Let Me Know What You Think!
Still some bugs, but I’ve been working on it all night, and I still have some tweaking to do to it. If you find any issues, please post about them here or there!
This post is going to be a progress report, and boy what a doozy!
This blog has been a pilot project from day one, as stated in the This Site tab. The intent was to use the free account to learn how to use the WordPress software, then when I felt ready, launch the actual project on its own server.
Well, the pilot project is wrapping up…
Built more than 1,100 years ago, the Mosque of ibn Tulun still looks largely the way it did when first constructed, which is really saying something when you consider that the entire city that was built around it was destroyed just 26 years later. The mosque tells the story of the son of a Turkish slave who came to rule all of Egypt and part of Syria, and who declared independence for his kingdom–as well as himself–from those who once owned him. This article will explore the history of Ahmad ibn Tulun and the mosque that bears his name.
To read the rest of this article, click HERE.
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Coptic Cairo occupies the oldest part of the oldest part of a very old city, and is of historical import to no less than four empires, three world religions, the two most important men in the Bible, and one of the oldest languages still spoken. It is the heart of Old Cairo and the birthplace of the city itself. The architecture of Coptic Cairo tells the story of the passing of the ancient world and the drama of how the East and the West established a delicate coexistence, sometimes violent, sometimes peaceful, all within the space of a few city blocks.
This article looks at the history of the Coptic Quarter with special attention given to the Churches of Saints Sergius and Mary, and the Synagogue of Ben Ezra.
To read the rest of this article, click HERE.
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For seven centuries the Citadel was the seat of Islamic supremacy in Egypt. Like the pharaohs of old, the sultans built magnificent symbols of power and piety, pushed the boundaries of architecture and engineering, and wrote their history in stone and gold. If the pyramids are the most obvious symbols of ancient royalty, the Citadel of Salah al-Din is clearly the emblem of the Muslim dynasties.
This article will take you around the Citadel, behind its walls, and into the heart of its most sacred space.
To read the rest of this article, click HERE.
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This article has been expanded and re-written as a series of articles about the pyramids and the Giza Plateau.
Click HERE to be redirected to the Giza Plateau category on the new site. You’ll be glad you did!
The number one natural resource in Egypt is history. Unlike its oil-rich neighbors, the Egyptian economy relies on the foriegn money of tourists who fly into Cairo from all points of the compass to see colossal monuments, puzzle over cyclopean architecture, and experience walking where the ancients once lived out their days. This has resulted in an organic fusion of the very ancient with the ultra modern. No place on earth exemplifies this merger like Cairo.
To read the rest of this article, click HERE.
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I am finding Layers and Level Adjustment to be the two most indispensable elements of Paint.Net. Whether trying to fix outside shots that are too dark, or inside shots that are really dark, brightness and contrast need to be tweaked in nearly all of my Egyptian photos. But some parts need tweaked more than others.
This article covers what I have learned about selectively adjusting different parts of photographs by taking advantage of layers, level adjustment, and judicious cropping.
This article has been expanded and re-written as a series of articles about the pyramids and the Giza Plateau.
Click HERE to be redirected to the Giza Plateau category on the new site. You’ll be glad you did!
In my last post I said that my next post would be a collection of pictures in honor of Mother’s Day. You know.. Isis, Mut, Hathor, that sort of thing? I don’t know what I was thinking. Mother’s Day is not for several weeks yet (May 10th to be exact).
So instead of mothers, I decided to put up a few pictures of children. Of course I will have my latest installation of my ongoing odyssey with blog designing, but feel free to skip that part.
At last I have all of the Egypt pictures in one place–here. Several days ago the box arrived from UPS, although the sender (my mother) held onto the negatives in case disaster occurred. I had been storing the photos at my parent’s house because for several years I was doing a lot of moving around and didn’t want them damaged or lost. I’ve been pretty settled for the last few years, but had not yet brought the pics here, and my folks live 4.5 hours away, soo…
Its been a busy week, and I have had to snag time where I could to work on Em Hotep. In addition to adventures in categories and tags, I have been busy scanning and editing photos.
As usual, some of my learning process has involved banging my head against the proverbial wall. It seems that there is a lot of variance in how some of the WordPress settings operate in different themes. This makes sense when you consider that the whole purpose of having different themes is not only to give your blog a unique look, but to fine-tune its functioning to better meet your needs.
Since the themes available with the free WordPress.com hosting are “as-is,” you are limited in what you can change. That can contribute to the infamous WordPress learning curve…
Em Hotep continues to grow as does my mastery of WordPress!
Actually, mastery may be too strong a word, but the more I read and poke around with the system, the more streamlined and professional things are looking.
I spent most of my spare time over the weekend making tweaks and organizing things a little better. I also played around some with Paint.Net, as the lovely lotus flower above will attest.
I have to admit, my wife is the gardener in the family, not me. I am occasionally called upon to cut branches or pull up roots, but anything requiring forethought, patience, and a good eye are best left to her. But when it comes to tending my little cyber garden of images, I am having to develop a green thumb on the fly.
Putting together my photo-travel-etc. blog requires not only deciding which pictures I want to include. A large part of it involves what part of which pictures make the cut. Not to mention weeding out bad pixels…
What better place to start than with a few pictures?
Don’t expect much text-wise. I still have to dig out my travel journal, do research, etc. This is really just a first stab at posting with some pics. I am really just at the beginning of this whole process, so be patient!
I am still trying to figure out the subtleties of getting different headings to work, so aesthetics are not foremost in my mind at the moment. If I can get a good post with some pics up, I’ll be happy!
