Virginia and Ashley travel to Fagnoon

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Virginia and Ashley took a "girls day" to the Art Colony at Fagnoon, right outside of Cairo. Take a look! Shown:

-Just before our trip....Virginia in pigtails in front of office door showing off a recent masterpiece
-Virginia on homemade rope swing at entrance to Fagnoon
-Virginia and friend enjoy bouncing on homemade trampoline of bedsprings and handwoven mats!
-Virginia and best friend from preschool enjoy painting...look mom, they let me paint the table here!
-Virginia does her first pottery
-Virginia and Mom show off dirty hands--mud compliments of the Nile River!
-"Big kids" enjoy a game of mud soccer. You haven't seen the "real" Egypt until you see fully veiled young women mud wrestle!...look closely...everyone mud wrestles in Egypt!
-time for lunch! V and A stop for some homemade "baladi bread" (whole wheat pita) straight out of a the mud brick oven!

Bent Pyramid!

Near the Red Pyramid lies the Bent Pyramid....
named for its change in angles. The Bent Pyramid was originally built wide and then narrowed to a 54.3 degree angle at the top giving it a "bent" look. Some of the original limestone casing remains giving you a glimpse of what pyramids looked like in their heydey (smooth and white).

Interestingly, the Old Kingdom pharaoh, Snofru (2613-2588 BC) had4 pyramids built for himself... He had two failed attempts (which are now, still visible, lumps of sand and rock), then the Red Pyramid, then was finally laid to rest in the Bent Pyramid. No know quite knows how he got away with this infraction of the "one ka (life energy), one pyramid" rule.

The S-Rs visit Dahshur (Red and Bent Pyramids)!

Yesterday, we traveled 45 minutes outside of the neighborhood to visit a carpet school (where they make those lovely "oriental" things we walk on) and the Pyramids at South Saqqarra.

They were amazing!



Here are pictures from the Red Pyramid:

Shown:
-Steps going up to entrance (you gotta go up before you can go down)
-Inside looking up (quite a small and narrow space)
-Ashley and Gin climb scaffolding stairs inside to funerary room
-entering the pyramid (once inside...you crawl down a really long set of stairs in a space 3 ft by 3 ft...not for the claustrophobic!)
-3 different views of outside the Red Pyramid
(named for the color of limestone that used to on its casing)

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While in Dahab, we took a day-trip to St. Katherine's Monastery. St. Katherine's was built at the base of Mt. Sinai (where Moses ascended to recieve 10 Commandments) and around the original site of the burning bush (from the Bible). St. Katherine's is still a working monestary with both Christians and Muslims working there side by side. It is really unique in that way. In the museum, there are is a scroll from the Prophet Mohammed himself asking that St. Katherine's not be destroyed because of its historical significance. Honestly, I think it has survived the test of time because it is so darn far from ANYTHING. We drove 2 hrs in the dessert to see this! Also, there is the creepy factor. Supposedly, one of St. Katherine's monks had a vision that the body of the real St. Katherine could be found perfectly preserved in the mountain. He went to get her and prayed for 7 years at her side that she would give him her hand (weird souvenir?). The hand bones are on display inside the holy sanctuary and the body is in the crypt near the burning bush. We saw lots of people (Muslims and Christians) on pilgrimage there. That was really cool. Many of these people fell down to their knees in prayer. It was an incredibly neat thing to experience.

Sights (from left to right, top to bottom)

-Virginia on the pilgrimage trek to St. Katherine's (and we only had to walk from the van!)
-the calf in the mountain. One of the idols that angered God
-View of St. Katherine's from Mt. Sinai
-Aedan and Virginia on Mt. Sinai
-A healthy looking burning bush (supposedly it was moved 100 ft so the monks could place an altar over the exact growth spot)
-Joe and Ashley cheese it up in front of the burning bush

Dahab

Our El-Aid pictures are posted in 2 segments; Dahab and St. Catherine's. We stayed in Dahab which is a 7 hour drive from Cairo under the Suez Canal (much shallower than you would think) onto the southeast corner of the Sinai Peninsula. It is a little beach town with a "corniche" (pedestrian walkway) along the Red Sea. Most hotels are along the beach/corniche. Each hotel had an associated restaurant and all seating was "bedouin style" (driftwood covered with pillows and blankets with a short coffee table to eat on). The kids totally loved rolling around while they ate! Many people in the Middle East do still eat lying down (as they did in the time of Jesus, etc) so it was kinda authentic. Most people dive and snorkel from shore which makes this a relatively unique spot in the world. The coral reefs were only about 25 ft offshore! Awesome sights!

Above pictures show (left to right, top to bottom):
-Dahab at dusk. See people dining and snorkeling
-close up of the Red Sea and "Sabri Arabia" (as Virginia calls it). Other people call it "Saudi Arabia"
-Ashley pointing to yet another "only in Egypt" sign
-access point for scuba and snorkeling. No sandy beach here on the coral reef
-Dahab coastline. Saudi Arabia mts in the background
-Aedan zonked....vacation is for sleeping!
-Bedouin Style seating and friends of ours enjoying a lie down
-close up of mountains. Note lack of plant life/water
-closeup of Bedouin Style seating