Egypt is mentioned 750 times in the Bible, from Genesis 10:6 to Revelation 11:8. Many important biblical characters spent time there including Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Jeremiah, and Jesus. Early Christian tradition tells us that Mark probably took the gospel to Egypt first and helped plant the first churches there.

On Sunday, March 5, 2000, our team of five took the train from Aswan to Luxor (ancient Thebes) to spend two days exploring. The tombs and temples scattered throughout the city are among the most impressive ruins in all the world.

My alarm went off at 3:45am on Sunday to wake me and Bryan. The girls hadn’t woken up yet but were soon stirring and packing. We ate breakfast and then took a taxi to the train station.

Our ride to Luxor lasted about 4 hours, and we were able to sleep a good part of the way. Once in Luxor, we continued our custom of immediately buying tickets for the next leg of the journey. We asked for second class train tickets to Cairo, but couldn’t get any, so we agreed to buy first class tickets and were excited that our last train ride would be in these “upscale” accommodations. Apparently, first class tickets were limited too, as Kevin and Kris’ group had to settle for third class.

We headed to Fontana Hotel, but were disappointed with the price and cleanliness, so we looked elsewhere. We wandered around the city for a while until we came to New Everest hotel. Still not satisfied. Saint Mina wasn’t much to look at, but it proved to be a great bargain at only 7 1/2 Egyptian pounds per person (just over $2), so we reserved two rooms, washed up, and dropped our stuff off.

We ate lunch at McDonald’s. Thankfully, no one had gotten sick so far and we weren’t taking any chances. Avoiding Egyptian street food and sticking with American food or nicer local restaurants seemed to be a winning strategy so far.

After lunch, we took a carriage ride to the Karnak Temple.

The size of the Karnak was breathtaking! Walking down the Avenue of Sphinxes, we entered the Hippostyle Hall with its 134 columns, each 70 feet tall. At one time, there would have been a roof to provide shade from the brutal Egyptian sun.

This temple complex is almost 65 acres and is the best preserved temple in Egypt. It was a continual work in progress, with each successive pharaoh adding their own flair and building projects, including Thutmose III (1425 BC) and Ramses II (1250 BC). Even Alexander the Great’s brother built a Greco-Roman shrine here. Originally, the temple would have been open only to priests and the pharaoh. Common people could only enter the outer courtyard, but not the temple area itself. You can’t do it justice with a photo, but we formed a ring around a single column to help get a sense of how massive these columns were.

Hieroglyphics were everywhere. Todd Bolen’s field guide gave us a few inscriptions to look for, including Seti I’s Canaan Campaign, Thutmose III’s City Lists, and Pharaoh Shishak’s City List.

Inscriptions like this are significant because they corroborate the biblical text. For example, 1 Kings 14:25 tells us that “In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house.” Here in the Karnak temple, experts have found Pharaoh Shishak’s own account of this same campaign, immortalized in stone.

We did our best to follow the guide and find these references, but not knowing the language, it was hard to know if we were looking at exactly the right spot.

We planned to visit the Luxor Museum later in the afternoon, but ran out of time. After going to the bank, we headed to the El Honda restaurant which had been recommended to us. We got lost on the way and arrived later than we’d hoped.

The team was a little stressed and disappointed by this point, and the food didn’t meet our expectations. Still, we had a good time talking with other IBEX teams who had made their way there for dinner. We enjoyed flipping through the guest book, which included messages from other IBEX groups that had visited over the years. We signed our own names and wrote little messages in the guest book, and just hung out for a while. Ice cream after dinner lifted our spirits, and we enjoyed watching the boisterous Luxor night life as we headed back to the hotel.

We hung out for a while in our rooms and Kevin and Kris’ team visited for a while too. By midnight, we were all ready for bed. Unfortunately, the room the guys were planning to stay in only had a small double bed, which Bryan and I really didn’t want to share. The girls generously gave us the larger room which had three twin beds. Bryan and I each got our own bed, and the girls played a round of “roshambo” to determine who would get stuck sleeping in the guys room. Sorry Lisa!

Tomorrow, we head to the west bank of the Nile, and get to visit the Valley of the Kings!

25 years ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Israel and Egypt for a semester through the Master’s College IBEX program. To celebrate the 25th anniversary, I’m sharing highlights from my journal, emails, and photos. Feel free to share your own IBEX memories here as well!

On Saturday, March 4, 2000, our train arrived in Aswan, Egypt. While still at the station, we bought tickets for the next leg of our journey back to Luxor.

