One Day on the Mount of Olives

On our recent sojourn in Israel, the lovely Robin and I were walking (with our group) the traditional Palm Sunday route down the Mount of Olives.

As we came out of the Dominus Flevit Church grounds, I noticed a young man taking pictures, and trailing behind us but mostly following the same route. He immediately reminded me of Shane Claiborne, the author of The Irresistible Revolution, which I had read a year or two ago:

I kept sneaking looks at him and couldn't shake the suspicion that this was a fellow author. So after a while, I hung back a little and finally approached him.

"I'm sorry to bother you," I said, "but are you Shane Claiborne?"

He smiled. "I get that a lot," he said. Then added with a bigger smile, "Yeah, I'm Shane Claiborne."

I thanked him for his book and then left him alone, continuing my journey down the Mount of Olives.

Strangest thing, though. He never asked, "Are you Bob Hostetler?"

Pictures of the Places We Couldn't Take Pictures (Pt. 4)

The final installment of this four-part feature, "Pictures of the Places We Couldn't Take Pictures," on our recent trip to Jordan, Israel, and Egypt, is found in Giza, near Cairo.

WIth my friend Chris, I had the joy of actually entering into one of the Giza pyramids, the Khafre pyramid, second-largest of the three (and located between the other two). We entered through the lower entrance on the diagram below:

Initially, the lovely Robin and Chris's mom Sandy were with us, but almost immediately upon entering the passageway shown below, it was apparent that the tight confines, which necessitated either schooching on one's rear end or walking while bent double, would have resulted in injury to backs and psyches:

After a long and increasingly stuffy journey down, then level, then up again, we arrived in the burial chamber at the pyramid's center. The first pic, below, is the view looking back down the way we came:

With the exception of its ceiling, the burial chamber was excavated completely out of the rock. Located over the pyramid's base, the burial chamber's gabled ceiling is built from enormous pented, limestone blocks.

Near the west wall of the burial chamber, almost directly under the vertical axis of the pyramid and situated within a niche stands the black granite sarcophagus of the king that originally was surmounted by a sliding lid. The lid was found in two pieces close by.

Though there wasn't much to see once we got to the burial chamber, it was immensely satisfying (and instructional) to have actually walked to and stood in the center of the ancient structure.

Pictures of the Places We Couldn't Take Pictures (Pt. 3)

Two days ago, I started this blog feature of the places (all in Egypt, curiously) we couldn't take pictures during our recent journeys. One of those was the glorious Egyptian Museum in Cairo:

The Egyptian Museum and the Treasures of King Tut

The Egyptian Museum is situated at Tahrir square in Cairo. It was built during the reign of Khedive Abbass Helmi II in 1897, and opened on November 15, 1902. It has 107 halls. On the ground floor are huge statues of Pharoahs, mummification beds, and stone monuments. The upper floor houses small statues, jewels, Tutankhamen treasures and the mummies.

The King Tut wing on the second floor was absolutely breathtaking. Words can't describe the sheer volume of unbelievably beautiful, perfectly preserved treasures, like (of course) the famous gold mask:

And case after case, display on display of fine jewelry, like this pectoral plate:

Not to mention (but I will) games the boy-king played:

And something like a half-dozen beds, including a well-preserved folding camp bed! And more. So much more. In fact, one of my few regrets from our recent trip is that we went here on our first day in Egypt, after rising early in Jordan and flying to Cairo and visiting the tomb of Anwar Sadat....we were all so tired after just a couple hours in the museum, we could think only of getting to the hotel and resting. A few of our group actually went BACK to the museum our last day in Egypt, as we had some free time. It was worthy of a lot more time than we were able to give it.

Pictures of the Places We Couldn't Take Pictures (Pt. 2)

Continuing our memories of the places we weren't allowed to take pictures on our recent sojourn in Egypt, right nearby the Church of the Holy Family (featured yesterday) is today's site.

The Ben Ezra Synagogue

The famous Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo was originally a Christian church, which the Coptic Christians of Cairo had to sell to the Jews in 882 AD in order to pay the annual taxes imposed by the Muslim rulers of the time. The church was purchased by Abraham Ben Ezra, who came from Jerusalem during the reign of Ahmed Ibn Tulun, for 20,000 dinars.

