Pharoh, Pharoh..Oh Baby, Let my people go..ugh..yayayayayaya

Hey everybody! I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it back safely from Egypt and it was completely and utterly amazing!! It far exceeded my expectations!!! I'll just tell you a couple pages worth of stuff that we did..hahaha..My roommates on this trip were Bryan Clifton and Ryan Hamling. So, it was Brian, Ryan, and Ryan..funny, huh? Our tour guide was Osman. He is the nicest man. I'll tell you more about him in the blog..

Thursday June 19th

We went to Alexandria. It is on the delta of the nile in lower egypt. Egypt means black soil, and now only 4 percent of today's Egypt is Biblical Egypt. We saw the Montazh Palace. It was very beautiful. Farouk was the last person to use it. We also saw the Library of Alexandria. It held 7000 volumes. The original was burned down so they had to rebuild it. Next, we went to the catacombs. We saw the comb of Shakafah. The ditch led to the main catacomb. People thought this place was 1 of the wonders of the world. There were about 200 bodies found here. They also used these catacombs as a hiding place. We saw some canopic jars which were jars for the innards except for the heart. This is a much bigger andd decorated catacomb than Rome and Paris'. The main tomb had lots of cubby holes to put the dead in. It kind of reminded me of when we were smaller and used to crawl into the cubby holes in the band room (good times). The Caracalla Hall had a straight staircase that they used on their way down and a palace staircase that they used on their way up. Osman told us about 3 ways to bury people. You could use a sarcoficus, cubbies, or build the coffin into the rock. I thought the way they built it into the rock was interesting. I really enjoyed seeing the Catacombs.

Friday June 20th
Friday was a very long day, but filled with tons of very interesting things. We started off the day in Giza in a museum built by a French man, Mariet. It was pretty much like a warehouse. No AC, and we couldn't even take our cameras in so I don't have any pictures of what I saw. The museum was constructed in 1901. The Rosetta Stone is up to chest high and very thick. It's double sided and a perfect rectangle, but the corners were chopped off. It was done in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek. Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tut. There were two statues found in his tomb. We also learned that the Northern people wore red headress and the Southern people wore white headress. We learned that to know if you read the hieroglyphics right to left or left to right is determined by whatever way the birds are facing, so I thought that was pretty interesting. We saw a papyrus chair and boomerangs. The boomerangs proved that they were not invented in Australia so I thought that was an interesting point he made. We saw two beds made of gold. We also saw 3 funeral beds. The mummification process took 40 days, and 70 days for kings. We saw the mummy of the oldest man on earth. He died in 3000 B.C. He was buried in a coffin made of reeds in the fetus position. Next, I payed 50 pounds to go into the mummy room. This was probably my favorite part of the museum. It was so cool. We saw Tuthmosis IV, King Amenhotep II, King Tuthmosis, III, Tuthmosis II, Thuthmosis I, Princess Meritamun, King Amenhotep I, King Seqenere Taa II, King Ramses II, and King Seti I. We saw the sculpture of Rahotep and Nofret. It conveyed their attitude and had preserved painted surfaces. Then we saw the Meidum Geese. It was the oldest collection of colors and the most use of different colors at the time. The last thing we saw in the museum was the Palette of Narmer. It was double sided and showed Hathor and four army divisions.
After the museum, we went to the Pyramids. They were completely breathtaking. They were named Cheops for the father, Chephren for the son, and Mykanous for the great grandson in law. There were also 3 baby pyramids for the wives. We got out and took pictures by them, and even got a group picture in front of them. Next, we went to the Solar Boat Museum. It was pretty neat. We had to wear overshoes, so it was pretty funny. There were 23 crew members. There were 10 middle oars used for rowing and 2 in the back used for steering. Overall, there were 1,224 pieces to the boat. It was built for the same pharoh as all the pyramids (Cheops). After the Solar Boat, I payed 15 pounds to go inside the middle pyramid. It was insane! I had to literally bend over the entire time through because the passage was so small. My back was killing me by the time we got in there. Frank layed down in the coffin to try and scare people when they came in, but no one got scared. It was pretty funny. When we got back out, Osman said that inside the pyramids, it can range from 100-125 degrees (I think it was much hotter) and it is the highest, tallest, and oldest wonder of the ancient world. It is also the only original of the seven wonders. They each took at least 20 years to be built. After we burned in the pyramid, we went to see the Sphinx of Giza. It was really cool. It used to have a nose and beard, but they shaved the beard and it is now in the British Museum. We spent the night on a train, and it was really really cramped, but still fun.

