Walk Like an Egyptian

So, to begin I’d like to state that Egypt was amazing! It was so overwhelming and everyday was a new adventure. It started with a long bus ride down to southern Israel last Thursday. On this trip, we stopped at several places along the path to learn and experience more. Our first stop was at Tel Beer Sheva. This is where several Bible stories occur. It was interesting to see the way old cities were built for protection. We also walked through a cistern, which was way cool. The bible stories really come to life when you can picture the place where things happened. Next, we proceeded to take a hike through the Sin Wilderness. This was absolutely gorgeous. The hike was way fun and overlooked a beautiful massive amount of land.

Next, we went to Avdat, which was an old city. This was also very cool and the ruins had really sweet architecture. Our last stop on the way to our destination was this amazing crater in the land. It had been formed over thousands of years and is gigantic. We stood overlooking it on one of the rims of the crater. It made me feel so small comparatively.

Our stop that night was in Southern Israel at a Kibbutz. We took a tour of the Kibbutz, which was eye opening. It’s so interesting to see the different ways people live. The man that gave us the tour took us to this crazy sand dunes in the middle of the desert. The sand was super soft and we had an opportunity to sit alone for about a half hour and think about things in our lives. We were supposed to think about why so many of the major monotheistic religions originated in the desert lands. It was nice to be able to sit calmly and alone for a little bit and think about God and how he communicates with us now. As I sat in that peaceful reverie, I could see why His love and power was so apparent in this land. It was also nice to have a moment alone to think since we're always together (which is usually a good thing, but doesn't allow for much alone time).

In the morning, we proceeded to cross the border into Egypt! After being hit on numerous times by old men, we made it safely across into the Sinai Peninsula. That day, we drove for most of the day until we arrived in Cairo and attended a sacrament meeting at the branch house there. It is so amazing to go to church in different countries and realize that the gospel is thesame and true wherever you go. I love it so much.

The next morning, we headed to Giza to see the Great Pyramids! We went inside the second largest one! It was awesome! It was a little claustrophobic inside, but definitely worth it. It was absolutely amazing to see that so many years ago people were capable of building such an intensely intricate structure that would stand the test of time. It was such an awesome experience to learn about all of it's history while standing on site. We went to an overlook to take some pictures, which was way sweet too.

We then spent some time visiting the Sphinx. The Sphinx has the head of a man and the body of a lion. The nose is missing, but it was so amazing to see. This structure was carved out of limestone thousands of years ago to guard the Great Pyramids! So sweet!

Later that day, we visited Memphis, which is essentially an area dedicated to Ramses II. There were tons of statues here and one that was absolutely gigantic. As always, it was fun to see the old artifacts.

Lastly, we went to Saqqara, the great step pyramid. We walked through the Sahara to get there! In front of this pyramid is a temple to the Gods. From one overlook you can see three sets of pyramids at one time. It was really awesome! That evening, we hopped on a plane down to Luxor.

The next morning, we visited the Valley of the Kings. This is

where they have found several tombs of the kings of Egypt. They believe they chose to bury these national heroes here because the mountain is a natural pyramid and the mountain is mad of limestone, which is easier to carve. Kings that rule longer have larger tombs than those that rule for less time. In this valley is where King Tut's tomb is located and yes, I went inside! He only ruled for nine years so his tomb is pretty small, but really sweet. In the tomb, you can see his mummy, which is really well preserved, and the original sarcophagus. The thing that is so special about King Tut's tomb is that it was still fully intact when they found it. In other words, it had never been found and therefore never been robbed.

Next, we went to Queen Hatshepsut's burial place. Queen Hatshepsut is so famous because she didn't want her son to rule after her so she fabricated a story telling how she became a Goddess and how she was endowed by higher power to rule over Egypt. She ruled for quite some time and was one of the most powerful women in Egyptian history.

That night, we went on a Falucca ride down the Nile to go for a camel ride. The evening on the Nile was absolutely gorgeous and the camel ride was fantastic! We rode the camels through an Egyptian town, which was really humbling. Many of the little boys that were guiding our camels were without both shoes and little children were attempting to sell flowers to us on the side of the road. We were able to look inside some of their homes

and view the poverty that overwhelms this third-world country. On our way back, we had an awesome dance party. The captain of our boat was Egyptian and turned on some native music and showed us how he could bust a move. It was so fun! This was one of the most euphoric moments of my life.

The next morning was so interesting! We walked around the Karnak temple for a few hours and were able to learn about thousands of years of history that surrounded us. This temple was built to the Sun Goddess and each successive pharaoh would build on to show his respect for the Goddess. There is a room of pillars that are completely mind-blowing. They are intricately decorated and humongous. It is amazing how advanced and detail-oriented these people were.

We visited the Luxor temple that morning as well. It was pretty similar to the Karnak temple, but had several statues of Ramses II and the engravings on the walls were different. On the way back to the hotel, we rode in a horse carriage! That was an experience... they go right along with the traffic and merge with the cars even though they are much slower and the people are very impatient drivers here. It was definitely interesting. That night was spent on a train back to Cairo. This was interesting and something I would never plan on doing again. The compartment was pretty tiny and the food served was suspicious. It was also a little difficult to sleep on a train that stopped periodically.

We went out soon after we arrived in Cairo to explore the city more. On this particular day, we went to a cultic Christian church and an old Jewish synagogue. Both of these buildings were beautiful and have drawn from the Muslim influence of the country in their decoration. These explorations were followed by a delicious lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Here, we sang the YMCA and danced with all the waiters. It was super fun and I took a picture with the Britney Spears poster, which is always a plus! This was followed by some shopping in a bazaar in the middle of the city. As per usual, the men were a little too nice and pushy to sell their products.

The next morning was filled with the Muhammad Ali Mosque in the Citadel built by Saladin to protect the city. Saladin also built the wall around the Old City of Jerusalem. The mosque was

gorgeous & so intricate. It stands on a hill and is humongous, which makes it stand out. It was really amazing to see Muslims worshipping and see the importance of the mosque in their lives. There was also an overlook that could see all of the slums of Cairo-- and there are a lot of slums. It was a really outstanding experience. For the rest of the day, we sat on the bus and played a plethora of really fun games with each other. In Egypt, bus time equals bonding time!

The next morning we had a wake up call at 2 AM so we could begin hiking Mount Sinai. The hike was so beautiful. Before the sun rose you could see the outlines of the mountains against the millions of stars that scattered the sky. As we arrived atop the mountain, the sun began to rise. As a group, we sang hymns to bring in the new day. There were many other groups that were also climbing with us and we were united once again by the scriptures. We then hiked a little bit down the mountain and stopped with our respective religion classes to have a testimony meeting. It was inspiring to have my new good friends share their convictions of Christ and the scriptures upon this sacred site. Thousands of years ago, Moses climbed the same mountain I climbed and spoke with the Lord. Every time I think of that, I am astounded by the blessing it is to be here and to have experiences such as these.