Mosque of Mohammad Ali, Mt. Sinai, and the Red Sea

We are back in Cairo after 3 days in Luxor and a train ride of death. They tried to get us with the food....they thought they could give us a little pharoah's revenge, or Cairo's quick step. We rode all night on the train and it arrived in Cairo at 4 so all of us were dead all day long. It was an experience I don't really want to repeat but I'm glad we get to try everything.




















Here is the Mosque of Mohammad Ali. It is considered 1 of the seven wonders of the world in the Medieval Ages. It was spectacular and great.















Here on our way out of Egypt we stopped at this Oasis. The children of Israel would have stopped in places like this for a while to drink and fill up on water.





















This is atop mount Sinai!! We made it to the top after waking up at 2 and hiking for 2 or 3 hours...can't remember how long. On top it was very cold and so we had to stay together to keep warm. We had a great spot to cover from the wind and watch the sunrise.















Here is the first sighting of the sun! It was beautiful to be there and contemplate about God's creations upon mt. Sinai.















Basking in the warm sun was a must!! It was so nice and beautiful!















This is the pool of Elisha on top of Mt. Sinai. We had a great testimony meeting there.




















This is coming down the Mt. Sinai. It'll kill anyones knees but we had a good hike coming down.


















These christians built this monastery around Moses's supposedly burning bush in the 12th or 13th century. I love the claim to fame they all have for sacred objects in the Old testament. I am standing under "The Burning Bush".















On our way home we stopped for lunch by the Red Sea. It was so beautiful to be on the beach again after the desert of Sinai.















Which is better? The pyramid or the lovely Sphinxes...

Karnak and Luxor Temple

After Cairo we flew down the nile to Luxor. This is the place that is famous for the Valley of the kings, Karnak, and Luxor Temple.















This is my first ride on a camel!! It's name was Sonja and I will never forget it!
I couldn't believe how high you are when riding a camel. Everything else was the same as a horse, which I am already pro at,of course! It was a fun ride.















Here is part of our group that all rode camels. We look like a caravan...















Here is the nile river and all the sail boat that run up and down it. It is really cool though because the water flows south to north and the wind goes north to south. So it would have made it easy for them to trade back in the day.















This is probably the coolest picture I took while in Egypt!! I absolutely love the sunset and sailboats on the nile.















This is our first get away into Luxor to go bargin with the traders. It was hilarious and we had a great time trying not to get ripped off. We got some cool cheap stuff though. The general rule of trading is; no matter how good you have bargined the price down and think you are getting a good deal, you are still getting ripped off! Don't worry it happens to everyone.















This is a model of Karnak, the coolest place on earth!!! This place blew me away at how grand and big this place is. It is the biggest building on earth. Streaching across 52 acres of land!!! It was great!



















Here is one pillar of the 96 that are found there. This column represents the lotus flower and is huge. We learned when we were there how they built these massive columns, oblisks, and great statues. It really is stunning how they did all that in that day.















Here we are with eight of us one pillar! These are huge and so of course we had to make a james bond movie while we were there!! It was fun to run and play inbetween all the columns!










This is a little part of Karnak. The picture doesn't give it justice but really was a cool place.



















Here is an obelisk built by Queen Hatshepsut that was taken down by her son again!! It is amazing how tall these are. Our tour guide drew in the sand describing how they built this massive peice of one rock!















Here at Luxor Temple they have these sphinx gaurding the entrance of the temple. 5000 years ago the entrance was 2 miles long lined with these things. The archeologist are still uncovering these things.















Here I am in front of Luxor Temple! It was a pretty great place but I think Karnak spoiled the greatness of it.














Here we are in front of the statues of the pharoahs. My pharoah's head got lobbed off and defaced by the muslims

If you guys want more detail or stories to go along with it you should comment on some of my blogs. I have no idea how many people look at my blog right now.

Pyramids of Giza and Temple of Hatshepsut

Finally, after a 2 day of traveling we arrived in Cairo, Egypt!!! This is the first site of the pyramids for us from the bus!! We were screaming and yelling because we had finally arrived and can see the pyramids!













The traffic was crazy!! Yes it is true the painted lines on the road don't matter. No one even cares about them. There was 4 painted white lanes but 13 lanes of traffic going down the freeway and not only cars, people would run across, also camels and donkeys trying to share the road too! It was so fun!! I enjoyed the chaotic roads. I'm just glad that I wasn't driving.













Early the next morning we went to the Pyramids of Giza!! They are giant and have been the tallest building on earth up until modern time. We went to a sound and light show the night before and it was so cheezy! "Man fears time, but time fears the pyramids" It was wonderful and grand to be there. We squeezed inside the clostrophobic tunnels and made it into the center. We sang some hymns that really sounded great! We were like the tabernacle choir just in a pyramid in Egypt! While we were inside I layed the tomb of one of the kings. It got very hot inside but it sure was a great experience!














Arn't the pyramids great!!! Here at the view point of the three main pyramids random arab men put turbins on your head and take a picture for you. Of course there is always a charge after its all done and over.

Just another picture of the great pyramids with it's gaurdian, the sphinx! Yeah, that stinken napolean shooting its nose off. Did you know that the pyramid's top was plated with gold to shine as a beacon to all world. It really would have been impressive in it's day.

A sweet kiss from a 5000 year old sphinx!!

Queen Hatshepsut's tomb! It was wonderful and great. She was the first Queen to rule Egypt.















These are some monuments of Queen Hatshepsut that lined the outer columns. There used to be one for every column but they were destroyed by her son.



















Queen Hatshepsut and her son, Prince Bush!



















A heiroglypic falcon. I think it has the B sound. We saw heiroglypics here all over the place!