Saturday June 21st
This was Andrew and Shailer's birthday, so all the guys stayed in Car 3, so when we got up we all ran into Andrew's room and party boy'd him. It was sooo funny. We started to day off in Aswan which is the southernmost city and it is called the "warm city." I decided to wear my white bandanna since the Southern Kingdom wore white headdresses. It has always been a part of Egypt. We saw the Aswan Dam. It was built in 1902. The dam was 4 km long and 1 km long. We got out to take pictures, and Paul decided to arm wrestle the guards. He whooped them both. It was hilarious. One of the guards was even pushing all of his weight on Paul's arm. It was crazy..haha.. Next, we saw the Temple of Philae. It came from underwater and it was pulled out in 1972. It was underwater for 70 years. It was the Temple of Love between Isis and Osiris. It had the 5 parts of a temple: Sanctuary, Vestibule, Hypostyle, Open court, and Pylon. The Open Court was the largest part of the temple. There was no roof. It had 10 columns. There were three sanctuaries here. The middle one was dedicated to Isis, the left one was dedicated to Osiris, and the right one was dedicated to Horus, the falcon god. After we saw the temple, we went back to the boat. That night was Cruise Night. We had a dinner on top of the boat. Since it was Andrew and Shailer's birthday, they made them a cake, and they had to stand there and hold it while they sang a song that lasted for seriously 10 minutes. After a minute or so, they made Andrew and Shailer dance, and it was definitely one of the funniest things I've ever seen. That was a really really fun night. This was also the day that we got to ride camels. It was awesome! So, Andrew and Shailer had a full day for their birthday, and it was tons of fun.

Sunday June 22nd
We started off the day in Kom Ombo at the "Crocodile" Temple which was dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god. Here, we got to see mummified crocodiles which I thought was really really cool. The temple was Telomaic built in 290 B.C. The temples east of the Nile were schools or hospitals or both and the temples west of the Nile were funerary temples or storage houses. It had 3 vestibules. The second one has one of the oldest calendars in the world. There was no B.C. or A.D. They told years by adding up Pharoh ruling dates. Next, we went to Edfu and saw the Edfu Temple. It was covered in sand until 1881. There were 12 columns, so that meant there were 12 priests. It took 25 years to build and 160 years to decorate it. Early Christians came here as a hiding place. Sunday night was Egyptian Night on the boat. It was probably the funnest night on the trip. We all dressed up like Egyptians and had dinner, and then we had a dance afterwards. It was pretty crazy, but a whole lot of fun.

Monday June 23rd
This was also one of the really really long days. We started off in Luxor. It was named the "sun city." Here, we saw the Karnak Temple. It is the largest temple of Ancient Egypt. It was considered the 8th wonder of the world. It is 26 times larger than Ancient Jerusalem. That is insane! It had the Ram Avenue. They all had Ramses II on them. It took 2,000 years to construct this temple. It had 10 gates. They took all the bricks that were on a higher level by building mud brick ramps. I thought that was pretty interesting. We saw the Statue of Ramses II and his wife. He is in the death position and she is in the living position. There were 134 columns. The 12 in the middle were the biggest and fattest. They were 70 ft. high. We then saw the Obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut. I thought this was really amazing. All the inscriptions from top down talked about her. She was the only woman to rule Egypt and her statues depict her as a man. According to Theory 1, she would be Moses' mom. We also saw a Carab, and the theory of the carab is if you walk around it 3 times then you will be rich, if you walk around it 5 times, you will get married, and if you walk around it 7 times, then you will have a baby, so we all walked around it however many times we wanted up to 7. It was pretty funny. I felt really weird doing it. When we got back to the boat, Osman held a class that talked about Exodus, and then he gave us a Hieroglyphics lesson where we learned the shorthand for all the letters of hieroglyphics. It was really interesting. After that, we headed to the Temple of Luxor. We went and saw it at night so it was really really beautiful. It is the most beautiful temple in Egypt in my opinion. The Ram Avenue is 2 1/2 miles long. All the men's knees in their statues are big, and it wasn't until this temple that Osman told us why. It is because big knees is the fertility sign. If you have big knees, then it means you'll have children. So, when you went to meet your future father-in-law, he would begin asking you questions and then, slowly try to feel your knees. Osman acted it out with Ryan Hamling, and it was hilarious. There is still an active mosk in the temple. It is from the 10th century AD. The Vestibule was probably the best part. We sang songs as the sunset behind the temple. David Roberts once said, "There is nothing like the sunset on the Luxor Temple Vestibule." The open court is probably where Moses learned all his wisdom from the Egyptians. It also has the largest Sanctuary of any other temple. This night was Captain's Night on the boat, and we barely had enough time to go to our rooms and get changed. We were pretty much already late, but I didn't pack and lug around my humongous brown shoes all week for nothing!! I was going to wear my nice clothes. We had a really nice dinner and then afterwards, there was a belly dancer show in the common room. We all rushed down there, and I have to say I was pretty disappointed with her. Hahaha.. I stayed for a little while, and she made us all get up and do the Train with her, so I got in and when we reached the door, I got out. Haha..Then, I went up to the room and went to sleep.

