Going on a pilgrimage tour to HolyLand and seeing the pyramids of Egypt were in the first bucket list draft I ever made in 1998. With the trip in 2006, I was able to cross out 2 items from my bucket list.
Below are some snippets from my journal - I was actually amazed at how detailed my notes were! Reading them made the memories so fresh as if the trip were only last year. How come I regressed after?! Haha...
BTW, though the trip was a pilgrimage tour, we also visited some non-religious points of interest. In terms of timing, we went in May so the weather was hot during the day (about 25˚C - 30˚C), then it drops to about 15˚C at night. I was with my mom, an aunt and a college friend, together with 30+ other Filipino pilgrims including 2 priests.
BTW, while in Galilee, we had St. Peter's fish for lunch aka tilapia. One tilapia meal costs P800! It's the most expensive tilapia I ever ate! Haha...
Next stop was the Shepherd's Fields in Bethlehem - where the angel appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus. A chapel has been built to commemorate the place.
If you're visiting Dead Sea, you've to take a dip and experience how to float effortlessly. You will easily float that it's so hard to stand up. Haha... And while in the water, you have to try the ultimate beauty mud pack! Apply mud all over your face ad body. Haha... The mud is so smooth (powdery smooth) and it's surely gonna leave your skin smooth and moisturized for hours.
At the southern point of Dead Sea is Sodom and we passed by the pillar of salt believed to be Lot's wife.
From Israel, we crossed the Egyptian border and stayed overnight in a place called St Catherine's Chalets.
Day 9
Since we arrived at St. Catherine Chalets late at night, we didn't realize how beautiful the place was. Check these out -
After checking out from St. Catherine's Chalets, we went to St Catherine's Monastery.
Swirling dervishes do a swirling dance as a form of worship & meditation and they can swirl for as long as 30 mins and never get dizzy! Amazing, huh?:)
We went inside the Pyramid of Chephren. But if you're claustrophobic or have back problems, I don't recommend that you go inside because the passageway is narrow and low, and there is a part when you have to crawl. What is there to see inside? Sarcophagus because after all, the pyramids are burial places.
Day 11
We visited the Pharaonic Village to see how Egyptians lived during the olden times.
And that capped our pilgrimage tour.
Anyway, I hope these pictures and some snippets from our journey may inspire you to someday go on a pilgrimage tour too. And please don't wait until retirement age to do this (like most people do). Go there while you're still young and energetic. :)
BTW, though the trip was a pilgrimage tour, we also visited some non-religious points of interest. In terms of timing, we went in May so the weather was hot during the day (about 25˚C - 30˚C), then it drops to about 15˚C at night. I was with my mom, an aunt and a college friend, together with 30+ other Filipino pilgrims including 2 priests.
Day 1
We left Manila via Qatar Airways and landed in Amman, Jordan.
Day 2
We visited Petra, also known as the Rose City, because of the color of the stone where structures are carved in. The city is believed to have been established around 312 BC (take note, it’s BC!) and it is where the ancient Arab tribe of Nabataeans settled.
We visited Petra, also known as the Rose City, because of the color of the stone where structures are carved in. The city is believed to have been established around 312 BC (take note, it’s BC!) and it is where the ancient Arab tribe of Nabataeans settled.
Nabataeans were involved in the caravanning business of Arabian frankincense and myrrh, Indian spices and African ivory. When trade routes shifted and there was less demand for frankincense as Christianity replaced pagan religions, Petra was abandoned. It was only rediscovered in 1812 by a Swiss traveler.
Make sure to wear comfortable shoes because from the gate, you have to walk approximately 3 kms (just 1-way! so total of 6 kms for 2-way). At a leisure pace, it’ll take you about 2 hours to reach the hidden city but you can also opt to ride donkeys or camels.
Make sure to wear comfortable shoes because from the gate, you have to walk approximately 3 kms (just 1-way! so total of 6 kms for 2-way). At a leisure pace, it’ll take you about 2 hours to reach the hidden city but you can also opt to ride donkeys or camels.
But I recommend that you walk so you can stop whenever you see something interesting. Also, our companions who rode donkeys and camels said their butt hurt after the ride. Haha...
The most interesting part of the walk is passing through the Siq. This is a gorge - where water used to flow.
At the end of the Siq is the breathtaking site of The Treasury. I was just blown away when I saw it. It’s purely carved out of stone! So beautiful! Our tour guide said that based on estimates, it must have taken 13 years to carve The Treasury.
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| The Treasury |
If The Treasury looks familiar, it's either because you saw it in a scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or in photos when Petra made it to the New 7 wonders of the World last 07/07/07.
Here's what else you can find at Petra - all beautifully carved in rocks.
Day 3
We want back to Amman and went to Mt. Nebo - this is where Moses viewed Promised Land and also passed away.
