Egypt

We got back from Egypt on Sunday night after being gone for 8 days. It was such an exciting trip! We left on busses last Sunday and started driving south through Israel, stopping at some sights along the way. We went to Beersheba, where Abraham's family lived, and then to David Ben-Gurion's grave. That overlooked the wilderness near Kadesh-Barnea, where the Israelites camped for 38 of their 40 years in the wilderness. There were wild ibexes all over the place, and you can see two of them in this picture, as well as the wilderness in the background. 

Then we drove south to the Machtesh Ramon, which claims to be the largest crater in the world. It's not a volcano crater--the geology of the area just happened to form the land into a large crater shape. It looks similar to all of southern Israel, extremely desolate and dry. 

Later that day we went to the Kibbutz Yotvata for a tour. It was so exciting! I remember learning about the kibbutz in 7th grade, and I never thought I would actually see one. This kibbutz grew date trees. It was so hot and sandy there that it was hard to imagine anything being able to grow, but then there were fields of date trees everywhere. They look just like palm trees to me, so it felt very tropical. We got to try the dates, too, which were huge and super sugary. After that, we drove to another kibbutz to stay the night. It turns out a lot of the kibbutzim run guest services--it's part of how they sustain themselves. Later this summer when we go to the Galilee, I think we're going to stay in a kibbutz the whole time.

The next day, we crossed the border into Egypt, and then we spent most of the day driving across the Sinai Peninsula. It was very desolate--a lot like driving through Nevada. And then when we got to Cairo, it was still desolate, except for the area right around the Nile River. I was so excited to see the Nile! The river itself is not that impressive compared to the Mississippi, but just knowing how long it stretches makes it exciting. 

Cairo is kind of a mess. Our guide told us the population was 14 million, though I've also heard higher numbers, and most of the people live in huge, dilapidated apartment buildings. It's dirty, and noisy, and everything throws their garbage in the minor channels connected to the Nile, so there were some spots that looked more like sewage than river. The merchants in Egypt are also super aggressive, even compared to the ones here. I don't mind Jerusalem merchants at all anymore. The Egyptian ones will grab your arm, and if you even look at what they're selling, they'll assume your interested and start following you around. I was walking with a group into town one day in Luxor, and one of the Egyptian carriage drivers rode up to us and offered to give us a ride for 5 pounds. We told him no, but then he kept following us for at least 5 minutes, saying the same thing over and over again. It's very difficult to decide to buy anything, because the merchants never leave you alone once you're inside their shop. 

Besides that, though, the sites were amazing! On our first night in Cairo, we went to a sound and light show on the Giza Plateau in front of the pyramids! It was pretty outdated, and for some reason, they got bagpipers to play the music beforehand (surely that's not Egyptian, right?), but it was fun anyway. My favorite part of the Giza Plateau was definitely the Sphinx. The pyramids were exciting too, though! We got to go inside one of them. The shaft inside is narrow, so we had to bend over and then climb up into the center of the pyramid. It was actually kind of scary, just because we had so little room and there was not a real staircase. Then the tomb inside wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I knew that tomb robbers had already cleaned out all the pyramids, but I guess I thought the walls inside would still be decorated with hieroglyphics. It actually just turned out to be a bare stone room. Still pretty cool, though!

Later that day, we went to the Cairo airport and took a domestic flight to Luxor. I was excited to see the Egyptian airport, but it actually turned out to be pretty similar to all airports. When we got to Luxor, it turned out our hotel was right on the banks of the Nile! And it was really fancy, too--a fun place to stay. Unfortunately, about 1/2 the students got sick while we were in Luxor, so they weren't able to enjoy it. I was lucky not to get sick the whole time, but I had to be so careful--no fresh fruits or vegetables, no tap water, no meat served room temperature, etc. 

While we were in Luxor, we saw the Valley of the Kings, which is where most of the Egyptian pharoahs were buried. That was impressive. All the walls were covered in hieroglyphics and artwork, and some of it even still has color. I saw King Tut's tomb! His mummy is in there, but all the other treasures are in the Cairo Museum (which I also saw).

