Noon Report:

• Location:  N 12° 03.92′, E 045° 24.21′
• Speed: 18 knots
• Course: 252º
• Weather: High Overcast
• Temperature: 28 C; 82 F
• Wind: ENE 16 knots; 3 mph
• Sea: 3 foot swells

Pretty normal morning.
Up, Exercise, Breakfast,

Walking into the World Cafe this morning we noted that lunch today is our first ever “pickled fish” day.

The 9:30 lecture this morning was “History of Egypt” – 4,500 years in 45 minutes.

Pretty broad strokes but at least some categories to use to help organize what we’ll be seeing.

Following that we headed upstairs – Cheryl to the pool deck to read, Me to the Explorer’s Lounge to finish catchup on the Blogs.

About 1:00 I wandered over to see if she was hungry and we agreed to stay on the pool deck and get lunch at the Pool Grill (great burgers and amazing tuna steak, along with onion rings and excellent variety of salads – and not a pickled fish in sight).

Following lunch it was back to the room for (you guessed it) blogging and reading, only this time it was Cheryl adding ‘factoids’ to the blog and me reading.

We broke at 4:30 for the port talk on Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (our port on Sunday). After the talk we agreed that Sunday (Easter) would be a good day to stay on board so we turned in our excursion tickets. (Also many of the shops will be closed because they are observing Ramadan fasting, so no food or drink in public). We’ll spend the time to relax and not think about anything more serious than the fact that they can’t serve any alcohol on the ship while it is docked in Saudi Arabia.

And…there’s a pretty big church service Sunday afternoon.

Around 6:15 we headed up to the Explorer’s lounge to stand out on the observation deck and marvel at the fact that we could see Africa on the port side and Asia on the starboard side.

This small channel (the Bab al-Mandab strait) has great historical significance as a likely crossing point for some of our earliest ancestors out of Africa. What a treat to stand and look at both sides, just 18 miles apart.

Then it was dinner and BBB (not even gonna mention the score).

So that’s the day.
One more sea day so we do it all again.

Cheers,
R

Cheryl’s Factoids – short History of Egypt:

• After the last ice age, Egypt was a vast grassland which turned into deserts as the world became drier – only along the Nile was there guaranteed water for crops so most people settled there. The Nile flows from the heights in the south (Upper Egypt-crown looked like a bowling pin) to the delta in the north (Lower Egypt-crown looked like a cobra striking). These 2 major kingdoms merged or broke apart through various wars. You can tell when the kingdoms were united under one ruler because the crowns were merged into one crown – if it had 2 cobras it reflected the 2 major kingdoms, if it had 3 cobras then they had also conquered Kush to the south.
• Egyptian civilization ran from about 3100 – 332 BC. The pyramids were built fairly early in this civilization about 2500 BC.
• The Sphinx, carved from a limestone bluff around 4000 BC, used to be the greatest statue of ancient times. However in 1378 AD (aka Common Era), Egyptian peasants started making offerings to the Sphinx in hopes of controlling the flood cycle. In the 15th century the nose was purposely destroyed by a Sufi Muslim to protest this idolatry (Napoleon’s army shooting it off is a myth.)
• During his 13-year reign as the king of Macedonia, Alexander created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He died in 323 BCE and General Ptolemy had his body interred in Memphis, Egypt. In the late 4th century BC, Alexander’s body was moved to the city of Alexandria for reburial. After 4 succession wars, by 275 BCE the empire had been partitioned into three great kingdoms (named after Alexander’s 3 generals – they all became dynasties): the Seleucid in Asia, the Ptolemaic in Egypt, and the Antigonid in Macedonia (which was defeated by the Romans in 168 BC).
• 642 AD – Muslim conquest
• 1514 AD – ruled by Ottoman Empire
• 1798-1801 – French campaign (Rosetta stone discovered)
• 1859 – Suez Canal completed
• Egypt became ruled by a Sultanate/ many revolutions/ then became a presidential republic
• The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 following the announcement of the nation of Israel
• June 5-11, 1967, Six Day War with Egypt, Jordan and Syria – Israel took much territory and they have been fighting ever since.