Journey to The Middle East - The Trail of Moses

Homeland of Moses
My pilgrimage journey starts with the story of Moses born in Egypt. The place where Moses born now has become a sinagoga (a place for praying) called Ben Ezra synagog. But because by the time I got there it is already 4 pm and December is winter time, office hour ends at 4 pm and so does all tourism sites, so we didn't had the chance to go and see the synagog, we only took pictures of the way to the synagog to remember the ambiance there. Honestly, for me there was nothing much to see there :D

We ended the day by night cruise at Nile river and dinner at the vessel. Nile river makes the surrounding land becomes very fertile, especially because most of Egypt land is dessert, there is only very small debit of rain each year, river is the source of water. Most of people activities related with water, especially back at Moses' times where agriculture is the main livelihood. That is the reason why Nile river is so famous, it is the source of life.

We started the next day a little early, wake up at 5am, breakfast at 6am and leave the hotel to continue our journey at 7 because of winter time. The first site to visit the the great Pyramid of Giza.

Giza Pyramid

Pyramid is AMAZING!! Each stone's height is more or less like of me, the size of pyramid itself vary, the biggest is Giza, it can stand for more than 5000 years, in the middle of nowhere (the source of the stone for sure not the dessert, they must bring it from somewhere up in the mountain) and there are 100+ pyramids all over Egypt.

"It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu and constructed over a 20-year period concluding around 2560 BC. Initially at 146.5 metres (480.6 ft), the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, the longest period of time ever held for such a record. Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface; what is seen today is the underlying core structure. Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base." ~wiki

"The Great Pyramid at Giza was originally about 146 meters tall, but it has lost about 10 meters in height over the millennia. The base of the Great Pyramid is about 55,000 meters." ~ About.Com

"The original entrance to the Great Pyramid is 17 metres (56 ft) vertically above ground level and 7.29 metres (23.9 ft) east of the center line of the pyramid. From this original entrance there is a Descending Passage .96 metres (3.1 ft) high and 1.04 metres (3.4 ft) wide which goes down at an angle of 26° 31'23" through the masonry of the pyramid and then into the bedrock beneath it. After 105.23 metres (345.2 ft) the passage becomes level and continues for an additional 8.84 metres (29.0 ft) to the lower Chamber, which appears not to have been finished. There is a continuation of the horizontal passage in the south wall of the lower chamber; there is also a pit dug in the floor of the chamber. Some Egyptologists suggest this Lower Chamber was intended to be the original burial chamber, but that King Khufu later changed his mind and wanted it to be higher up in the pyramid

At 28.2 metres (93 ft) from the entrance is a square hole in the roof of the Descending Passage. Originally concealed with a slab of stone, this is the beginning of the Ascending Passage. The Ascending Passage is 39.3 metres (129 ft) long, as wide and high as the Descending Passage and slopes up at almost precisely the same angle. The lower end of the Ascending Passage is closed by three huge blocks of granite, each about 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) long. At the start of the Grand Gallery on the right-hand side there is a hole cut in the wall (and now blocked by chicken wire). This is the start of a vertical shaft which follows an irregular path through the masonry of the pyramid to join the Descending Passage. Also at the start of the Grand Gallery there is a Horizontal Passage leading to the "Queen's Chamber". The passage is 1.1m (3'8") high for most of its length, but near the chamber there is a step in the floor, after which the passage is 1.73 metres (5.7 ft) high"
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza

After visiting the great pyramid of Giza, we went to a Papyrus Gallery nearby to see a short demonstration of how the ancient Egypt created paper from papyrus. The person who gave us the demo also told stories of replica of image found in some temples in Egypt. One of the story that quite interesting is about the weighting of the heart, it was told that when a man died, his soul will be judge by 7 Egyptians and 7 non-Egyptians, after that Anubis will bring him for final judgment by weighting his heart with a feather, if his heart if lighter than feather then that man will enter heaven.

Story Weighting of The Heart

Pyramids and stories related to it show a lot of things, few things among many others are: How rich Egypt was at Moses time (if you are not rich for sure cannot build such thing) and how they believe in gods.

The Calling
Moses was the prince of Egypt, he gave that away and chose to be with his people even before he got the calling from God. (Exodus 2). Then Moses moved to the land of Midian and God came to him there.
"1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

⁴ When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. " (Exodus 3)

"And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. (Exodus 3)"