YCP group shares Egypt experience

A group of 38 York College students, led by Assistant Professor David Fyfe, recently returned from a two-week trip to Egypt as part of a Minimester geography course titled Culture and Environment Field Series. Last year, Fyfe took a group to Peru, and next year he plans to travel to Turkey and Greece.

Throughout the trip to Egypt, the group – which numbered 63 and also included alumni, several faculty and family members – visited sites including the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities and Coptic Cairo (the center of Christianity in Cairo); Sharm el Sheik, a city situated on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, with the Red Sea on one side and the mountains of Mount Sinai on the other; St. Catherine’s Monastery, located at the foot of Mount Sinai, the oldest continuously active monastery in the world; the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx; Aswan, the gem of Egypt; the temple at Kom Ombo; Edfu, home of the largest and most completely preserved Pharaonic temple; and the Valley of the Kings. They trekked across parts of Egypt on camel and donkey, and enjoyed trips down the Nile on a felucca, a traditional wooden sailing boat.

The group shared their experience in several ways. Matt Peterson, a senior public relations major from East Brunswick N.J., blogged throughout the trip; alumnus Tim Wingert created a Facebook page called “YCP in Egypt 2010!”; and, following the trip, students shared a “best of” photo presentation on their experiences (video).