Trip to Balat

Car ride, awkward faces.

So yesterday was our "day off", which in other words meant spending 4 hours in the library preparing presentations due in a week before heading off to a local site for an entire afternoon. Don't get me wrong, it was great to visit Balat and see the site Ain Asil, an ancient Egyptian city, but the entire afternoon was dedicated to the endeavor and it was exhausting!! Not to mention, I forgot to wear proper shoes and ended up with 10 pounds of sand in my shoes by the end of the day. AND, of course, it was freezing cold, something I was not anticipating with the sun shining overhead.

Walking into the desert.

Going to a tomb at the bottom of a giant pit.

Anyhow, we got a tour by one of the French archaeologists working on the site, saw the layout of the governor's palace (mostly rubble and a rough outline of rooms now), and ended the day with a visit to the tombs nearby. Needless to say, it was a fun day, but tiring. Now time to catch up on some seminar readings and then back to class today.

Inside of the tomb!

 -Christina