Heliopolis & Last Day

Up at 4 am again to head back to Cairo, we are spending the day in Heliopolis.

Spectacular sunrise in Luxor, it really looked like this. Heliopolis "City of the Sun" was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, the capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian district. Today the ancient city lies 15-20 feet below the modern city. The only surviving remnant of Heliopolis is the 68' red granite obelisk from the Temple of Re-Atum erected by Senusret I of the 12th dynasty and still stands in its original position.

Heliopolis was the capital of the Province of Goshen, the northern Egyptian territory of the Nile Delta. This was one of the 3 main storage location where grain was kept during the winter months and during the 7 years of famine during the time of Joseph in the Book of Genesis. The city was thought of as a place of bread. In the time of the major prophets, Isaiah made reference to the City of the Sun as one of the 5 cities of Egypt that would come to speak Hebrew. He made a wordplay on "city of the sun" ('ir hasemes) by writing 'ir haheres which means "city of destruction." This play on words was a prophetic description later reinforced by Jeremiah who declared the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar would shatter the obelisks of Heliopolis and burn the temple of the sun in fire and Ezekiel who said the young men of Aven would fall by the sword. Ezekiel also made a word play on the Hebrew name of Heliopolis that was used in the time of Joseph. The Hebrew word aven means "folly" or "iniquity" so his reference implied the "temple of folly and iniquity."

This is Cairo's mall, City Stars,

Mmmm...

this is the most gorgeous rug I have ever seen. It was really awesome venturing out today. We rode in a taxi so we were on the streets with all the other crazy drivers driving just like them. It was a hair raising experience! Zipping, honking, lane sharing, lane switching, going fast, slamming on brakes while everyone else was doing the same. Being in the mall was a very non-tourist thing, we were completely among the local population without our Arab speaking guide. Trying to order lunch was crazy-there was no line, it was the most aggressive person that could make themselves heard was the one that got their order in. When we left there were crowds of Egyptians around, there was a feeling of vulnerability just from being immersed in a different culture which is in part anti-American. We didn't connect it to the demonstrations/revolution that was in day 3. Luckily it was early on and things were still very calm.

We went back to the hotel-we promised the kids they could swim. It was a beautiful heated roof-top pool! They were excited to swim on the roof.