Mission Accomplished!

My big adventure has come to an end. I returned home to Canada this week, along with my new Egyptian friend Ra (pictured on the right.)

It took me 103 days and 27 flights to visit 13 different countries. You might wonder which one was my favourite. Honestly, I don't have one; I enjoyed my experiences everywhere I went. I think that the best thing about traveling is meeting people from different places, and hearing about the way they live their lives.

I will have many stories to share with you when I return to Byng in the fall (and thank you, Ms. Mui, for making sure that everything ran smoothly in the library.) I'm looking forward to seeing all of you soon!

Mr. Rosell

P.S. Here's one last photo. It's my cat, Baby, meeting a new friend for the first time:

Last Photos from Egypt

"Cat-gypt"

On an island on the Nile River there is a botanic garden. A botanic garden is kind of like a museum of plants and trees.

One interesting thing about this Egyptian botanic garden is that there were many cats living in the garden. As many of you know, I love cats, so I had a great time seeing all the plants, trees and
cats!





I bought a black alabaster cat from a souvenir seller on the island and named it "Ra," which was the name of the ancient Egyptian god of the sun. Ra is very heavy; I'll bring it to school someday and you can try to lift him yourself.

I introduced Ra to some of the curious cats at the garden:

Here's Ra enjoying a boat ride back to the side of the Nile.

Ancient Egyptian Temples

The pharaohs (kings) of ancient Egypt built many temples to worship their gods. Temples were usually built on the east side of the Nile River (because the sun rises in east) and tombs were located on the west side of the Nile (where the sun sets.)

Many of the temples from ancient times survive to this day. I visited temples at Luxor, Karnak and Philae. The walls of the temples are covered in hieroglyphics, which is the ancient Egyptian style of writing and numbering. If there is an oval shape around some hieroglyphics, it represents the name of a pharaoh. These ovals are called cartouches.

After learning about ancient Egypt for many years, it was an incredible experience to finally visit some of these beautiful temples. I hope you'll have a chance to see them one day too!

Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor, is a desolate limestone rock valley which houses the tombs of 63 ancient Egyptian pharaohs. The burial chambers were constructed between the 16th and 11th centuries B.C.

As the pharaohs began to notice that the much more obvious pyramids were being looted by robbers, they took the opposite approach and began making hidden underground burial chambers. Once a pharaoh died, his remains were placed in the tomb which may have taken up to 20 years to construct. Then the doors were sealed and hidden by rock debris.

Unfortunately, robbers were smarter than the pharaohs and all of the tombs were completed looted except one ... the tomb of King Tutankhamun. Since he was such a minor pharaoh (he only ruled for nine years), his tomb full of treasures remained forgotten and hidden under masses of debris from the construction of another tunnel just above his tomb. After several years of searching, the tomb was finally located and opened in 1922.


Apparently there is still one tomb unaccounted for, and excavations continue to this day under the blisteringly hot Egyptian sun.





You can go inside the tombs but you can't take pictures. The walls are richly covered with the instructions contained in the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, which would serve to guide the pharaoh during his passage through the underworld. The colours are still vivid, as you can see from this Internet image of Ramses VI's tomb.

The Nile River

The Nile River, which is the longest river in the world (if you count all of its tributaries), was the lifeline of the ancient Egyptian peoples. Even now, almost all of Egypt's 80 million people live close to the Nile River. If you look at the satellite image to the right, you can see the thin line of green along the Nile, and the large, empty deserts beyond on either side.

The Nile River begins at Lake Victoria in the country of Uganda and flows north through Sudan and Egypt before emptying into the Mediterranean Sea.

I was lucky enough to be able to sail up the river Nile for four days. Along the way I saw many incredible sights: farms, fishers, swimmers and even peoples selling things from boats. It was an amazing journey!








Along the way the boat had to pass through one lock, in order to get to higher ground. As we slowed down to move into the lock, many people selling clothing approached the boat I was on and tried to sell things to the boat's passengers.

This boat is called a "felucca," and it is an traditional Nile fishing boat.

King Tut

The Pharaoh known as Tutankhamun (or "King Tut") did not live a long life. King Tut was just nine years old when he became Pharaoh, and only 18 years old when he died. The people of Egypt did not have a lot of time to build Tut's tomb. Tut's tomb was very small compared to the tombs of other pharaohs. Because his tomb was so small, it was overlooked for thousands of years.

In 1922, a British archaeologist named Howard Carter entered King Tut's tomb, where they found many treasures, including solid gold mask of King Tut's face.

The artifacts in Tut's tomb told archaeologists and scientists a lot about ancient Egyptian daily life. Many people all over the world became interested in learning more about ancient Egypt because of the exciting discovery of King Tut's tomb.

Tutankhamun's treasures are now stored in Cairo's Egyptian Museum, which I visited yesterday. Unfortunately, I was not able to take my camera inside to photograph the many precious items from his tomb, but our library has several books about Ancient Egypt if you are interested in learning more about the history of the boy king known as "Tutankhamun."

This picture was taken outside of the museum

Great Pyramids of Giza

I had an amazing day in Giza, Egypt today. Giza, which is on the edge of the capital city of Cairo, is home to three pyramids and the Sphinx.

I was actually able to go inside the biggest of the pyramids, known as the "Great Pyramid of Cheops," and climb up a narrow passage to the burial chamber. For the last 25 metres I had to crawl -- it's definitely not for people who hate small spaces!


Next to the three pyramids is the Great Sphinx, the half man/half lion statue that is centuries old. It is missing the cobra from its head, its beard, and its nose. Otherwise, Ol' Sphinx looks pretty good!

In a crack between the limestone blocks of the Cheops Pyramid

One of the highlights of this special day was riding a camel next to the pyramids. It wasn't the most comfortable ride, but it sure was memorable!