The Trip To Egypt, 2004

 Jim Hayes' Web Pages

Egypt Home
Day 1, Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Day 2, Pyramids and Sphinx At Giza
Day 3, Dahshur (Bent and Red Pyramid),
Day 3a, Sakkara (Stepped Pyramid)
Day 4, Abu Simbel
Day 4a, Aswan
Day 5, Philae Temple
Day 5a, Kom Ombo Temple
Day 6, Edfu Temple
Day 6a, Esna Temple
Day 7, Luxor, Medinet Habu, Village of Deir El Medina
Day 7a,Temple of Hatshepsut
Day 8, Valley of the Kings
Day 8a, Valley of the Queens, Luxor Museum
Day 9, Luxor, Tut's Tomb
Day 9a, Temples of Karnak and Luxor
Day 10/11, Cairo, Museum, Manial Palace, Churches and Mosque
On To Jordan

 

 

 Jan's Notes  Jan's Photos And Comments

Jordan Wednesday
"P" is hard for Arabic speakers to say so they say "b".

Constitutional monarchy. Senators appointed by the king. Lower house has 7 women. Women required by quota in the '80's. Lower house elected by the people.

Amman to Jerusalem = one hour drive
95% Muslim
5% Christian and 85% of those 5% are Greek Orthodox. Discrimination not allowed. Guide's father married Islamic & Jewish women so his family is Jewish. Circassians from Russia. All inter-married. 6th Century AD started Christ. Conversion to Islam after 6th c.

Amman is the capital. Came from Ammonites who lived there, now called Amorite. Petra was one of 4 Canaanite kingdoms, the Edomites from the Book of Numbers, Chapters 21-23. Iraq was Palestine = Amorite. Abraham was Amorite. Abraham was the first to believe in 1 God 2000 BC.

Emigrated from Mesopotamia after God saved him from burning at the state. Moved from Iraq to Syria to Jordan to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was built in 3000 BC but 10000 BC was inhabited. 27 different names=Yeboose
Elina Captolina=Roman. First name was hor (city) + salem (peace) so city of Salem or city of peace.

Settled in Jerusalem although desert because allowed to believe in one God & not idols.

City of Madoba: St. Georgio's Church to see mosaics in church; 50/50 Islam & Christian.

6th C-Ottomans allowed only re-use of existing church. Christians arrived from Karnak & found this church and could rebuilt it in 1880AD. Built by 1900 (completed) & now a Gk. Orthodox church.

Education: public ($30/year) and private.

Mosaic by Sulimanos (Greek ending). 6th century AD; 11,000 hours of work to show pilgrims what to see in the Christian area of Jerusalem to Turkey & Egypt. Greek writing because that was the official church language then. Map shows Jerusalem, Damascus, Roman Camp where it's believed J.C. was crucified. 12 spots of Israelites,.

Mount Nebo
Ael ending =God
Abd in Arabic = slave
99 names & camel only knows the 1 secret actual name of God.

18+81=99: lines of the hand show these numbers=the name of God.

Alkharim=slave of generous (kharim=generous)
Isr-ael=coming to God
Gabriel=power of God
Michael = place of God.

Muslim belief is God is always with you watching. Mosque is only for community relations.

Ishmael=oldest & best son of Abraham.
Isma=listen, obey
So OK for his father to kill him for the God who rescinds the order of Abraham to kill Ishmael at the last minute since they proved their faith.

Matoba (Medova in the Bible)=fruit juice springs originally. Matoba now means table filled with food. Best wine.

Moshe=Moses
Water son of

Sahara=desert in 'Arabic.

Mosaics on floor-many explanations
726 AD monks felt sorry to destroy the floor tiles so paved over it; Greek language of inscriptions because Greek was official language.
Represents types of society of the 6th century in this area: slaves, traders, monks, pilgrims, fighters.
3rd & 4th c. AD maybe
Nabatean temple then later Roman, later Christian; originally was Roman basilica
Sulimanos did the mosaic in Byzantine period: 6th

Jordan-95% desert.
Fertile soil but not water. Poor get water once a month from water tanks.

