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07-05-00 He knew enough to give us detailed information about the place we were visiting. For example, while we were in the mosque he was telling us that Muslims conquered Egypt. Before that, it was a Christian country. You can see evidence of the Christian past manifested in the architecture. If you look closely at some of the designs, you'll see crosses in them. I thought that was the coolest thing.
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Another Christian symbol hidden in the architecture was a fish. Mike explained that by doing this in such a subverted way the people were able to retain some of their own beliefs and religion. The other building we saw was the prince's cousin's home. I have to say it was immaculate. The most amazing materials used. There was a water fountain made of alabaster, inlaid tiles made of mother of pearl, alabaster statues, and silk furniture. I was amazed at the extravagance of the king's cousin. It made me wonder what the king's grounds looked like. I mean, I could understand if what we saw was maybe the king's brother, but it was his cousin. One more interesting thing I saw was the receiving room. The room had a throne at the head, couches, and chairs towards the back with stools. Above this room was another room or actually it was the same room. It's hard to explain well. It was a balcony that went all around the perimeter of the room. It was built so that the women who were supposed to sit on the balcony could look down on what was happening in the receiving room.
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Read all of Devan's entries More info on Egypt
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One last thing about the palace were the ceilings. They were very detailed and I could tell that much time was put into making them. There were very elaborate fixtures on the ceiling. It was very different from our ceilings, which are very plain. There were ceilings made in Syrian, Turkish, and Muslim designs. In the latter part of the day we went swimming at the Marriott Hotel. That was really fun. We also ate lunch there. I ordered a hamburger with a Sprite. That was really American but I was feeling a little homesick I guess. We had ten dollars to spend on food. We waited MAD long for the food to come. We all went to get changed into our bathing suits and when we came back our food still wasn't there. After we ate, we played Marco Polo and Manhunt in the pool. It was really fun and I enjoyed it. (Come back tomorrow when we post a new entry from Devan's trip to Egypt) |
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Memoir
in Diary form (Part
3)
Finally,
we're in Egypt, and, as Mike called it, we splurged. We got up at like
9 AM and had breakfast at 10:30. We left the hotel to go to the palace
or grounds of the former king's cousin. There were almost ten buildings.
We didn't go to see all of them because we didn't have time. We did
see the mosque on the grounds and the actual place where the prince
lived. (Roger ?) I also got a nice tour of the bathroom. The mosque
was awesome. What was more awesome was that Mike was our tour guide
there. 
Something
else puzzled us. Mike was saying that the Egyptians really admired
Europeans. It was apparent by looking at the pictures and portraits
on the walls that they were all king's or princes from European countries.
In the dining room there was also a silver sculpture with all these
white angels on it.