The big cross on the cliff symbolizes Moses' staff.
Here's a photo I took from the cliff - maybe it's the same view Moses saw. :)
There's also a beautiful church at the top of Mt Nebo.
While in Amman, Jordan, we also had time to visit the Madaba Center where we watched artists make beautiful mosaics.
From Amman, we crossed the Israel border (via bus) and headed towards Jericho.
We stopped by the sycamore fig tree where Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus.
We stopped by the sycamore fig tree where Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus.
Then we stopped over the Temptation Mountain where Jesus fasted for 40 days and was tempted by Satan. A monastery called Quarantal Monastery (quarantal means forty) was built at the top of the mountain.
From there, we went to the Jordan River where St. John the Baptist baptized Jesus. While there, we renewed our baptismal vows.
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| Jordan River |
We proceeded then to the Sea of Galilee (which I learned from out tour guide that it is technically a lake, not sea).
It was in the Sea of Galilee where Jesus called Simon and Andrew to become apostles, and where Jesus calmed a storm, and where he walked on the surface of the water!
We also rode a replica of what is believed to be what the boats looked liked during the time of Jesus
By the time we finished our short boat ride around the Sea of Galilee, it was already sunset.
Day 4
We went to the place where the Sermon on the Mount was held. A church stands there now called the Church of Beatitudes. This church was built in 1936 and guess who sponsored it? According to our tour guide, it was Italian dictator Mussolini who commissioned Italian designer Antonio Barluzzi. (Wow, my notes were really so detailed then! What happened to me now?! Haha...)
Then we headed to the Primacy of St. Peter (located along the Sea of Galilee). It was in this spot where Jesus appeared to the disciples following His resurrection and where He restored Peter to his place of authority in the church (after Peter denied Jesus 3 times).
Inside the chapel is a flat rock called "Mensa Christi" (Christ's table) - it marks the site where they ate that day.
Next stop was the Church of the First Feeding of the Multitude of Tabgha or where Jesus multiplied 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes to feed 5,000 men!
Then we proceeded to Capernaum. What is Capernaum's significance? When John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus chose to live in Capernaum and made it as His headquarters for His ministry. While there, he lived at St. Peter's House. The archeological site of St. Peter's house had been preserved. Check this out -
It was also in Capernaum where Jesus healed the sick, taught in synanogues and raised Jairius' daughter back to life.
Here are the ruins of a synanogue in Capernaum. Imagine, Jesus used to preach in this synanogue.
Here are the ruins of a synanogue in Capernaum. Imagine, Jesus used to preach in this synanogue.
Next stop was the Franciscan Church of Cana in Galilee - yep, Cana - where Jesus performed His first public miracle, that of turning water into wine. One of the 6 stone water jars had been preserved - it's so huge that it can hold up to 20-30 gallons of water.
Married couples from our tour group renewed their marriage vows and I became an instant wedding photographer! Haha...
Then we visited the Church of the Anunciation. This houses the place where Angel Gabriel appeared to Mama Mary.
See the tunnel opening on the right behind the altar on the photo below? That is the entrance to the cave where Mama Mary was staying when Angel Gabriel appeared to her.
Day 5
We headed to Mt Tabor in the Church of the Transfiguration. This is where Peter and James witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus and saw Him with Moses and Elijah.
Then we proceeded to the Stella Maris Carmelite Monastery and Church in Mt Carmel - this is the place where Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal and succeeded in proving that the God of Israel is the true God.
Next stop was Ceasaria. This was built by Herod the Great in honor of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It houses a temple, amphitheatre, a hippodrome, market, homes and public buildings.
Here's a photo of the hippodrome in Ceasaria - imagine, once upon a time, this is where charriot races were held.
Here's a photo of the hippodrome in Ceasaria - imagine, once upon a time, this is where charriot races were held.
It was also in Caesaria where Peter baptized Cornelius - a Roman centurion who became the first Gentile convert.
We then proceeded to St. Peter's Church in Old Jaffa which overlooks Tel Aviv. Jaffa is where Peter resuscitated a woman who had died, and where Peter had a vision to preach to Cornelius. It is also where the harbor from which Jonah departed on his ill-fated journey when he was swallowed by a big fish.
Next stop was Mama Mary's well in Nazareth. It may have been the only source of water in Nazareth during the early times and it's likely that Mama Mary, St. Joseph and Jesus came there to draw water or drink.
Then we proceeded to the Church of the Visitation in Ein Kerem where Mama Mary visited St. Elizabeth on her sixth month of pregnancy. Ein Kerem is also the birth place of St. John the Baptist.
This is the village well where Mama Mary met St. Elizabeth during The Visitation.
Day 6
We went to Church of Pater Noster in Mt Olives. The Church was built by Roman Emperor Constantine and his mother, St Helena. What is the significance of Mt Olives? It is the place where Jesus ascended to heaven.