Israel prevents access to water.
2 aquifers left out of 8
From north river (Yermunk River) between Jordan, Syria & Israel. Israel supposed to give back land to Syria that Israel occupied but won't give back the water part. (Hmm. Obviously a sore point.)
Illiteracy less than 10% mostly Bedouin women.
1.5 million students out of a total pop. of 5 million.
21 universities
850 schools (private + public)

Bedouins:
Black goat hair winter tents
White sheep wool summer tents
Can't usually have both so have black (can't afford both)

Rocks
Under water up till 45 million years. Wadi Rum = major road stop for incense. Petra was on the silk road. Wadi Run on incense road.
Asian plates connect with African. Jordan begins at edge of Asian plate & Egypt at end of African plate.

Petra
They had triad-based religion also. Water system formed by shift in tectonic plates & they refined it. Source of water was actually outside Petra but their enemies thought it was inside. Carefully kept secret! Greek & Roman visitors left graffiti. Nabateans were from Yemen or Bahrain and skilled in water management. Pre-Nabateans were Edomites.
8th c AD Edomites were shepherd. They chose the location because it was well-fortified & fertile & on pilgrimage routes. Nabateans took over Edomites. Connected to other civilizations. The famous Cleopatra was the 7th Cleopatra out of 14. Cleopatra asked for tax from the Nabateans. They were angry. Nabateans burned her army. Marc Antony lost that fight. Herodotus promised Salome _ the kingdom but she asked for the head of St. John the Baptist instead. Herodotus' first wife was the daughter of King Aritus who was King of Nabateans. 62 BC Romans came. Herodotus asked for Roman support. King Arites withdrew from Roman's 4,000 troops. Then the Greeks tried to enter the Nabatean's city during a feast to steal their treasure. No one noticed this incursion which showed how big the city was. The Nabateans won, however and killed most of the Greek army. The Greek leader was Anigones. Greeks wrote a letter to apologize. Nabateans paid 300 talens to the Greeks to show they still had Nabatean loyalty despite defeating the Greek army. 1 talen=6,000 drachmae so a lot of money. Basically the Nabateans bought peace from the Greeks. But the Greeks tried to take over the Nabateans a 2nd time but the Nabateans closed their gates. Then the Nabateans paid 600 Talens (a huge sum) + silk, cotton, perfume to try to get peace once & for all. Greek leader returned to his father to say, look, I won, I got a huge bribe. His father said, you are a foolish boy. By signing a treaty you are agreeing they are equal to us, the Greek empire! After that the Nabateans' fought against the southern part of Israel.

Afat named after Afda-Nabatean King. In the Roman period the trade routes shifted & 2 big earthquakes destroyed the city of Petra: 365 & 749AD
251 also quakes. But by 600-751 flouring city again. After 751 they moved the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The so-called Treasury building was a local name; the building wasn't actually a treasury. It was tomb. Assyrian & Egyptian influence as well as Greek in the building and Rome. They borrowed from all civilizations. Unique carving style. Flatten curves of rock, then carve from top down. They wet the sandstone so it would not break during chiseling. No room for error in this carving. They carved the inside first to protect it from rain. There are actually 854 facades; the Treasury is only one. 8 meters higher ground than it was originally. The treasury was a king's burial place. Temple belief came from gifts to the dead.

 

Note the Treasury was actually a King's tomb. Locals named it the Treasury presumably because they thought it looked like one. It is familiar to many Americans because of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with Sean Connery & Harrison Ford that came out in the 1980-s.

The city of Amman

Four Seasons Hotel, Amman

Madaba: 6th century pilgrims guide to the holy land in an old Greek Orthodox church

Mount Nebo where Moses saw but could not enter the holy land; 100 miles or so from Jerusalem

Mount Nebo--stones from part of the old Roman Road

Wadi Rum--along the Incense Road (Petra was on the Silk Road)

Wadi Rum--7 Pillars of Wisdom (rock formation so named)

Bedoin tent w/camel sadles

Inside the City of Petra (actually this should go last--people think Petra is "just" the Treasury Building that's only one of 865 facades from a city that could support 100,000 people)

the Siq--the rocky path to Petra created by movement of technonic plates

The Siq

The Treasury

Note the Treasury was actually a King's tomb. Locals named it the Treasury presumably because they thought it looked like one. It is familiar to many Americans because of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with Sean Connery & Harrison Ford that came out in the 1980-s.

 

 

 

 

 

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(c) 2001, Jim Hayes

 

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