A Journey Through Hermetic Egypt
From November 4–12, 2025, I joined Dr. M. David Litwa and a small group of travelers on a nine-day journey through the archaeological sites and spiritual landscapes of ancient Egypt. The trip followed the traces of Gnostic, Hermetic, and early Christian mystical traditions, moving from the monumental world of Giza and Saqqara to Alexandria and the desert regions of Middle Egypt.
Along the way, we visited the Grand Egyptian Museum on its first day open to the public, explored the Pyramid Texts at Saqqara, walked through the catacombs and ancient sites of Alexandria, and traveled to Tell el-Amarna, the city of Akhenaten’s radical monotheistic experiment. The journey ended in Hermopolis, the traditional city of Thoth and one of the great symbolic centers of Hermetic thought.
Ancient Sites
Each card opens a dedicated page with a hero explanation and thumbnail gallery from the Egypt 2025 archive.
Grand Egyptian Museum
The Grand Egyptian Museum is less an ancient site than a modern temple of custody: colossal statues, royal objects, curated fragments, conservation work, and the state’s official stage for a…
Saqqara Serapeum
Saqqara is the older, stranger sibling of the famous pyramid postcard: step pyramid, tomb fields, underground corridors, and the Serapeum’s colossal stone sarcophagi for the Apis bulls. This…
Giza Plateau
The Giza Plateau is the architectural thunderclap of ancient Egypt: pyramid fields, causeways, quarries, temples, and the Sphinx arranged as a ceremonial machine on the limestone edge of Cai…
Shatby Necropolis
The Necropolis of Shatby is one of Alexandria’s early funerary landscapes, where Macedonian-Greek forms meet Egyptian soil and the city starts working out what death is supposed to look like…
Greco-Roman Museum
The Greco-Roman Museum is the receipts drawer for Alexandria’s grand cultural merger: Greek forms, Egyptian gods, Roman administration, funerary portraits, household objects, and the visual …
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a modern monument built in the shadow of the ancient Library of Alexandria: part archive, part civic temple, part architectural apology to every scroll that ev…
Kom El Shoqafa
Kom El Shoqafa, meaning “Mound of Shards” in Arabic, takes its name from the heaps of broken terracotta pottery once found throughout the area. These shards were likely left behind by ancien…
Pompey’s Pillar
Pompey’s Pillar rises from the ruins of Alexandria’s Serapeum, a Roman triumphal column standing over a much older religious landscape tied to Serapis, libraries, temples, and the city’s hab…
Kom el-Dikka
Kom el-Dikka preserves Alexandria at street level: theatre seating, baths, lecture halls, domestic traces, and the civic infrastructure of a city that was never just temples and monuments. T…
Qaitbay Citadel / Lighthouse of Alexandria
Qaitbay Citadel stands on the site traditionally associated with the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Pharos — one of the ancient world’s great navigation machines and a monument to sea power, …
Beni Hasan Tombs
Beni Hasan’s rock-cut tombs sit in the cliffs above the Nile, preserving painted scenes of wrestling, hunting, craft, animals, processions, and the provincial elite who wanted eternity with …
Amarna
Amarna is Egypt’s theological hard reset: Akhenaten’s short-lived capital, the Aten cult, royal tombs, boundary stelae, and art that suddenly stops pretending bodies are geometry homework. T…
Hermopolis
Hermopolis was the city of Thoth, patron of writing, measurement, lunar reckoning, and the divine paperwork department nobody escapes. Its theology centered on the Ogdoad — eight primordial …
Ibis & Baboon
Ibis and baboon are Thoth’s animal signatures: lunar intelligence, scribal authority, measurement, language, and the divine accounting department again, because Egypt never met a cosmic ledg…
Best Egypt Shots
Best Egypt Shots is the highlight reel: a curated lane for strong frames, anchor images, and the visuals most likely to become hero art, essay illustrations, or section covers later. It func…
Map of the route
Two route maps for the Egypt path: the full route first, then a close-up Alexandria map. Click any label to open that gallery.
