From the current issue of "National Geographic HISTORY:"
""..... World War II marked the beginning of Shanghai's transformation into a strategic commercial, financial, and industrial hub. Westerners remained a minority (150,000 in the early 1940s), but they left a deep mark on the city, especially in the bandits historic district located on the waterfront of the Huangpu River.
"Around the Customs House, which is topped bt a clock reminiscent of London's Big Ben, stood a line of glittering skyscrapers. One such building was the 1937 Bank of China.
Shanghai's Bund in the 1940s as pictured in the current issue of "National Geographic HISTORY:"
Shanghai's Bund Today:
View of the Bund's Waterfront Walkway Promenade:
View from the Bund Looking across the Huangpu River - Contasting the Old with the New:
Shanghai’s Riverside Bundt, Contrasting The Old and the New - 1940’s Skyscrapers and Today’s Towers
Shanghai was a small fishing village on China’s coast until it became a Treaty Port after the Opium Wars. Then in the 1940’s its population surged as it grew into a financial and commercial center under foreign influence.
The impressive skyscrapers of that era still stand as seen in this video as viewed from the riverside Bundt promenade.
Contrasted to those buildings on one side of the river are modern structures across the water including impressive towers.
Link to Video contrasting the Old and the New in Shanghai as viewed from the Bundt riverside promenade:
View from the Bund Looking across the Huangpu River - Contasting the Old with the New:
The gold building center right was our layover hotel (Shangri La in Pudong). I saw the two tall buildings being constructed in the 2010s. There was almost nothing there, across from the Bund, 20 years ago.
DISCOVERING EGYPT’S OLDEST JEWISH SYNAGOGUE AMONG CAIRO'S COPTIC CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Our tour itinerary in Egypt included multiple Islamic Mosques and Coptic Christian Churches, but no mention of a Jewish synagogue. It was only by chance that we found ourselves visiting the oldest Jewish synagogue in Egypt, the Ben Ezra Synagogue in the Coptic Quarters of Old Cairo, historically known as the Egyptian city of Fustat. I assume our tour guide added this visit because our tour group included Jewish members and she decided it was only fair to reward them for having spent so much time visiting Mosques and Churches of other Faiths.
Learning about the synagogue’s place in both Jewish and Egyptian history has been most educational. The current issue of “National Geographic History” includes an article titled, “The Hidden Archive of Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue.”
The feature describes hundreds of thousands of documents that had been preserved in the synagogue’s geniza, an attic storeroom accessible only by climbing a ladder into an entry close to the ceiling.
Upon our visit I peered up to that location without appreciating the significance of the documents and manuscripts that had hidden behind it for many centuries. Some are a thousand years old and provide insight into the Jewish community in Cairo that once numbered over 80,000 and in recent years has dwindled to a dozen. A majority of them are now at Cambridge University where they are being studied. Among them are writings from the second century BC from Ecclesiasticus (Book of Sirach) written in the original Hebrew. Only translations had previously been available.
Tradition has it that the synagogue is located on the site of where the Pharaoh’s daughter found the baby Moses. There is also a well in a nearby courtyard that is claimed to have been the source of bathing water for the toddler Christ Child when he was being hidden in a nearby cave on his sojourn to Egypt to escape from King Herod.
Ben Ezra, after whom the synagogue is named, was a Spanish Jewish scholar who, among other achievements, introduced Islamic mathematics with its decimal system to Europe in the 12th Century AD.
Photos:
Exiting the Ben Ezra Jewish Synagogue in Cairo:
Today's Old Cairo, where the synagogue is located, was historically the separate city of Fustat:
The Ben Ezra Jewish Synagogue is located in Close Proximity to Coptic Christian Churches that were located where tradition has it that the toddler Christ Child was hidden in a nearby cavern:
The Holy Family Fleeing to Egypt as depicted on a Coptic Church's Mural near the Ben Ezra Synagogue:
The entrance to the cavern situated below the Coptic Cavern Church:
Tradition also has it that water from a well in a courtyard near the Ben Ezra Synagogue was used to bathe the Christ Child:
Inside the Hanging Coptic Church in Old Cairo hangs an icon painting of Mary with the Christ Child in Egypt that is commonly known as Egypt's Mona Lisa:
Comments
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INYNWHWeTrust-TexasNationals,ajaan,blu62vette
coinJP, Outhaul ,illini420,MICHAELDIXON, Fade to Black,epcjimi1,19Lyds,SNMAN,JerseyJoe, bigjpst, DMWJR , lordmarcovan, Weiss,Mfriday4962,UtahCoin,Downtown1974,pitboss,RichieURich,Bullsitter,JDsCoins,toyz4geo,jshaulis, mustanggt, SNMAN, MWallace, ms71, lordmarcovan,JWP,dantheman984,olah_in_MA,USMC_6115
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USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
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USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
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A stop on Route 66
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
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remember these?
