Days 8, 9 and 10.....

But before I get into that, I totally forgot to write about the Nile-o-meter. It was the day that we went to the Hanging Church and the first Mosque( our first day of touring). I'm not sure how I missed it, because I thought it was so cool. It was built over a thousand years ago as a way to calculate how much tax to charge the citizens of Cairo. Too high or too dry and there would be no tax ( floods and droughts were national tax exemptions it would seem), but at sixteen arms taxes would be collected.....

Ok, back on track.

Day 8 was an easy day. It was Devin's birthday and the plan was to celebrate at Fagnoon, an Egyptian children's art center. There were tons of activites. The kids chose silkscreen, pottery and a water fight to finish it off..... It was awesome!!

Day 9 was also a mellow day. We went to David and Christina's golf club, Katamaya.

Day 10 was long, but fabulous. We drove to Alexandria to explore the Roman sites there. On the way we stopped at Lion World. A small zoo........ With a ton of dogs? I guess when zebras, camels, lions and tigers are in your backyard, you have more exotic fare in your small zoo..... like Newfoundland Dogs.... although we only took pictures of some Great Danes.....

I have to admit that I was happy that I didn't notice the dead monkeys hanging from the ceiling.... 

Once we entered Alexandra we got going with the sites....We started at the site of a Roman Amphitheater.

We moved on to Pompey's pillar. A Roman Triumphal column that was mistaken for the tomb of Pompey the Great (A Roman military leader) during medieval times (it was built 300 years after his death).

Next were some ancient Roman Catacombs. We weren't allowed to take our cameras in, but the guard allowed us to take some with our phones (for baksheesh).... I don't have any to post here, you'll have to wait until I do my finale post at home.

Finally we explored Qaitbay Fort (built in the fifteenth century on the site of Cleopatra's palace and the famous lighthouse, both of which had fallen into the sea during several enormous earthquakes in ancient times)......

This will be my last post written IN Egypt... I will finish the story of our journey from Chilly Calgary on the weekend. We fly out early Friday morning.....