Traveling Jones

Our second full day in Cairo — Met our tour guide Mohamed again in the morning and went to Coptic Cairo, part of Old Cairo where the 3 major religions have coexisted peacefully for centuries. We visited “the Hanging Church,” otherwise known as Saint Virgin Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church, a church dating back to the 3rd century. It was built on the ruins of a Roman fortress and “hangs” over it with open space underneath. This was also the site where Mary and Jesus hid for several months during her time in Egypt. Memorials containing the bones of famous martyrs One of close to 100 icons (religious paintings), some dating back 1700 years! The site where Jesus supposedly slept as an infant (it looks suspiciously like a pizza oven!) The second half of our day was spent at the National Museum of Egyptian Culture, which contained most of the mummies of the pharaohs (we must have seen at least 20 of their corpses today!).  No photography allowed in that part unfortunately.  Otherwise, ...

Phenomenal day packed full of must-see sights. Met our tour guide Mohamed at our hotel and we drove up the Nile to Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt to which the Tennessee city owes its namesake (due to its proximity to a great river). There, we saw the famous and colossal statue of Ramses II. We then drove another short distance to Saqqara where we saw the oldest pyramid in Egypt, known informally as the “step pyramid.”  We actually went inside another pyramid, walking down a narrow 4ft high passage for 100+ feet. Then toured a neighboring tomb. Odd, in the sense that it was never intended to hold a body, more of a “day in the life” commemoration of the deceased - very cool hieroglyphics.  Finally, back in the car for another insane Egyptian drive to the Giza plateau, 8 miles southwest of Cairo. However, not before a stopped at the rug weaving center where we finally bought a rug . . . . The big moment of the day, finally seeing the Great Pyramid appear over the horizon b...