1940s adding machine
for us Einstiens (?)
(Oahu's Magic Island 1/1/2024)
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
INYNWHWeTrust-TexasNationals,ajaan,blu62vette
coinJP, Outhaul ,illini420,MICHAELDIXON, Fade to Black,epcjimi1,19Lyds,SNMAN,JerseyJoe, bigjpst, DMWJR , lordmarcovan, Weiss,Mfriday4962,UtahCoin,Downtown1974,pitboss,RichieURich,Bullsitter,JDsCoins,toyz4geo,jshaulis, mustanggt, SNMAN, MWallace, ms71, lordmarcovan,JWP,dantheman984,olah_in_MA,USMC_6115
INYNWHWeTrust-TexasNationals,ajaan,blu62vette
coinJP, Outhaul ,illini420,MICHAELDIXON, Fade to Black,epcjimi1,19Lyds,SNMAN,JerseyJoe, bigjpst, DMWJR , lordmarcovan, Weiss,Mfriday4962,UtahCoin,Downtown1974,pitboss,RichieURich,Bullsitter,JDsCoins,toyz4geo,jshaulis, mustanggt, SNMAN, MWallace, ms71, lordmarcovan,JWP,dantheman984,olah_in_MA,USMC_6115
INYNWHWeTrust-TexasNationals,ajaan,blu62vette
coinJP, Outhaul ,illini420,MICHAELDIXON, Fade to Black,epcjimi1,19Lyds,SNMAN,JerseyJoe, bigjpst, DMWJR , lordmarcovan, Weiss,Mfriday4962,UtahCoin,Downtown1974,pitboss,RichieURich,Bullsitter,JDsCoins,toyz4geo,jshaulis, mustanggt, SNMAN, MWallace, ms71, lordmarcovan,JWP,dantheman984,olah_in_MA,USMC_6115
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
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USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
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SHANGHAI'S BUND, THE OLD AND THE NEW
From the current issue of "National Geographic HISTORY:"
""..... World War II marked the beginning of Shanghai's transformation into a strategic commercial, financial, and industrial hub. Westerners remained a minority (150,000 in the early 1940s), but they left a deep mark on the city, especially in the bandits historic district located on the waterfront of the Huangpu River.
"Around the Customs House, which is topped bt a clock reminiscent of London's Big Ben, stood a line of glittering skyscrapers. One such building was the 1937 Bank of China.
Shanghai's Bund in the 1940s as pictured in the current issue of "National Geographic HISTORY:"
Shanghai's Bund Today:
View of the Bund's Waterfront Walkway Promenade:
View from the Bund Looking across the Huangpu River - Contasting the Old with the New:
CAIRO'S BEN EZRA SYNAGOGUE AS FEATURED IN THIS MONTH'S "NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORT:"
THE ENTRANCE TO THE BEN EZRA SYNAGOGUE AS PHOTOGRAPHED LAST FALL:
(Interior photos were restricted}
Shanghai’s Riverside Bundt, Contrasting The Old and the New - 1940’s Skyscrapers and Today’s Towers
Shanghai was a small fishing village on China’s coast until it became a Treaty Port after the Opium Wars. Then in the 1940’s its population surged as it grew into a financial and commercial center under foreign influence.
The impressive skyscrapers of that era still stand as seen in this video as viewed from the riverside Bundt promenade.
Contrasted to those buildings on one side of the river are modern structures across the water including impressive towers.