Inside the church, you'll find the Lord's prayer in various languages and dialects. Yes, not just Filipino but Pampanggo, Ilonggo and Cebuano. Here's the Pampanggo version I spotted inside the church -
Next stop was the Dominus Flevit Church. Dominus Flevit means "the Lord wept". It marks where Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
Outside the church, you'll find "Corpus Christi" (Christ's thorns) plants - the same thorns which the Roman soldiers used to make the crown of thorns of Jesus. The thorns are long - approximately 3 inches long - and they are soft when they are still green, but when turn brown, the thorns are super hard and sharp!
Dominus Flevit overlooks the ancient city of Jerusalem - so when Jesus wept, He really had a good view of Jerusalem. Here's how the walled city of Jerusalem looks today.
See the golden dome? That's the Mosque of El Aksa, the golden dome of the Rock, where Isaac was bound for sacrifice.
Then we proceeded to the Basilica of Gethsemane. The basilica was built to house the rock of agony where Jesus prayed.
Outside the church is what remains of the garden of Gethsemane. It's so beautiful and serene. The oldest olive tree alive in the garden is believed to date back to Jesus' time.
Outside the church is what remains of the garden of Gethsemane. It's so beautiful and serene. The oldest olive tree alive in the garden is believed to date back to Jesus' time.
Next stop was Mt Zion where the upper room is located - this is the place where Jesus celebrated the last Supper with the disciples and where He also appeared to them after the resurrection, and where the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles.
After that, we headed to the Dormition Abbey - dormitio means eternal sleep. This is the place where Mama Mary fell into eternal sleep.
Then we visited Bethesda. It was in the pool in Bethesda where Jesus healed a paralytic whom he ordered to stand up, pick up his mat and walk - and he did! The ruins of the pools are still there and just near the pool, there's the church of St. Anne, in honor of Mama Mary's mom.
Next, we entered the walled city of Jerusalem. Inside are different quarters for Christians, Armenians, Moslems and Jews.
While inside, we did the Stations of the Cross (Via Dolorosa) carrying a real wooden cross (though we took turns carrying it and of course, it's way, way lighter than what Jesus carried).
We passed by the same route as Jesus did and stopped by to pray where each of the stations happened (there are markers around the walled city).
At the end of the Way of the Cross, the final destination was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Calvary (in Latin), or also called as Golgotha (in Armaic).
By the entrance of the Church you'll find the Annointment Stone - where Joseph of Arimathea laid down Jesus' body before the burial.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built to house the exact site where the wooden cross of Jesus was mounted.
And it also houses the tomb cave where Jesus' body was buried.
This Church also amazed me because it houses several chapels for various religious sects - Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Copts, etc. You could see that various kinds of services for each group are simultaneously happening and everyone respects each other.
Day 7
We went to the House of Caiaphas where Jesus was questioned. See these ancient steps leading to the House Caiaphas? Imagine, Jesus once walked on these same steps. Wow.
Next stop was the Church of St Peter in Gallicantu (gallicantu means crowing of the cock). The Church houses the courtyard where Peter denied Jesus. It also houses a prison where Peter and some of the apostles were believed to be tortured, and a sacred pit believed to be where Jesus and other martyrs may have been thrown and left in isolation. Here's the sacred pit.
On the walls, you'll see several Byzantine crosses markings believed to have been made by the prisoner martyrs.
On the walls, you'll see several Byzantine crosses markings believed to have been made by the prisoner martyrs.
Near the parking lot of the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, there's a viewing deck where you could see a monastery - but during Jesus' time, it was in this area where Judas Iscariot hanged himself.
Next stop was the Shepherd's Fields in Bethlehem - where the angel appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus. A chapel has been built to commemorate the place.
Then we proceeded to the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. It houses the Star of Bethlehem - the spot where Jesus was born.
And a couple of meters away from the star is the spot of the Holy Manger - where Jesus was laid down.
The Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, according to our tour guide, is the first church built in the 4th century AD by Roman Emperor Constantine and his mother, St Helena. Here's how the Church of Nativity looks like -
See the door of the church? It's only about 4 ft high! You know why? It was really built that way to prevent horses of invaders from coming inside the church and destroying it. So when Persians invaded Holyland in the 7th century, this church was the only one spared - but not because of the small door but for another interesting reason. The Persians saw a mosaic depicting the Nativity scene outside the church and thought the kings in the mosaic were Persians. Whew! This makes the Church of Nativity the oldest church that is still in use today.
Day 8
We went back to the walled city of Jerusalem, this time to visit the Western Wall or Wailing Wall. There is a tradition among Jews to pray to God and insert your letters of petitions in between the cracks of the wall - I did and there's barely any space left to insert letters. According to Wikipedia, over 1 million letters are inserted every year; letters are collected every 2 years and are buried in the Mount of Olives.
