Convivium

A day full of many treasures, the consummate of which was undoubtably The New Library in Alexandria. The fact that this marvelous structure and its amazing contents and Programs ever happened it nothing short of miraculous. Encourage readers to have a good look at www.bibalex.org and really poke around. It is extraordinary what is going [...]

Up at 3:30 am for flight from Aswan (in the far south of the country) to Cairo and the drive to Alexandria (in the north). Traffic is equally crazy, but the temperature has dropped radically. We even had a little rain on the way. Visited fascinating catacombs that combined in the design and decoration Ancient [...]

Briefly, because we leave very wary tomorrow for Alexandria….Temple at Philae dedicated to Isis, the Aswan High Dam, a papyrus gallery and transfer from lovely boat to equally lovely hotel on Elephant Island. We are all happily tired and decided to postpone our last book discussion in favour of a drink in the hotel’s rooftop [...]

We flew to Abu Simbel and back to Aswan today, the site of two magnificent temples. The one with these four colossal statues is the Temple of Ramses II. The entire site was moved across the Nile and to higher ground between 1964-68 when the High Dam at Aswan was opened. An impressive feat if [...]

This is a late temple. You can see the king being anointed by the goddesses of both Upper and Lower Egypt (represented by their different headdresses). The king (one of the late Ptolemys) shows, by the combined headdress, that Egypt has been united. There is much more that could be said – some of which [...]

Photography was prohibited in the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, so no way to share the jaw-dropping beauty and sophistication of the wall paintings. This pic os of our esteemed discussion leader David Schmitt taking a moment to limber up before the next climb. It is hot and dusty around the [...]

Yesterday ended with an animated debate about the nature of Ahmed, the patriarch of the family in Palace Walk, followed by an impromptu party in the hall. An early morning flight over the desert to Luxor landed us at the Temple of Karnak by 8:30 am. This is the site of ancient Thebes. A bit [...]

Here we are on Palace Walk, the setting for our first book (of the same name). We are in front of a spice store, the business owned by our anti-hero, Ahmed. He was a bon-vivant in the street but a tyrant at home. View Slideshows of Egypt and Jordan View all posts of Jordan to [...]

This is the best I could do to take a picture of the interior stairwell of the building that houses our utterly charming hotel on the fifth floor. Kind of retro French Oriental. Large rooms with high, high ceilings. Exquisite middle eastern lights and tapestries. It is on a busy pedestrian alley full of small [...]

A great day at Giza. Why is it so hard to find words to describe the Cairo experience? It is sensory overload in the best way. Brimming with life and contradictions. How many images have I seen of the pyramids and the sphinx? And why is it that being face to face with these mammoth [...]