Link to Video contrasting the Old and the New in Shanghai as viewed from the Bundt riverside promenade:
Concurrently taken photos:
INYNWHWeTrust-TexasNationals,ajaan,blu62vette
coinJP, Outhaul ,illini420,MICHAELDIXON, Fade to Black,epcjimi1,19Lyds,SNMAN,JerseyJoe, bigjpst, DMWJR , lordmarcovan, Weiss,Mfriday4962,UtahCoin,Downtown1974,pitboss,RichieURich,Bullsitter,JDsCoins,toyz4geo,jshaulis, mustanggt, SNMAN, MWallace, ms71, lordmarcovan,JWP,dantheman984,olah_in_MA,USMC_6115
INYNWHWeTrust-TexasNationals,ajaan,blu62vette
coinJP, Outhaul ,illini420,MICHAELDIXON, Fade to Black,epcjimi1,19Lyds,SNMAN,JerseyJoe, bigjpst, DMWJR , lordmarcovan, Weiss,Mfriday4962,UtahCoin,Downtown1974,pitboss,RichieURich,Bullsitter,JDsCoins,toyz4geo,jshaulis, mustanggt, SNMAN, MWallace, ms71, lordmarcovan,JWP,dantheman984,olah_in_MA,USMC_6115
Love the tail fins, wtg
Saw this this morning
24> @1northcoin said:
The gold building center right was our layover hotel (Shangri La in Pudong). I saw the two tall buildings being constructed in the 2010s. There was almost nothing there, across from the Bund, 20 years ago.
fka renman95, Sep 2005, 7,000 posts
-
The Blue Whale of Catoosa, OK (2025).
2026 - the new grounds for the Route 66 100th Anniversary.
Plus, a new Visitor Center. Sadly, the size of it takes away from the original Blue Whale.
fka renman95, Sep 2005, 7,000 posts
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
SEQUEL
DISCOVERING EGYPT’S OLDEST JEWISH SYNAGOGUE AMONG CAIRO'S COPTIC CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Our tour itinerary in Egypt included multiple Islamic Mosques and Coptic Christian Churches, but no mention of a Jewish synagogue. It was only by chance that we found ourselves visiting the oldest Jewish synagogue in Egypt, the Ben Ezra Synagogue in the Coptic Quarters of Old Cairo, historically known as the Egyptian city of Fustat. I assume our tour guide added this visit because our tour group included Jewish members and she decided it was only fair to reward them for having spent so much time visiting Mosques and Churches of other Faiths.
Learning about the synagogue’s place in both Jewish and Egyptian history has been most educational. The current issue of “National Geographic History” includes an article titled, “The Hidden Archive of Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue.”
The feature describes hundreds of thousands of documents that had been preserved in the synagogue’s geniza, an attic storeroom accessible only by climbing a ladder into an entry close to the ceiling.
Upon our visit I peered up to that location without appreciating the significance of the documents and manuscripts that had hidden behind it for many centuries. Some are a thousand years old and provide insight into the Jewish community in Cairo that once numbered over 80,000 and in recent years has dwindled to a dozen. A majority of them are now at Cambridge University where they are being studied. Among them are writings from the second century BC from Ecclesiasticus (Book of Sirach) written in the original Hebrew. Only translations had previously been available.
Tradition has it that the synagogue is located on the site of where the Pharaoh’s daughter found the baby Moses. There is also a well in a nearby courtyard that is claimed to have been the source of bathing water for the toddler Christ Child when he was being hidden in a nearby cave on his sojourn to Egypt to escape from King Herod.
Ben Ezra, after whom the synagogue is named, was a Spanish Jewish scholar who, among other achievements, introduced Islamic mathematics with its decimal system to Europe in the 12th Century AD.
Photos:
Exiting the Ben Ezra Jewish Synagogue in Cairo:
Today's Old Cairo, where the synagogue is located, was historically the separate city of Fustat:
The Ben Ezra Jewish Synagogue is located in Close Proximity to Coptic Christian Churches that were located where tradition has it that the toddler Christ Child was hidden in a nearby cavern:
The Holy Family Fleeing to Egypt as depicted on a Coptic Church's Mural near the Ben Ezra Synagogue:
The entrance to the cavern situated below the Coptic Cavern Church:
Tradition also has it that water from a well in a courtyard near the Ben Ezra Synagogue was used to bathe the Christ Child:
Inside the Hanging Coptic Church in Old Cairo hangs an icon painting of Mary with the Christ Child in Egypt that is commonly known as Egypt's Mona Lisa:
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members