became Luxor which means temples in Arabic. The city became important during the 11th dynasty when the town ... read more

Shabbat - a real day of rest! I decided to skip shul and daven in the room. I really enjoyed "my time" while Don participated in the group service. At 10.30am I joined the rest of the group and we made kiddush and had brunch which was a special milky meal. Then Rabbi Berman gave a drasha and then it was sleep time! Some people went out for walks, but we just quietly read and rested. We all got together again at 4 pm when we had seudah shlishit with lots of singing. Again the table was set nicely with real crockery and cutlery. Then free time until after shabbat when Rabbi Berman gave an instructive PowerPoint presentation. He explained in further detail some of the scenes and hieroglyphics we had seen and would explore in ... read more

The day didn’t start too well for me (Lesley). I was upset that the people who were the most anxious about the trip before we left and wanted to cancel, refused to wear masks. I’m afraid I got quite cross at breakfast. We then left on the bus to go to a new embarkation point with a decent gangplank to travel up the Nile to Elephantine Island. This island is important to the Jewish community as papyri documents have been found relating to the oldest Jewish diaspora community. The site itself is much bigger than I thought it would be. It is 1200 meters from north to south and 300 meters at its widest point. It is believed that it was called Elephantine because from the air the island looks like an elephant’s tusk. However, how ... read more