Exploring Egypt

Egyptian-Greek Fusion

Ptolemaic period sphinx on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. The legacy of old Egyptian art continues into the Greek period. But look at that face!

We enjoyed our day in Cairo with a group of Bible Land Explorers from Burlington, Kentucky. We are now en route to the airport to fly to Luxor.

I say hoopoe, he says hudhud

Walked out of my hotel room in Luxor and found a hoopoe digging in the grass. I watched him probe the soft ground with that long beak searching for insects. He was not afraid at all.

These marvelously colored (and crested!) creatures are a symbol of royalty and wisdom in ancient Egypt. They appear in the Bible (Lev 11:13-19 and Deut 14:11-18) as one of the 20 inedible birds.

The hoopoe (Upupa epops) is also found in Islamic folklore (often attached to stories about King Solomon). In Arabic it is known as a hudhud (which is fun to say!).

St. Catherine's Monastery

At the base of Jebel Musa (the traditional Mt Sinai) is the oldest continuously-inhabited Christian monastery in the world. It is named after St Catherine, an Alexandrian martyr. It is a part of the Greek Orthodox tradition.

The history of this site goes back to the mid-6th c AD. It was built by the order of Byzantine emperor, Justinian I, over the spot where God confronted Moses at the burning bush.

An enlargement of the legend has the body of Catherine found here as well. Apparently, after Catherine was killed by a Roman blade, her remains were carried away by angels and hidden in the deep desert. Christian monks found it, uncorrupted, built a monastery and named it after her.

See this austere place and witness Mt Sinai for yourself. Join us in Egypt next year!

The Lighthouse of Alexandria is under it?

The Citadel of Qaitbay was built in the 15th century to defend the Egyptian coast. It was located on the northern tip of Pharos Island, part of the harbor complex of Alexandria. Beneath it is stonework that may be the foundations of the city's lighthouse, one of the wonders of the Hellenistic world.

As a further note, ancient sources suggest that Ptolemy II had a retreat center on this same island and it was here that the Old Testament Scriptures were translated from Hebrew to Greek in the early third century BC. That effort is called the Septuagint.

We'll be visiting Alexandria again May 5-19, 2026, as part of a tour of Biblical Egypt. Will you join us?