We thought about renting bikes to help explore the city, but we couldn’t find any that were “for hire.” The streets buzzed with market owners, shoppers, tourists, cars, and oxen pulling carts of produce.

I have several patches on my backpack representing the different countries I’ve been to, including a U.S. flag, Philippines flag, and Canadian flag. One market owner, seeing the large Canadian patch, asked if we were from Canada. We decided to just be friendly and not mention we were Americans, as this can draw attention and cost you higher prices.

Finally, we gave up our search for bikes and instead looked for a hotel where we would stay overnight. Unhappy with both the Hathor Hotel and El Salam, we decided on the Memnon Hotel. What a view!

The team was starving by this point, so we got some lunch at the Panorama Restaurant. The setting was beautiful, but sadly most of the meals were small. I will say my chicken and curry dish was both generous and delicious!

After lunch, we hired a taxi to take us out to the Unfinished Obelisk and Aswan High Dam. Both were massive. The Unfinished Obelisk is an interesting site. Obelisks appear throughout ancient Egypt, and of course we have a famous one right here in America — the Washington Monument. The maximum weight of any known Egyptian obelisk is 300 tons. This Unfinished Obelisk is calculated to be 1186 tons — over twice the size of any other!

For some reason, the obelisk was never finished and still lays horizontally in the bedrock. Maybe the Pharoah died and the project was abandoned. Maybe some other architectural or superstitious reason prevented the builders from ever completing it. It has several cracks in it now, but those may have happened later. Before leaving, we stood at the edge of the obelisk and spelled out “IBEX” with our shadows.

Late afternoon, our taxi driver took us back into town, and we hired a little sailboat called a “felucca” for a 90 minute ride on the Nile. It cost 20 pounds.

We had a little time to get off the boat at Elephantine Island, where there is a museum and Nubian village. A group of Jews once lived on this island, sometime after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem (see Jeremiah 42-43).

The museum on Elephantine Island was already closed, but we had some time to walk around and explore. We did get to see one of the ancient “Nilometers,” which were an important flood gauge to measure the rise and fall of the Nile. We also walked through the Nubian village. It was poor and dirty, reminding me of the Philippines, but a serene setting that felt a world away from the touristy spots on the other side of the Nile.

We doubled back along shore to our felucca and continued our ride. As dusk settled, the stars appeared, crickets began to chirp, and a cool, refreshing breeze swept through the air. Waves lapped against the bow and our pilot sang quietly in Arabic. I felt utterly relaxed, thankful for God’s goodness and provision for me. It was one of my favorite memories of the trip.

Back on the eastern shore, we tried entering the Cataract Hotel to get dinner, but were not allowed, so we hunted desperately for somewhere to eat. We searched for quite a while and the team was growing restless. Finally, we found the Aswan Moon, and enjoyed a fine evening of dining. The pizza was great!

Arriving back at the Memnon hotel, we settled into our rooms. Bryan and I had to dig some granola out of the shower drain before we headed to bed. We would have a very early start to catch our train Sunday morning. I’m thankful we were able to make it this far up the Nile and to spend a day visiting Aswan.

25 years ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Israel and Egypt for a semester through the Master’s College IBEX program. To celebrate the 25th anniversary, I’m sharing highlights from my journal, emails, and photos. Feel free to share your own IBEX memories here as well!

On Thursday, March 2, 2000, we had a normal day of classes. Dinner was in the miklat, but I didn’t have much to eat, so I went ahead and opened up the kauppa. After I finished packing, I closed up the email room and headed to the reception area to wait for our bus.

Excitement was in the air. Our bus arrived around 7:30pm Thursday, and we all piled onboard and headed to Tel Aviv. We waited there a while, then rode some more until we arrived at the Egyptian border. There, we had to disembark the bus to go through customs and immigration. This took about three hours in the middle of the night.

Our journey followed the same basic path that Jesus and his family took long ago. “And Joseph arose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son'” (Matthew 2:14-15).

Early Friday morning, March 3, 2000, our team of five arrived in Cairo. We were advised to use Misr Travel at the Sheraton Hotel as our travel agent to purchase our return bus tickets back into Israel. The travel agent wouldn’t be open for a while still, so after getting some Egyptian pounds from the money changer, we headed to the railway station to book the next leg of our journey.

At the train station, we requested train tickets to Luxor. Unfortunately, they said none were available. Eventually, we learned that we could buy tickets to Aswan, so we all agreed to do that and just reverse our itinerary. We would visit the same sites as planned, but would travel down to Aswan first, then stop at Luxor on our way back. Once this was taken care of, we headed back to Misr Travel at the Sheraton. On our way, we picked up some honey danish for breakfast.

