Tag: Egypt
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Holy Lands Tour Final Stop: Cairo
It’s already late afternoon. The route to our next stop, St. Simon the Tanner Cathedral, skirts through narrow and congested streets. Our bus is too large to pass here, so the group is divided into two taxi vans, kind of like the UV Express in the Philippines but slightly larger. We drive through piles of…
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The Pyramids of Giza: A Morning Among the Ancient Tombs
This morning–our first in Cairo after a relaxing sleep at the hotel following a long drive from St. Catherine–the sun casts a warm glow over the desert and glints off the pyramid’s limestone. We’re standing at the base of an imposing pyramid, the most famous symbol of Egypt and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Even…
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Holy Lands Tour: St. Catherine’s Monastery
The next morning, following breakfast, we set out once more, this time bound for St. Catherine’s Monastery at the base of Mt. Sinai. Here, we plan to reunite with our groupmates who have climbed to the summit for the sunrise. Leaving the comfort of the resort behind, we make the journey from Taba Heights to…
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Taba Heights: An Elegant Pilgrimage Break
If you’d asked me just a few weeks ago about Taba Heights, Egypt, I wouldn’t have known what to say. I might not even have been able to find it on a map. But after a lengthy yet mostly smooth crossing across the border from Israel to Egypt and about two hours more on the…
The Tourist Gaze 