Mosques, Museums, and More

Another early morning for a not-quite-so-early flight (that wasn’t quite as early as we thought). And we got to have the “Egyptian Surprise” of daylight savings time, which hasn’t happened in 5 years!

When we returned to Cairo, we visited the citadel of Cairo where we had the unique opportunity of visiting an Ottoman-style mosque built by the great Egyptian leader Muhammad Ali (not the boxer) in the 19th century. We were invited to observe (and some participated in) their main prayer service for the week (similar to our Sunday morning), and ask questions of the imam (the leader of the prayer service) afterwards. Bahgat, our tour guide, was able to share with us about his belief in Allah and that the major focus of Islam is peace. He has shown much love for his country as he has shared about it with us throughout the week. But I think this was extra special to him, and to many in our group. It was an honor to be invited to such a great experience.

After a late lunch we went to the Egyptian museum of Cairo, which is full of treasures, many that were from the pyramids, temples, and tombs we have seen over the last few days. It included many beautiful items from the tomb of King Tut as well as the Merneptah Stele. This stele holds the first mention of Israel in connection with Ancient Egypt. Safwat gave us the beginning of an Old Testament lecture which goes along with the stele, and we hope to go into more detail when we have a little down time. It was a fun filled day, but we are all ready to get some rest as we prepare for more adventures tomorrow.

–Nikelle Johnson,
2nd year