My First Time pt 6
The final missive from the land of sand.Christmas Eve 2012: I returned to Giza with the sole intention of going inside the Great Pyramid. Arrived at the plateau to find it quite empty, maybe too many Christmas parties the night before for a lot of the tourists. As I had been to the site before […]
My First Time pt 5
The sun and its daily journey have played an important role in all civilisations and none more so than Ancient Egypt. As the new day begins with sunrise in the east and ends with sunset in the west, so life followed the same course. The temples and palaces were all on the east bank of […]
My First Time pt 4
Thebes, capital city of the New Kingdom pharaohs. Luxor, as it is now known, is much cleaner than some of the other places we have been to and has an air of “holiday” about it. The hotel is situated on the main road that runs parallel with the river and is fairly close to the […]
My First Time pt 3
“Its just gone noon, half past monsoon, on the banks of the river Nile. Here comes the boat only half afloat, oarsman grins a toothless smile…”Well, not quite. The cruise boat is a floating hotel, mildly reminiscent of something from the thirties. I think they all know that Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile […]
My First Time pt 2
At last, Internet access and a chance to catch up. I cannot believe that it is only just a week and a half since I arrived here. It seems that we have done so much. Where to start?Day two: met the rest of the tour group at the Oasis Hotel in Giza, near the Pyramids […]
My First Time pt 1
My first visit to Egypt was in 2012 with a package tour. I had been working on a book about a possible link between Moses and the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten and realised I needed to visit Egypt. I had planned to join a big tour but it proved to be too expensive. I found a […]