Prof. Weis made additional visits to the Middle East during the spring months and again during the summer the year before and to Israel again this summer. He has made five trips to the Middle East. The likelihood of any student travel study visits to that area are remote given the unrest of this past year. One travel study offering of MCOM356, Media and Society--International involved taking 32 WSU students to Egypt  But he also made visits to Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of his personal continuing research into this area of the world.

Prof. Weis is seen at the tomb of the Pharaoh Tut Ankh Amun in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor (above). The small tomb for the once insignificant Egyptian ruler was uncovered intact as tomb No. 62 in the valley  by archaeologist Howard Carter and proved to be the richest find of Egyptian artifacts ever. Those items are now on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and seen by WSU students during their visit to Cairo. But Tut's mummy itself was returned to this tomb a year ago and is on display there.

In the photo on the right below, Prof. Weis is seen in an abandoned Syrian bunker on the Golan Heights in what is now Israeli territory. The Golan was taken in the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In the photo below on the left is a sign warning of the large number of mines that still can be found in the once Arab fortified areas of the strategic Golan Heights overlooking Israel. 

Some additional photos...with explanations below

Pictured above (top row): Prof. Weis east of the Old City of Jerusalem with the Temple Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount in the background (left); and with a sphinx statue in Memphis, Egypt.

Second row: (left) Celebrating another birthday on a boat on the Sea of Galilee in Israel; Prof. and Mrs. Weis at Saqqara, site of the step pyramid of King Djoser, with the red and bent pyramids at the royal necropolis of Dahshur in the distant background.

Third row: (left) In the Garden of Gethsemane  on the slope of the Mount of Olives east of the Old City of Jerusalem; Prof. Weis at Qumran in Israel, site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, with some of the caves visible in the background.

Fourth Row: At the tomb of Ramsses VII in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor in upper Egypt (left) and at Khufu's Great Pyramid in Giza. The pyramid that most people think is the "great" one, the one in the middle of the three with a little of the remaining limestone cap still visible, is actually smaller. It just sits on high ground. The Khufu pyramid, farthest to the east in Giza, is, indeed, the largest.

Fifth Row : On the Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows) in the Old City of Jerusalem. the path of Christ's walk to Calvary for crucifixion (left); and with Mrs. Weis at the Temple of Hatshepsut in the desert between the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens near Luxor in Upper Egypt.

Bottom Row: (left) placing a hand on the handprint in the wall at the place where Roman soldiers made Simon of Cyrene help Christ carry His cross to the crucifixion; Shirley Weis rides the "ship of the desert" in the sands of Giza near the pyramids.