After praying and inserting your letter, you're not supposed to turn around and walk away. The right way is while still facing the wall, you have to walk backwards.
Look at the Wailing Wall more closely. The first 8 rows of bricks are original - they are more than 2,000 years old. Wow!
From there, we proceeded to the Dead Sea. Did you know that the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the face of the earth? It's 400m or 1,290 feet below sea level! It's called Dead Sea because there's almost no vegetation or life because of its high mineral content.
If you're visiting Dead Sea, you've to take a dip and experience how to float effortlessly. You will easily float that it's so hard to stand up. Haha... And while in the water, you have to try the ultimate beauty mud pack! Apply mud all over your face ad body. Haha... The mud is so smooth (powdery smooth) and it's surely gonna leave your skin smooth and moisturized for hours.
One last important tip - please make sure salt water doesn't get into your eyes - it's painful and it stings that you can barely open your eyes.
While in the area, we also visited Qumran to see the Dead Sea scrolls.
From Israel, we crossed the Egyptian border and stayed overnight in a place called St Catherine's Chalets.
St Catherine's Chalets is in the middle of the desert at the foot of Mt Sinai. I tried taking photos at night and all of them showed images like these -
Day 9
First order of the day was supposed to be a trek to Mt Sinai to witness the sunrise. But my friend and I decided to skip it because we got checked in to our chalet close to midnight the previous night and it was almost 1am when we slept. The call time was 3am and since we've heard that the trek was by the cliff, we were afraid that we might fall asleep during the trek and just fall off the cliff. Haha...
Here's the view of Mt Sinai from our chalet. Mt. Sinai is where God gave the 10 commandments to Moses.
Here's the view of Mt Sinai from our chalet. Mt. Sinai is where God gave the 10 commandments to Moses.
Since we arrived at St. Catherine Chalets late at night, we didn't realize how beautiful the place was. Check these out -
And here's our chalet -
After checking out from St. Catherine's Chalets, we went to St Catherine's Monastery.
St Catherine's Monastery houses the burning bush -
We also passed by Aaron's tomb (the brother of Moses) and Elim (where Moses stopped over during his journey). The wells of Elim are still there.
We then headed to Cairo, the third most populated city in the world after Tokyo and Mexico City. And guess what? 1/3 of Egypt's population is in Cairo and there are 6M cars that cross Cairo and Giza every single day. Wow.
Then, we went on a dinner cruise at the Nile River.
We had buffet dinner and entertainment included performances of belly dancing -
and swirling dervishes -
Day 10
We went to the Pyramids of Giza.
The pyramid of Cheops is the biggest of the 3.
The blocks that make up the pyramids are so huge! The biggest block could weigh up to 6 tons! And the smallest could weigh up to 1 ton. How could have these been possibly built 4,000 years ago by just manual labor?!
The pyramid with the hole is the Pyramid of Nicoramus.
And the pyramid with the Sphinx is called the Pyramid of Chephren.
We went inside the Pyramid of Chephren. But if you're claustrophobic or have back problems, I don't recommend that you go inside because the passageway is narrow and low, and there is a part when you have to crawl. What is there to see inside? Sarcophagus because after all, the pyramids are burial places.
My friend and I experimented on trick shots while waiting for our companions to board the bus. Haha...
From the Pyramids, we headed to the Egyptian Museum which houses some of the treasures of Tutankhamen. Photography isn't allowed inside the museum.
Who is Tutankhamen? He lived in the 4th century and became king at age 9. He died at around age 18 or 19 but he became very popular because he is the only Egyptian king whose tomb was found intact.
At the museum, we also learned about mummification. Here's mummification 101 - remove the internal organs except for the heart and kidneys, soak the body in salt for 4 days to dehydrate it, soak the body in 7 sacred oils for 30 days, wrap in cloth and put it inside in anthropoid coffins (usually 3 layers), then lay it down on a sarcophagus. (I can't believe those are in my journal! I was really attentive in fairness to me! Haha...)
From the museum, we went to the Luxor Papyrus Institute where we learned how papyrus is processed.
Then we passed by a perfumery and ended the day at the El Khalil Bazaar - the oldest market in the world.
We visited the Pharaonic Village to see how Egyptians lived during the olden times.
The Pharaonic Village also houses replicas of Tutankhamen's treasures like his golden mask.
Then we headed to the Coptic Church - this is believed to be the place where the Holy Family stayed after they fled from Israel following Jesus' birth.
And that capped our pilgrimage tour.
Day 12
Arrival in Manila and back to reality. Haha...
Anyway, I hope these pictures and some snippets from our journey may inspire you to someday go on a pilgrimage tour too. And please don't wait until retirement age to do this (like most people do). Go there while you're still young and energetic. :)