With train and bus tickets in hand, we were finally free to do some exploring. First, we walked east toward Tahrir Square. We rested in the Hilton Mall, waiting for restaurants to open. After some food at KFC, we bumped into Kevin and Kris’ team, who had arranged a ride to see the pyramids for only 1 pound each. They allowed us to tag along.

By around 2pm, we were heading toward to the pyramids. I caught my first glimpse as we rode down the streets of Cairo. Several miles before we reached Giza, they appeared quite suddenly, towering over other buildings. Seeing them in contrast to the city gave me a better perspective. They are an awesome sight and really are as big as you imagine them.

Before we visited the pyramids, our driver took us to a papyrus museum. Several team members bought stuff. They had a nice display and it was all very interesting, but I couldn’t help feeling like this was a tourist trap.

On to the pyramids! We stopped just outside the park. Before we knew what was happening, we were whisked away to the top floor of an old building. It seemed we were snookered into buying some sort of “special” package plan, which had some nice features but used up a lot of our team money that we had budgeted for the week.

After a nice view and some group photos, we headed back downstairs and mounted horses and camels. I had a nice horse on the way out to the pyramids, then rode a camel on the way back afterwards.

We rode for a short time, then stopped at the Sphinx. It’s one of those places that you see in pictures and feels surreal to view in real life. The Sphinx was cut out of a single piece of bedrock at the same time the pyramids were constructed. Instead of quarrying this particular chunk of limestone, they decided to carve it into a Sphinx (lion body with probably the face of Pharaoh Chephren.) The Sphinx was covered by sand for generations and rediscovered in 1926.

Next we visited one of the great pyramids of Giza. These pyramids date back to the Fourth Dynasty (1575-2465 BC) and have remained largely unchanged for 4,000 years. The Eerdman’s Bible Dictionary says that “Under the Fourth Dynasty, Egypt’s architectural achievements reached their zenith, producing the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) at Gizeh and those of Khafre… and Mycerinus.” It’s amazing to think Joseph and Moses once admired these same structures.

Mycerinus is the pyramid we were able to enter. It’s only half the size of Cheops or Khafre, but still almost 220 feet high. The inside was not a pleasant experience. Steep, simple, sweltering, and smelly. Too many tourists in too small of a space. We didn’t stay more than a couple minutes, and there wasn’t much to see, but it was still incredible to be inside one of the great pyramids. Before leaving, we added our own human pyramid to the sands of Cairo.

As we headed back to the stables, we had an argument with our “guides” who began demanding more baksheesh. We refused to give more than 5 pounds extra. We realized how easy it was to be taken advantage of, and what we could expect to experience the rest of the week. A good, but painful, costly lesson.

Dinner that night was at Pizza Hut. We weren’t taking any chances with local food that might make us sick.

The food was good, plus we had a beautiful sunset view of the pyramids and caught a glimpse of a laser show they project onto the pyramids at night.

After dinner, we took a local bus back to the Sheraton hotel. We washed up, walked across the Nile again, and took a taxi to Ramses Station — this time for only 4 pounds. We boarded our train and slept much of the night. Overall, it was a comfortable ride.

Next stop, Aswan — 540 miles south along the Nile.

25 years ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Israel and Egypt for a semester through the Master’s College IBEX program. To celebrate the 25th anniversary, I’m sharing highlights from my journal, emails, and photos. Feel free to share your own IBEX memories here as well!

March 1, 2000. A hearty “Shalom” from Eretz Israel! I’ve been pretty busy these last few days wrapping up some assignments and studying for two tests: Jewish Thought & Culture, and Land & the Bible. Maybe you’re asking what’s next on our agenda. Well, tomorrow, I’m on my way to Egypt for six days!

Thursday night begins our travel/study break, and at least twenty students are spending our free week in Egypt. We’re splitting up into small groups, and mine will have a total of five people — Deanna Wisner, Rachel Wahl, Lisa Tefft, Bryan Vaughn, and myself. I’ve got a good group, and I’m looking forward to some serious cross-culture adventure. We got together earlier tonight to discuss final logistics and pray together. I’m very thankful we took this time to “set the tone.”

We plan to take the night bus to Cairo tomorrow, then ride the train to Luxor on Friday night. We’ll spend a couple days in Luxor, visiting all the temples and museums, before continuing further south to Aswan on Monday. From there, we’ll take a train all the way back up to Cairo, spend a day there, then a bus back to Jerusalem. It should be an intense (and very tiring) week of touring, so please pray for our safety, discretion, patience, and unity.

