Imagine sipping a Gin & Tonic on the verandah overlooking the Nile, palm trees silhouetted by the setting sun.
This is my new happy place – the terrace of the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan, where Agatha Christie was inspired to write “Death on the Nile” and where I dream about listening to the legendary Scheherazade, as she tells Middle Eastern folk tales to the sultan for 1001 nights, ultimately sparing her life. Oh, how quickly history comes alive in Egypt!
My Egyptian adventure begins in Cairo, an ancient city that has grown to 30 million inhabitants, where the smell of dust and diesel is forgotten as I gaze in awe at the Sphinx and Great Pyramids of Giza. As I crawl into a burial chamber, I feel the weight of a million blocks of carved limestone of the pyramid above me, and marvel at the stone sarcophagus and the wall-to-wall hieroglyphics that tell the story of this pharaoh. The entire ceiling of the tomb is covered in blue and golden stars… an eerie place, even more so since we are the only visitors.
