SJEDS Travels to Egypt

I know many of you are fascinated with mummies and so are we. Now that we are back it seems a little strange that we didn’t have more to report on mummies.

When you think of ancient Egypt, mummies do come to mind, and the ancient Egyptians certainly advanced the preservation of bodies to an art […]

The second school we visited on our last day on Egypt was the El Alsson School in Cairo. We were so fortunate to have this opportunity and it came about through a connection with one of our advisory board members, who also happens to be a parent of a student at our school, Summer. El […]

We were very lucky, that our tourist agency arranged for us to visit an elementary school on our last day. In addition we were going to visit a second school, which was arranged by Dr. El Safty’s brother and sister-in-law.
The first school, we visited was Futures International School.

Dr. Maged Zaki was very gracious to receive […]

After a vibrant Jewish community in Egypt for thousands of years, there are only a few hundred Jews left in modern day Egypt. The last members of this community are mostly elderly.
Since Egypt and many of its sites have significant meaning to the three major religions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, it was understandable that […]

The first mosque we visited was Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan, which was built around 1356 A.D. The mosque has a bent entrance, which helps keep out the desert sand that is ever present in Cairo.

Before entering we had to take off our shoes, since they are not allowed inside. Modest dress is required and no […]

When we entered the Coptic Christian area of Cairo, the sights were very different. Few women wore scarves on their heads or the long dresses more present in other parts of Egypt. There were no men wearing galabiyas and the most obvious difference in the local landscape was that there were crosses in abundance. There […]

Did you know that you can view over 1000 photos we took in Egypt by clicking on the various Photo Sets links, which is located in the right column of the blog?

Once you click on one of the links, it will take you to flickr where you can choose to view the photos in each […]

I can’t believe that my time with my friend Omar has come to an end. He will stay with his family in Sharm El Sheikh, while I fly back to Cairo and then back to Jacksonville with Mrs. Tolisano and Mrs. Menger. We shared so much the last two week. I know that we will […]

St. Catherine’s Monastery was founded by the Roman Empress Helena in 330 A.D. and was built beside, what was believed to be the Burning Bush, from which God spoke to Moses.
In the sixth century, Emperor Justinian built a fortress around the original chapel and also built a monastery. It is one of the oldest continually […]

At 22:30 (or 10:30 p.m.) a new tour guide picked us up at our hotel in Sharm El Sheikh. We left in a mini tour bus, together with 11 other people, who were from England, Italy and Russia. We were so excited to finally be going to Mount Sinai, which is the mountain that Moses ascended […]

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