Did the Exodus happen? Ancient Egypt’s massive temple and tomb building projects required a huge number of people slaving in the heat, building for someone else’s afterlife.  Were there ever Israelite slaves in Egypt?  Did they escape Ramses II by the hundreds of thousands through the Sea of Reeds, Read More

Is it safe? This is a question we were either asked or asked ourselves for weeks before we left. Actually, we were asked much more directly – are you nuts? Why are you going? My dear friend, Judy, who lived in Egypt off and on several years ago, was so Read More

If you called the airline (assuming they would answer) to find out if your 9:00 AM flight tomorrow morning was leaving on time, and they answered, “Yes, God Willing,” you might not get on the plane. The Western mind, no matter how religious you might be, wants to know that Read More

Luxor is filled with Chinese tourists – a novelty for Egypt. These Chinese New Year tourists in Karnak Temple, walking around a sacred scarab seven times while making a silent wish, are dressed in stand-out fashion in a land where women are robed, albeit colorfully. How big are their suitcases? Read More

    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