We’ve had two orientation meetings with Todd Bolen and were handed a field guide to help get the most out of the trip. We also went over several instructions, since we won’t have any teachers or tour guides with us. We were advised…

• Don’t drink the water
• Don’t swim in the Nile
• Travel light and dress modestly
• Stay together – but have girls stand in line for tickets
• Don’t take your group for granted. Groups need good leaders. Try hard to accommodate one another’s needs.
• Be careful. There are dangerous people around. Keep a low profile and don’t take unnecessary risks.
• Make a money pool to share expenses.
• Spend a few extra pounds. Eat well. Don’t skip a good site because of money. It may not be worth fighting about to negotiate. Take extra money with you.
• Don’t steal!!!

We’ll all be dog tired, since we only have 2-3 nights the whole week where we are in a hotel and not travelling. The hotels themselves probably won’t be too pleasant. What’s more, we hear that Egyptian travelers often get sick from the food, and anything but bottled water is off-limits altogether. Hey, it sounds like I’ll be in the Philippines again! All these inconveniences aside, I’m sure it will be a fun trip.

Well, I must be going now. Congratulations to everyone who has been willing to read my adventures this far. You have the endurance of an IBEXer climbing Tel Maon! ~Because of Him, Stephen

25 years ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Israel for a semester through the Master’s College IBEX program. To celebrate the 25th anniversary, I’m sharing highlights from my journal, emails, and photos. Feel free to share your own IBEX memories here as well!

February 27, 2000. On Sunday, IBEX went on a day-long archaeological dig that was awesome!

Most digs require slow, methodical, gentle digging techniques that take months, even years to complete. However, we took part in a project that was much less painstaking. Rather than excavating a tel, or something like that, we were actually underground, in a cave system along the Shephelah (lowlands) which dates back to the Hasmonean period (second century BC). There are literally thousands of caves throughout this region.

Our job was simply to clear out debris: lots of rocks, dirt, and a plethora of pottery. These caves were originally dug beneath local homes, like basements, to contain cisterns, baths, pigeon columbariums (where they raised pigeons for sacrificial purposes), and other interesting things. After the second Jewish revolt, however, the underground systems were filled in with whatever junk the locals could get their hands on. So now, it’s basically a treasure hunt to excavate these caves; they’re chock-full of interesting finds.

I personally found a whole jug handle and a pottery rim, while another girl found a bronze bracelet, and someone else found an ancient mug/cup almost completely intact! Other caves in the area average twenty feet high, but we were in a largely unexcavated cave, so the ceiling was still only 4-5 feet overhead. Even as the day progressed, more tunnels and storage rooms became apparent below us.

After our work was done, some of us curiously crawled through one of the side-tunnels, to see what was beyond. Surprisingly, it led to a staircase that took us to a room below. This far down, there was no dirt or rock to contend with, so we were free to look around. What I saw was simply incredible: a large vault with several connecting tunnels, and in the middle, a millstone and olive press dating back 2000 years!

No longer was I Stephen Jones, but Indiana Jones. I took one step toward the olive press to examine it closer, only to realize the floor was unfinished. Next thing I knew, I was plummeting downward into a dark pit! I reached my arm out to grasp a protruding rock, but it, too, gave way by the sheer force of my momentum. Seconds later (though it seemed like an eternity), I slammed against the floor of the cave, pausing a moment to regain my senses. As I peered up out of the abyss, I could only faintly see the rays of my friends’ flashlights overhead. It looked like I was at least 20 feet below the rest of my group! I mustered enough strength to yell out, but suddenly felt something slither across my hand…

Okay. I admit. That last paragraph was completely made up. Everything I said up to the olive press and millstone was true, but I got a little carried away at that point. Don’t worry! Everything’s fine! I didn’t fall, nor was I bitten by that imaginary snake! Really, no embellishment is necessary to communicate how cool this underground vault was.

Unfortunately, it was time for lunch, and the group was calling us back out, so we weren’t able to go any further into the adjoining tunnels. I heard that some others went, though, and that it took nearly an hour to navigate all of them!

After lunch, the whole group was taken through some fully excavated caves that contained vaults, baths, staircases and a millstone similar to what we saw.

25 years ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Israel for a semester through the Master’s College IBEX program. To celebrate the 25th anniversary, I’m sharing highlights from my journal, emails, and photos. Feel free to share your own IBEX memories here as well!