This picture is from the Karnak Temple Complex in Luxor--acres of ancient ruins just sitting there. We also went to the Luxor Temple, which is where women would have gone to worship, and we saw the Colossus at Memnon--that's the picture here of the two huge statues.

One other cool thing we saw is the cave where they think the mummies with the Abraham scrolls were found--Pit 33, near Queen Hatshepsut's temple. The professors had to bribe the guards to let us take pictures there, but I'm glad we saw it!

We took an overnight train back to Cairo, which was amazing! We had very comfortable sleeper cars, and they knocked on our doors in the morning and brought around breakfast. I wish I could have seen what the Egyptian countryside looked like out the window, but it was too dark. Then in Cairo, we went to the Cairo Museum, which was incredible, and then shopped around a little.

The next day, we saw some old Christian sites, including a church built around a cave where they say the Holy Family stayed when they fled to Egypt. I loved that, but they didn't let us actually go inside the cave. And then the next morning at 2:00 AM, we hiked Mt. Sinai to see the sunrise! It was so cool, one of my favorite parts of the Egypt trip. It was amazing climbing up there in the dark and looking around at the horizon--just jagged, shadowy mountain peaks everywhere. There were some places where I couldn't even see level ground at the bottom, and I felt very high up. There are also Bedouins who live up there and offer you camel rides, even right at the top of Mt. Sinai. 

Then we got back to Jerusalem late that night. I am so glad to be back! Israel feels very comfortable and safe compared to Egypt.

The past few days have been amazing! On Saturday (the Sabbath here) we went to the Garden Tomb, which many people believe is where Jesus was resurrected. It is a beautiful spot, and very quiet inside the garden walls even though it's in the middle of market streets. It is a very peaceful, welcoming place. In some ways it reminds me of the Sacred Grove, because it's hard to comprehend the place exactly, but for now I just enjoy being there.

Then, yesterday, I went to Tel Aviv! Almost 30 of us from the center went over in vans, and it was so much fun. The picture I have here is of Andromeda's rock--it's the little black speck just to the left of the balcony in the foreground. This is supposedly the rock Andromeda was placed on when she was being offered as a sacrifice to a sea monster (before Perseus came and rescued her).  We walked around and saw lots of historical sites and then swam at the beach,

 which was wonderful! I got a few beautiful pictures of the Mediterranean Sea, but I can't put very many up from here.

Today was incredible because we got to go to Jericho!  This picture is of the oldest building in the whole world! Brother Huff (my Old Testament teacher) said today that when Noah's family came down from Mt. Ararat, they may have settled in Jericho. At any rate, some people think it is the oldest city in the world, and the circular building in this picture was a tower during the most ancient period of the city. 

The lower picture is a view of the Mount of Temptation--that is where tradition holds that Jesus was tempted after his 40 days of fasting in 

the wilderness. It's hard to see in this picture, but halfway up the mountain, there is a monastery (the Quruntul Greek Orthodox monastery) built into the rock--it just looks kind of like a light horizontal line on the mountain in this picture. 

Anyway, we hiked up there and went inside, and it was incredible! You have to hike a steep trail to get there, and then the monastery itself grows out of the mountain. Originally it was just some caves inhabited by hermits, but then they built around those caves, so some of the walls inside are still just the natural rock face. (And some of the floors are just natural rock, too.) There are some beautiful paintings inside on the walls and the ceilings, and in the top chapel of the monastery, they have the rock that they believe Satan asked Jesus to turn into bread. Only a couple of monks live there, so we were lucky that one of them came to the door and let us in. I just loved it because it is so remote, in the middle of a mountain, and then you get there and it is beautiful inside.

Western Wall

Tonight we went to the Western Wall at sundown, when the Jews were there praying and welcoming in the Sabbath. It was amazing. There were so many people there! The men and women were separated into different parts of the wall, and they were all wearing nice clothes. The men and the married women cover their heads, but we didn't have to. 

