When we arrived at St. Paul's Monastery which is near the Red Sea, I got off the bus I snapped a picture of this chapel we passed on the way in. We visited two monasteries on the same day... St. Paul's and St. Anthony's.

The path leading to the entrance of St. Paul's. The sky was incredibly blue that day.

One of the first things I had to do after the long bus ride was find a bathroom. I saw a sign for the "Laides" restroom and then turned the corner and found the one for the "Jens." (Ladies and Jents, maybe?) I laughed out loud and then got the two Jennifers to come stand by the "Jens" sign.

The moastery lies in the valley between mountains. Carole and Jen stand and wait before we entered the front gate.

Another shot of the chapel.

The front entrance of the monastery.

This inscription was on the right side of the entrance. It says, "I am the gate. Whoever comes in by me will be saved; he will come in and go out and find pasture. John 10:9" and "Worship the Lord with joy; come before him with happy songs. Psalms 100:2"

Every religious "touristy" site that we go to, we see Italians wearing HUGE sunglasses and they are usually dressed very fashionably. They also talk a lot, very loudly. Jay and I joked later on the bus that it didn't seem like Italians actually hold conversations. They all talk at the same time constantly. I was not feeling very well on the bus, and I just wanted to sleep. It was very hard to do so with "The Italians" talking.

Sister Henrica, the Roman Catholic nun that works at our Arabic school, Dar Camboni, arranged the trip to the monasteries.

A neat little design adorned the top of the arch.

Our tour of the monastery had begun!

The Coptic Orthodox monk started off by saying this was the first tour he had ever given of the monastery. He apologied that his English wasn't very good, when in fact he was able to speak it quite well. He started off by showing us the old mill that the monks used to grind grain by pushing the wooden beam pictured here around in a circle.

This is the place where the grain was fed in to be ground up.

The peaceful monastery courtyard with palm trees and the mountains in the distance.

Views inside the monastery.

The monk took us to a room that has a long table full of old relics. We're talking perhaps a thousand year old relics.

Here is the monk pointing out some items.

Here's the monk pointing out God. Just kidding. He was pointing at a bridge that connected one part of the monastery to another high above our heads.

The monk led us into an underground passage where these paintings adorned the walls.

The stairwell had a dome directly over it with saints riding in a circle.

The center of the dome had a design obviously influenced by Muslim designs.

This trio greeted us at the bottom of the stairs. I believe St. Paul is on the right. I never got the significance of this, but in paintings he is usually accompanied by two lions. You can see two beasts at his feet.

More artistry in the underground chamber.

The monk took us to the resting place of St. Paul. His remains are in the box in front of the far wall.

The coffin is wrapped in a cloth with a depiction of St. Paul himself. St. Paul moved to the Red Sea to live as a hermit. He brought only the clothes he had on his back. After some time the clothes he had deteriorated and he made new clothing out of palm leaves. If you look at St. Paul's clothing in the depiction, you can see that it is made of woven leaves. Several Coptic Orthodox people entered the chamber and kissed the cloth covering the coffin.

These angels were painted on the wall next to St. Paul.

This is the cramped set of stairs that took us into the worship space upstairs from St. Paul's coffin.

Upstairs were several paintings. This is a tryptic with St. Paul in his woven clothing on the right. You can see two lions at his feet.

Mary and Jesus.

St. George slaying the dragon. We saw similar imagery of St. George in the Greek Orthodox church in Coptic Cairo.

There was some debate about who this is. Our monk guide said it is John the Baptist which would make sense because of his clothing and his rumpled hair. But a man on the tour said that if a person in a painting is holding a scroll or writing instrument, that is an indication that the person is a gospel writer. You can see a white scroll in the person's left hand. To further confuse things, this person has wings. Hmm. It's hard to tell who it is.

More photographs of the monastery

Anyone reminded of the Lord of the Rings?

This monk was just sitting outside with a cat on his lap. I asked him "Sura mumkin?" [Picture possible?] He replied "Itfadal, itfadal." [Please, please.] Later I saw him quickly extend his hand to some Coptic Orthodox people that walked up to him. They touched his hand and then kissed the spot on their hands where they touched him. Carole told me that many monks are embarassed by this. I think that's why he extended his hand and snatched it back so quickly.

This is a mosaic of St. Paul that was near the entrance. Notice the woven clothing and two lions.

An hour or two later we were at St. Andrew's monastery. St. Andrew was the first ever Christian monk. He began Christian monastasism. Unfortunately I was not feeling very well so I skipped out on the tour. I slept on a bench outside the monastery for awhile and then took some photos when I began to feel better. This is the entrance to the monastery.

The monastery is practically a walled fortress. The walls were perhaps fifty feet tall.

There is a small community built around the monastery. It mostly exists to serve the tourists that come to see the monastery. The entire community is walled in as well. You can see the entrance to the community in the distance.

H heard someone shout "Jason!" though it sounded very faint. I looked up at the top of the wall and could see two heads poking up trying to see me. Sarah and Jennifer had spotted me.

I did manage to get some photographs inside the monastery. It was very lush and green with lots of flowers and plants.

Just up the slope from the monastery were some carvings in the side of the rock. This, I presume, is St. Anthony.

Just to the right of the St. Anthony sculpture was a cave with yet more carvings inside. Here is Mary.

Quiz time... Who is depicted with lions at his feet. That's right! St. Paul.

Jen taking pictures of the inside of the cave.

Legend has it that St. Paul and St. Anthony would talk with one another. When they met they were fed by a raven. The raven would bring bread enough for the two of them.

One day I saw an honest-to-God thunder cloud outside Dawson Hall.

One of the days I was sick I saw the children from Ramses College for Girls getting on the busses and leaving for home. It was a flurry of excitement.

The special education students of RCG have class just outside my apartment window. On the day I took these pictures they had some special visitors that were there to entertain them.

They wore brightly colored clothing and danced with the children to fun songs. One of the songs was The Chicken Dance. I was especially amused by the Muslim woman who had a veil that was sewn into a baseball cap that looked like a duck.

Then they started the requisite conga line. It looked like such fun.

Teri is back! Whoo-hoo!!!! She is quite jet lagged right now though.

I just realized that there isn't a single picture of me this time, so here you go. Yes, I need a haircut. I haven't been brave enough yet to get one in Egypt.