Religious Sites

Having made several past visits to tourist areas of Egypt and the Sinai, on our March ’05 trip my husband and I decided to explore the Coptic aspect of Cairo.

by Roger Canfield, Contributing Editor

by Ian McGary, Mountain View, CA

Continued from last month's "Incredible India — The North"

Most know that Hollywood made Cleopatra famous with movies of her romantic trysts with Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony, but historians generally view Arab Queen Zenobia as having greater beauty, chastity and valor than her Egyptian ancestor. But who was Zenobia?

During the third century A.D., Rome was challenged by Persia (Iran). As Roman Palmyra, in Syria’s eastern desert, had twice defeated Persia, Rome permitted Palmyra to gradually change from a merchant republic, governed by a senate, to a kingdom.

by Ian McGary, Mountain View, CA

(Part 2 of 3 on Morocco)

Casablanca

Fifteen hundred years ago, Kairouan was only a desert crossroads, a caravan stop in the sands of what is now Tunisia in North Africa. But this quickly changed. In fewer than 100 years following the death of Muhammad in A.D. 632, caravans from Saudi Arabia had spread his word of Islam from India to the Atlantic Ocean.

Three friends and I booked a trip to Berlin for March 6-11, ’05, with Expedia (www. expedia.com). For $905 each, double occupancy, it included airfare, hotel and ground transportation.

We flew from the Washington Dulles airport to Frankfurt on United and connected with a Lufthansa flight to Berlin. We walked off the plane in Berlin to find our luggage on a carousel directly outside the gate, then walked through security to find our liveried driver outside the door and our new VW luxury van parked at the curb. We felt like VIPs.