Ode to Ozymandias: The giant toppled statue of Ramses II in his mortuary temple, the Ramesseum, is the inspiration for Shelley’s poem.   On the West Bank of the Nile at Luxor, outside the Valley of the Kings, we stop at this empty site. It is atmospheric and Read More

 The astounding temple of Ramses II raised from drowning in the lake behind the high dam in the 1960s by UNESCO. Its removal and resurrection are as much a story as its origins. These colossi appeared in the curve of the Nile to announce to any African traders that the Read More

 We leave Cairo and fly to Aswan where we stay in the lovely Old Cataract Hotel, one of the old British colonial treasures.Aswan is the last stop on the traditional Nile tours as here the cataracts begin (large boulders flung by giants into the river, making it impassable by anything Read More

     The weather has gone progressively from clear to murky to pea soup.  Hard to know if it’s smog or winter weather and most likely both.  By day 4 it’s raining, which might help wash away the residue from the sandstorm.  Even the occasional bougainvillea bloom is covered in Read More

Cairo, population 25 million and growing daily, is home to almost one in three Egyptians. Feb 13, Friday and prayer day is bright, unusually clear and sunny, crisp with a morning chill. Perfect. We are up half the night, have breakfast in  and take off for Giza – during the Read More

 Imagine that your wealthy, eccentric great-aunt Agnes housed a collection of rare artifacts (purchased on an extended honeymoon with her first husband) in the basement of her substantial country house. She displayed them in odd-shaped curio cabinets with dim lighting and typed up the description of each on yellowed index Read More

CAIRO – DAY ONE:  Feb 12, 2015 Strange are the ways of the camel  stranger than anyone thinks. For once, in a moment of weakness, he tried to make love to the Sphinx. Now, the Sphinx’s posterior profundum is clogged with the sands of the Nile, Which accounts for the Read More