The synagogue was a place of pilgrimage for North African Jews and the site of major festival celebrations. The famous medieval rabbi Moses Maimonides worshipped at Ben Ezra synagogue when he lived in Cairo.

Pictures of the Places We Couldn't Take Pictures (Pt. 1)

On our recent trip to Jordan, Israel, and Egypt, there were a handful of sites where we were not allowed to take pictures; interestingly enough, they all happened to be in Egypt. Fortunately, through the miracle of "the internets," we are able to share those sights on this blog.

The Church of the Holy Family

This church, also called the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (Abu Serga) is a 4th century church and today is considered to be the oldest of Cairo's Christian churches. It is dedicated to two early martyrs and traditionally believed to have been built on the spot where Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus rested at the end of their journey into Egypt. They may have lived here while Joseph worked nearby. The church is dedicated to Sergius and Bacchus, who were soldier-saints that were martyred during the 4th century in Syria by the Roman Emperor, Maximilan.

The entrance to the church (above) is a nondescript entrance off a narrow street. I'm not sure you'd find it if you didn't know where to look! The building was probably constructed during the 5th century. It was burned during the fire of Fustat during the reign of Marwan II around 750. It was then restored during the 8th century, and has been rebuilt and restored constantly since medieval times.

It is considered to be a model of the early Coptic churches and its basilican style is easily recognizable. It has two aisles with a western return aisle (a passage at the west end of the church), along with a tripartite sanctuary that measures 17 x 27 meters and is 15 meters high. Within the sanctuary is an altar surmounted by a wooden canopy supported by four pillars. On the east wall of the sanctuary rises a fine, semi-circular tribune with seven steps. There was probably a khurus, a transverse room preceding the sanctuary, in front of the sanctuary, but if so it no longer exists.

On one side of the apse is an ancient entrance to a crypt (below), which contains the remains of the original church where tradition says the Holy Family lived in Egypt. Unfortunately, this area of the church has sometimes been inaccessible due to the presence of subterranean water (we could only stand at the railing and look down into it). Originally this crypt, which is under the modern sanctuary, was itself the sanctuary of the church, but became the crypt after the larger church was built.

Here We Are, There We Are

From time to time, someone complains that my photos of my travels with the lovely Robin seldom seem to feature the two of us standing in front of the sight. This is because we already have pictures of us; it's pictures of the sights we don't have. But, to satisfy the demands of our fans (both of them), here we are inside the Dominus Flevit ("The Lord wept") Church on the Mount of Olives:

And there we are by the Mediterranean Sea (those are seashells from the seashore in my hands):

And here we are outside the Church of the Anunciation in Nazareth (I was just getting ready to say, "Hey, chica, let's ditch these losers and have us some fun!"):

And there we are in our Pyramids Park Hotel in Cairo:

And here we are with others in our Egypt group in a nice outdoor restaurant:

And there we are riding a camel at the pyramids (we learned that Robin can scream AND smile for the camera and wave, all at the same time):

And here we are in the Egyptian version of WalMart:

And there we are at the Tomb of Hatshepsut, the female Pharoah:

And here we are at Karnak Temple:



There are, of course, several lessons to be learned:
1) The lovely Robin travels much better than me
2) I really like the cute little fatigue cap she wore
3) The lovely Robin is very kind to stay with a decrepit old man like me (but then, we already knew that, didn't we, class?).

At Last: Another Lunch with Miles

After something like FIVE weeks, I finally got to take my little man, Miles, out to "McDONALD'S!!!" again today (trips to Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and Denver intervened, and then a snowstorm derailed our lunch between Egypt and Denver). But, as usual, it was a rewarding and informative time together.

Miles told me all about his toy trains, and about the dinosaur mommy who got mad at somebody....apparently, really mad. He also loved his toy "racer" from his happy meal.

It's just too much fun to spend time with him. And, as you might infer from the pictures, he is an increasingly charming, expressive, and demonstrative young man. And an only SLIGHTLY messy eater.