Richmond Students Visit Egypt

29/10/2008

18 Study Abroad students visited Egypt this Fall Break. The visit consisted of a boat and train trip ranging in chronology and geography from the Old Kingdom pyramids of Lower Egypt outside Cairo, down through the Middle Kingdom with is palaces and tombs at Luxor and the Valleys of the Kings and Queens, to the southern border of Upper Egypt and the Ptolemaic palaces near Aswan. It wasn’t all ancient history, however. The group travelled to the Aswan Dam and discussed its impact on the resettled Nubian peoples, followed with a visit (via camel) to a resettled community. During a trip to Saladin’s fortress they also learned of the Crusader movement’s impact on the region. All the while the imperial legacies of the likes of the Assyrians, Persians, Kushites, Greeks, Macedonians, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans, French and British were always on hand to see, and the group learned how all these civilisations further enriched and complicated this country’s illustrious past. The students also saw that this process of cultural interchange could be two-way, with Cleopatra and her Greek predecessors trying to package themselves as legitimate pharaohs.

Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/n/608.aspx