The End of Egypt...

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ORIGINAL POST: 11 Feb 2008
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And as promised, the final installment of my Egypt trip.

I visited the country that has had more of an impact on more ancient history events than almost any other country in the world.

Many major religions of our time have Egypt in them some way or another. It may not have been the cradle of civilization - I think the area around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers claim that... but Egyptian civilization made civilization "civilized."

And now, the climax came with the site where Moses lived and was taught the ways of Egypt... maybe where he battled with the Pharaohs to let his people go...

Luxor Temple.

If you picture the ultimate Egyptian Temple... this is it.

And, to see it at night... doubly so!

All sorts of fun and colorful descriptive words could be strung together to describe this place... but it just doesn't do any of this place justice.

And to compound that, Osmon sat us down and told us the whole story of this place...

...where young noblemen like Moses sat at the feet of the wisest in Egypt to learn history, philosophy, and religion.

So, in the shadow of the history of this place...

No words...

We left Luxor and headed back up the railway on another overnight train. By this time, I was thoroughly sick... I woke up having felt like I had not slept. And the little guy came around and woke us up for breakfast at 4:15am. That was a bad thing...

So, the next day, we made our way from Giza to Alexandria. And Alexandria is a completely different feel from all the other Egyptian inner cities.

The oldest areas being still lived in for all of Egypt.



And Alexandria had some pretty awesome Catacombs - the largest (in size) anywhere. No pictures, though. Its completely off limits. Sometimes I wish I had a DigiLux or something very small that would be hide-able... instead of the SLR. Not even the Leica could get in there...

Pretty cool stuff... 300 places... 800 bodies stored there... a hiding place for early Christians...

Then there was the Pilar and the surrounding ruins of old Alexandria.

There was a smaller library there and some more catacombs. And one giant column on a hill.

Not really sure about that perspective from 18mm. I promise it wasn't falling over... It was straight.

;)

And more really crazy cool areas of town...

Very very picturesque...

I wish I could have walked around this town for a whole day... but I was rather miserable at this point and just wanted to find a Kleenex...

I love Alexandria.

More from the lifestyles of the absurdly rich and famous...

And those killer views...

From almost any place in this entire city, you can see the Mediterranean.

And the new(er) castle that sits on the site of the 7th Wonder of the World: the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

And finish the night with a nice little carriage ride...

We departed the next morning...

To be all kinds of corny, I can honestly say Egypt has done wonders for my idea of the world. To visit Europe is one thing... and to visit some tiny African country with rampant poverty is another... but neither can capture both the bizarre and the mundane, the rich and the poor, the West, the East, the Middle East, and the Heart of Darkness - as well as this country on a minute to minute and block to block basis.

Egypt is insanely beautiful.


Egypt is majestic beyond compare.


Egypt is fully modern.


Egypt is steeped in traditions as old as civilization itself.


All this culminates to make for one trip that I will take to my grave as an amazing memory. When I look at the little alabaster figurine sitting on my desk when I'm 85 years old... I will remember these 8 days as something that completely changed the way I look at the world.

Can it really be that profound? Or did I just have an emotional experience because of sleep deprivation...?

Try it... that's the only way you'll know...

I hope these few shots have given you some insight as to where I've been and I hope I conveyed it well though my lens.

~Noah D.