We actually got to go touch the wall! It is the same wall that was there 2000 years ago, I think--part of the temple built by Herod. I had to wait in the crowd for about 15-20 minutes before I got to the front. Then I touched the wall and kissed my fingers (that's what I saw everyone else doing). I also had a prayer written on a small piece of paper, and I folded it up small and put it in one of the cracks in the wall. They believe that when you do that, the prayer has extra weight. The Muslims actually say that one prayer in Jerusalem counts for 500 prayers somewhere else in the world.  (And a prayer in Medina counts for 1000, and a prayer in Mecca counts for 2000.)

Afterward, I went to the back of the crowd, and there were a group of girls there, about our age, singing and dancing. They pulled about 4 BYU girls into the circle and danced with us. It was so cool! Usually the women don't dance, but I guess this was okay because it was all younger women. We got to talk to a couple of the girls, and it was very interesting.

Just now, I was sitting by a window studying (since we're up on Mt. Scopus, we can see most of Jerusalem from here) and then someone sitting near me saw a giant column of smoke rising from Old Jerusalem . We went outside to look and saw flames, so I started worrying that there had been a huge accident of some sort. The security here at the center said not to worry, it was probably just a house or a store on fire, but it was the first time I have ever seen anything like that. I guess we see every fire that goes on from here because of our view.

I started learning Hebrew yesterday! Evidently, the letters in Hebrew are basically just consonants, but then the vowel sound that should accompany each consonant is indicated by dots or lines underneath the letter, like a subscript.

Then last night someone from the U.S. embassy in Israel came and spoke to us. His name was Stuart Tuttle—he's LDS and has worked in the foreign service in several countries, but has been here in Israel for the last four years. He reviewed the whole Israel-Palestine conflict for us, starting with World War I, and then explained what the issues are today in trying to make peace. It was amazing! I have never really understood what was going on over here, but now I finally think I do. Mr. Tuttle explained who owned this area in the first place (the Ottoman Empire), how the Jews started moving in, how they were able to create a country, and why both sides are unhappy with the current situation. It was so interesting and really helpful. 

Today we had a lot of free time, so I went shopping in old Jerusalem. There is one Palestinian merchant in the Christian quarter named Shaban who is very friendly with the BYU Jerusalem students. I think he's had kind of an informal association with the center for a few years, because he sells Jerusalem  scripture cases (that he made himself) and BYU Jerusalem T-shirts in his shop. :-) He's a really nice guy, too--whenever we go into his shop, he pours everyone juice. He says, "First drink, then shop!" and he tells us to just pour ourselves something to drink whenever he's not there. One of the faculty showed us his store on our first day here, so they're all on good terms and we can feel safe shopping there.

At the other stores, though, we have to haggle. They tell you a price, and then you say, "Oh, but I only brought this much," and then you say a much lower, but still reasonable, amount. Then they'll say that there's no way they can sell you something for so little, so then you start to walk away, and they'll give in. I haven't done it yet, but we today one of the girls shopping with me did a pretty good job with it. It was a good natured process, just kind of a game.

First Week in Jerusalem

I am currently at the BYU Jerusalem Center! It is a beautiful building, made mostly out of limestone, and it is up near the top of Mt. Scopus looking out over Jerusalem. I've been here since last Wednesday. I'm going to try updating here as often as possible as I start to see more of the city and travel around to Egypt, Jordan, and the Galilee. 

The old part of Jerusalem is currently enclosed by a kind of fortress wall built in the 1500's. It only costs 8 shekels (about $2) to go up to the top of the wall and walk around the perimeter of city, so a group of us went and did that today. It was very interesting! Jerusalem is a multi-layered city. Its streets are built on top of layers of rock from ruins of the ancient city, and then there are gardens and buildings and trees planted on the rooftops of those buildings. So sometimes when we were on the wall we were very high up from the ground, but then we would come to a stretch where the rooftops would become the new ground level, so we would feel much closer to the ground. There are actually giant palm trees and houses just sitting on the roofs--it's very pretty.

I might post a few photos later, but the Internet connection here is small and we're not supposed to do a lot with pictures over the Internet! They don't really capture the feeling, anyway, but some of them are fun to look at.