This is the place where the mummies and the book of Abraham and book of Joesph where found and later were bought by the church and translated by Joseph Smith.

Traveling to Egypt...

These are a few of the Pictures of our 2 day travel to Egypt! Sorry they are backwards in order of how they happened, even though you wouldn't know that....

Anyway, we left the JC(Jerusalem Center) at 5 in the morning and began our travels to Egypt. We took many many breaks and we went on a lot of small fieldtrips in between. It was really nice cause we would ride for about an hour then we would get out some significant place and wander around and look at it. It was nice easy travel and I never really did get tired. I did though right when we left the JC took pictures of everyone sleeping on the bus. It was hlarious because that was the first time I have ever riden a bus here when it's quiet.

In backwards order...Here is the last place that we visited and stayed the night on the first day of travels. It's called a Kaboose where a group of Jewish people have gathered and live together. Their main source of money is their cows milk that they send all over the world. It's just a community of 300 people and they all have different jobs and the same salaries. They all work for the common good of the community and it works out really well. It reminded me of a minature Zion really. We had a person from the community take us around their entire place and inform us about what they all do. It really was a nice simple way of life. Not much worries there...



The place kaboose that we went to is actually pretty famous. They invented the drip line here!! Pretty cool, huh!! The Food really was great there, and they were very kind to us. I even drank some of their famous Chocholate MILK and it was pretty good!










These are ruins that we went to on our way to Egypt. They were very cool to see. There were some caves that we could discover and climb through. It was quite the adventure!! This place helped to protect caravans coming through the valley along the spice road. It had been a little vandalized by the Bedowin, who are nomads and roam the countryside, because the state of Isreal won't recognize some of theirs settlements and help them to build roads, school, and water. It is quite a problem and to retaliate they came to these sacred ruins and knocked down many pillars.
It is crazy to not only understand the ancient history of this land but the modern. It can get very complicated!














This is a great look out point into the Judean Wilderness. Also this is the grave site of the First President and his wife. People put rocks on their graves to show respect and reverence, also because they're not too many flowers around here. I have other pictures of this Judean wilderness that show the valley where the children of Isreal would have walked through.















This is a picture of the Judean wilderness again but here is a hugenormous rift that has created a great valley. The children of Israel would have walked here too. After coming to all these places of desolant desert I have much more sympathy for the children of Israel. I think I would have complained a little bit too... 40 years in this desert would have been quite a trial for me.


















While we were there we had to have a little nativity moment with this perfect spot.
Do I look a little sheepish? baaa...

Beware of danger! Hard hat required!!
















We are in a tel of Beersheba. It was a cool place. Oh, I remember...here is where Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac all lived. When Joesph had been sold into egypt this the place that Jacob was living. There was also a famous well here with the first water system in the area. It had rained super hard the day before and everything was flooded so we couldn't go inside and see.












A picture of Jerico tel. One of the oldest cities in the entire world!!















This is the tree of Zacharias who was of small stature and climbed up the tree to see Jesus traveling through town.















At Jerico they have uncovered parts of the old city. This tower, which is now 100 feet under the actual ground, is the oldest building in the world! Crazy eh!

Garden Tomb and Jerusalem

On saturday we went to the Garden Tomb and this is supposedly golotha where Christ was crucifed upon. Golotha means place of the skull. Can you see where they get that from? It looks like there is a skull in mountian doesn't it.



Here is a picture of the Dome of the Rock at night time. Usually we can't be out in the East part of the city at night but we went as a group to see the Jews open up the Sabbath, on friday night, at the western wall. We saw that the Dome was all light up so we had to take a picture of it. It's pretty huh!



This is the Garden Tomb that Jesus's body laid in for 3 days.
After we went and looked inside, as a group we all sat around and sang hymns of Christ's Atonement, Ressurection, and Life. It really was powerful to be where He laid and finished His mortal ministry and sing hymns about it.




This is a view of the city of Jerusalem from the Jerusalem Center. I really was a pretty sunset that night.

After the Garden Tomb and on our way out there were some Israeli soldiers. They were kind enough to let me take a picture of them with me.

I love the gun and scripture combo! Boo yeah!

The Conquest!!

Today we went on our Conquest Field trip. We traveled to Jericho, the Judean Wilderness, and to the monastery of temptation up this mountain.

He is Taeler, Marisa, and Maddision, and I at the top of this look out of the Judean Wilderness. This is where Jesus prayed and fasted for 40 days. Here is where the parable of the good samaritan takes place, even though it is fiction it fits the conditions perfectly. We read it while we were atop and it was cool to actually see it with your own eyes. Usually it is dry, hot, and if you didn't have water here you surely would die. Luckly, suprising even to our professors, it was raining atop this look out.










Here is the til, an archeological site or ruins, of the oldest and lowest city in the world Jericho. Archeologist have uncovered this tower and lots of other things that date back thousands of years.






Here I am in front of the Monastery of Temptation. We climbed and climbed up this mountian to get up to the place where Satan supposedly tempted Jesus to turn a rock into a bread. This monastery was built in the 1200's so really they would have no idea but they claim to!! Everything around here is claimed for one thing or another. It's funny.





There were some other groups up there some Greek othodox and russian othodox christians. Here they are in this picture kissing the rock and praying to it because this is "said" to be the actual stone that satan tempted Jesus with. Just seems like a great reason to get some free money but it is cool to see anyway.



This is taking our hick up the mountain to get to the monastery. Here in the back is the city of Jericho and the dead sea(lowest place on earth).






I love this picture!! A camel looking out into the Judean Wilderness, just hoping he doesn't have to go travel across it.