Tuesday June 24---Happy Birthday, Ashton!!
We were still in Luxor and went to Valley of the Kings. The tombs began being found in the 17th century. There are 64 tombs, 9 are open, and we only got to see 3. Queen Hatshepsut was the first one to use the Valley of the Kings. I thought that was pretty ironic. We saw the Tomb of Ramses III, Tomb of Thutmes III, and Tomb of Queen Tausert. The Tomb of Thutmes III was my favorite one. He chose a weird spot for his. It was right in the middle of the mountain. It took 4-6 years to prepare a tomb. The Tomb of Queen Tausert waws very nice inside. It was the coolest temperature wise. After doing the Valley of the Kings, we went Alabaster shopping. I really wanted to buy some, but I wanted to save my money for papyrus. We saw Queen Hatshepsut's Tomb. It is behind the Valley of the Kings. It is the only monument in all of Egypt to be rebuilt. After seeing her tomb, we went to see the Tombs of the Workers. The first tomb we saw was Tomb of Anherkha. It was painted and very colorful. It was "60%" in the words of Osman. The next tomb was the Tomb of Sennutem. It was painted too and very colorful. This temple was "Over 100%" in the words of Osman again. It is 3,450 years old, but looked like it was painted yesterday. It was the first use of arched ceilings. I thought they were both really neat. Tuesday night, we stayed on the train again, and it was definitely one of the worst nights of my life. I slept for 1 hour, and woke up and couldn't breathe because it was so stuffy in the room. Our air conditioner didn't work, and so it felt like one of the tombs in our room. I couldn't go to sleep. I just stayed on top of my bed pouring water on myself all night. It was miserable. We woke up the next day, and Osman was pretty mad. He was like, "I didn't get any sleep. This is ridiculous." Hahaha.

Wednesday June 25th
We started the day in Cairo and had breakfast at Osman's home. He is so sweet. He invited us all over to his apartment to have some food and meet his family. His kids are adorable, and his wife is really pretty. We had a short service there. Osman loves it when we sing. There was some times when he was like, okay if you want to know about this, you have to sing me a song. I didn't mind it. It was a really emotional time because it is the last time that Captain and DiMy will be here with HUG, so they were pretty upset as was Osman and his family. After breakfast, we all went papyrus shopping, and I loved every single one. It was really hard to decide which ones to get. I got the huge Weighing of the Heart scene. So, I definitely won't be buying that much on the trips because that was pretty pricey. I'm really excited to put it up on my wall though. After the papyrus shop, we went to Memphis. It is the first capital of the world. Abraham came here, and it had the 1st clear writing of hieroglyphics. We saw the Alabaster Sphinx which had Hatshepsut's face and we saw 2 Ramses II statues outside. There was one inside which was the highlight of the Memphis Museum. It was 30 ft. long without feet. The museum was built over the statue. The largest Ramses II statues though are in Abu Simbal. They're 8 1/2 stories high. I really wanted to see them, but we never got the chance because of the boat schedule.
Next, we went to Sakkara which is the cemetery of Memphis. We saw the Tomb of Ptah-Hotep here. It is a mastaba, which is where rich people were buried. It had a middle chamber and 2 side chambers for him and his father. The son's was the most preserved place in Sakkara. After that, we saw the Steppe Pyramid. It was built in the Old Kingdom. It is 59 meters high with 6 steps that are 10 meters each. It was built by Pharoh Zoser. After we saw this, we went to a carpet school. The prices were insane. The cheapest one I saw that was actually worth buying was like 3,000 dollars. It was madness. There was one pink one that was 34,000 dollars. It's like hmm..buy the carpet, or the apartment to put it in? Hahaha. After the carpet school, we went to Cairo again and saw the Mosk. It was the oldest one in Africa and the 3rd in Islam. It was from 640 BC. There are 5 principles of Muslims: Only 1 god and Mohammad was the messenger, Prayers-5 times a day, Fasting, Charity, and Pilgrimage to Mecca if you could afford it. Overall, I thought the mosk was very interesting. There were people praying while Osman was talking to us. It was neat to watch them. After we were done, Osman took us all on a sailboat ride on the Nile. It was really nice of him, and it was a lot of fun.

Thursday June 26
We got up, and went to the airport and Osman was there to meet us. It was really good to get to say bye to him one more time. Really sad too. Once we got into Greece, we stood in the Customs line for at least 2 hours. I was getting really irritated. It was almost ridiculous. There were 3 whole things left alone, when there could have been 6 more lines. It just really made me mad. At least we had some good conversations in line. Hahah. Once we got back to the Artemis, I shaved my beard. It's not because it was too hot, I was just in a really weird mood, and decided to surprise everybody, so I definitely just shaved it all off. Hahaha. I'm still keeping the hair though. There's no way I'm losing both. Hahahha. All the girls were like, I need to touch your face, and saying it looked like 10 times better. They keep telling me to cut my hair, but there is no way. Anyway, last night we watched Prince of Egypt and it really made me want to go back soo bad. After that, I just came up to the room and went to sleep.

Alright, well, that about wraps it up. I hope you all enjoyed reading about the amazing Egypt trip. I love and miss you all, and I will see you in August! Bye! Love, Ryan