Illustrations of my sixth grade ancient history textbook. Living. Breathing.
Ta-da. Outside the pyramid of Khufu, this morning. The largest in the world. Khufu is the sole Wonder of the World still in existence of the seven. And unlike most monuments of significance, bigger in real life.
I barely squeezed this post through here, as blogger.com is undergoing maintenance, and error messages kept popping up. I have oodles of pyramid and Sphinx photos, and, after trial and error, it may be a couple of days. Blogger typically needs to run server checks, but, it's the weekend, I'll be very busy with classes beginning tomorrow.
So, everyone, have a great weekend!
And, in order to keep this page tight and sleek, I am setting the six most recent posts as the maximum for the main page. To access the others, just look to the left, and they can all be found under their respective week, or with hyperlinks under "Previous Posts."
posted by Sasha @ 14:47
5 Comments:
Hey, it's Will (from Latin)that's pretty cool that you had the opportunity to see the Sphinx and Pyramids in person. I have always wondered what is the relative size of the Spinx to an object such as a house. In Latin, we just finished up the adventures of Publius and Furianus, and your studies in Egypt resemble their travels to Greece. So the rest of us in the indepenent study (Tina and I have decided to write the Adventures of Publius, Furianus, and Sasha. So far we've got: Publius, Furianus, et Sashae iunt Egypto(not sure what declension) per scholae. Celere navigant et pervenient. Nox petint multos populos quos essent Muslim. Tam ille sextum diem ad cultandum Deum. That's all we have, but it's a start. Hope all is well.
Hey Will!
I have been thinking about our Latin crew, how much I miss our mornings in the teacher's lounge there.
I have my own story? That is so cool. At least you were kind enough not to have killed off Publius and Furianus.
Let me let you in on a little secret. The Sphinx...it's tiny. Okay, not "tiny," but it is so much smaller than I thought it was. It's perhaps about half of Hingham High School, and one story taller.
The pyramids are very impressive however. Particularly Khufu. We went inside Khafre, slightly smaller, but we crawled through a series of tunnels only about three feet high. It was one of the wildest things I have ever done, up and down these steep ramps, into where the sarcophogus is in this great big (not too big) room, where inscribed on the wall is "Scoperta da G. Belzoni 2 Mar. 1818" in black paint (that was cooler) written by the guy who found it.
And your story looks awesome, I'll have to send a chapter or something. Next weekend we're going to Alexandria, where there is a Roman amphitheter, and the pillar of Pompei (I think) and catacombs, so, we now have a Greco-Roman component.
Say "hi" to Tina, and I hope to hear from you guys soon.
Hi Sash,
It's Jen. Interesting that the Sphinx is smaller than one would think. Maybe you have invented a whole new scale of measurement, "The Hingham High Standard".
I don't really know what the "tourist" season is in Egypt. Was it very crowded or were you able to amble about unbothered?
I have been told to stay off my feet as much as possible in these last weeks of baby gestatin'. Your trip inspired me to pull out the old "Cairo Trilogy" by Mahfouz and at least share the experience through fiction.
Good luck with classes today. Hope you start dreaming in Arabic soon. (Don't be surprised if one of your other foreign languages starts popping to your tongue before Arabic. It's really common for that to happen.)
Take care.
Love, Jen
Hey Jen!
I need to buy myself a set of the Cairo trilogy too. The AUC has a superb bookstore. Heaven--with every book on the Middle East, Arab culture and Arabic one could possibly imagine. I find myself increasingly absorbed into Cairo.
It's so funny you should mention the language mix-ups. My mind has started working in French on numerous occasions since arriving here, including in class today.
We have different teachers for reading, writing, speaking and listening, although, for the first week, all four are bundled to get us on our feet. It's strange, I love speaking, and listening, but I am not so into the writing (the alphabet being the obvious barrier, but, if you look at it like a fun jigsaw puzzle, some of confusion is alleviated), and it was the inverse when I began French.
Arabic just sounds cool. Although I find myself applying French sounds, which resulted in an amusing dialogue between one of my teachers and I today as I attempted the word for bed, "sareer" and was Frenchifying it if you will. I did that with Spanish too.
Ahh, tourists. Most guide books discourage visiting in the summer, given the exorbitant temperatures and exacerbation of pollution, but, that didn't prevent a decent turn-out at the Pyramids. One of the most diverse crowds I've seen for a tourist spot, but, even with dozens of tour buses parked (right on this very, very steep ledge), there didn't appear to be that many there. The site is deceiving, since people are dispersed across acres and acres, inside the Pyramids, on the other side. You never feel crowded. The only shelter is a museum with a reconstructed boat, and then below is Giza (an outcropping of Cairo), and then, desert. Aside from little boys selling fake papyrus bookmarks, and all the tour buses, it somehow feels a little edgier and raw. Especially crawling into Khafre.
The best time to visit is January and February I would say, and perhaps there are more tourists then. But, I did however slip into the Cairo Marriott to take a peek, and it was empty. This desolate resort, pool, sprawling cafe. I don't know if that's normal, or, just the wrong time of day I was there.
Anyhow. Bedrest, eh? When did you stop teaching, or did you plow through the school year until now? And I have a new idea, you should raise Liam bilingual, with Spanish. That would be cool. Okay, now I am giving parenting advice, I'll stop. Have a great few more weeks, I can't wait!
Love,
Sash
Hey Ms Roth
Climbing into a pyramid...would never fail to excite...just wondering what it was like, and how scary it must have been for the first European explorations inside. Totally dark, and uncertainty as to what is lurking behind the next bend. And yet, in such a confined space in 2005, with no tourist people, you still have a sense of being on your own.
I am in my element here. Egypt is saturated beyond the point of comprehension with history, palaces, mosques, pyramids, buildings, libraries...SO MUCH! And after listening to some of our lecturers last Sunday, what differentiates Cairo, and Egypt, is the fact people just kept building, upward and outward. Nothing was torn down, wildly renovated. The last 4000 plus years have physically culminated and exist in harmony in what you see today. Being conquered time and again, Egypt just continues to absorb its inhabitants.
From what I see on my Yahoo! automated weather for Hingham, MA, it certainly has been icky there, 95 degrees I hear? It's also 95 plus everyday, but dry, and very pleasant in the morning and evening.
Take care and keep reading!
Sash
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