@The Phoenician thank you for taking the time (from what I can only imagine are full days) to post some great photos of areas of your travels. I’m a huge geek about Egyptian history. The photo with you holding The Great Pyramid with your fingers is incredible. I can’t imagine what they look like up close. Also the Petra photo is amazing. That area of the world has so much ancient history. Beautiful. Be safe
Thanks for the kind words. I've tried to post up more pics, but the wifi is not strong here. I'll have to post up when I get to Europe or back home stateside if you remind me.
On the Egypt thing, it was very educational, not just for the pyramids, but also for walking the Coptic Christian churches areas. So much history and influence that the Copts brought to Egypt that is slowly being relegated to ruins. In fact, Egypt was named after the Copts by the Greeks ( according to the tour guide). I also enjoyed going through the neighborhoods in independence square that brought life to the Arab Spring in Egypt. Sadly not much has changed and I assess another coup attempt in the next three years. Estimating inflation to hit over 30% next year alone.
On the pyramid end, I did not realize there were roughly 120 of them. The ones in Giza are the largest, but modest on the inside. Some of the fanciest ones I've seen in Saqara were nothing more than sand hills on the outside. You can see the evolution of how they learned to build these structures. Some looked like steps, others sand hills and one had a curve to it because they designed it wrong.
I just finished up a tour of Byblos in Lebanon where the alphabet was invented and standardized by the ancient Phoenicians. I'll post up the pics when I get better internet connectivity. I'm still amazed at how they pioneered sailing by stars and were the first in the world to navigate away from the sea shore and just use the north star.
On the offroading end, I saw the old Nissan Patrol I was in love with when I was in high school. It was built and I'm glad to see it still running strong. I was not able to take a photo of it as I was driving and it was coming in the opposite direction. I've seen a few old School G wagens and a ton of Land and Range Rovers that are also built up. All of these things have had some kind of influence on how I built Big Red. Many laughed at what my vision was for it, they told me it was a waste of money or couldn't be done. But I had seen it done, all it took was passion for wheeling and the outdoors. I also had tons of encouragement from this forum, which I am eternally grateful for. I wish I had more time in Lebanon, I'd have loved to set up an overlanding trip from Mount Kneisseh starting from my village all the way up to the Ancient Cedars like I had done roughly 25 years ago with a few of my Venture Scout buddies.
I'm itching to be back and start working on Big Red, Penelope Cruiser (the FJ40) and my son's 85 pick up temporarily named the Dirty Avocado as Marty was way too cliche.
PS: I forgot about Ron Burgundy our tacoma, but that's been fully built and the wife has forbidden me from making any more mods to it. She claims it as hers now.