Our guides talked a lot about the various ancient Egyptian mysteries. I’ve already talked about the mystery that surrounds the Great Pyramid and no one knowing how it was built. I was not, however, content to leave it at that. I struck out on my own on several occasions. I wondered: why would ancient Egypt have all these mysteries and modern Egypt not have any? It didn’t make any sense to me. I eventually struck gold and no one else even seemed to take notice. Take a look at this first photo.

Now tell me, where does that stairway lead to? Exactly – a modern Egyptian mystery, and I discovered it.

The second photo is interesting on a couple of counts. First, cats were big in Egypt. We saw many cats and they seemed to have the run of the place. We didn’t see as many cats as we saw in Turkey, but we saw a lot. This cat was an ordinary cat from all I could see. The pharaohs even had their cats mummified and put into their tombs. The second thing I want to point out in this photo is the irrigation ditch in front of the cat. This is a ditch off of the Nile River, most probably for irrigation for farming and probably drinking and other uses as well. Did you notice how clear the water is in the ditch? This ditch had to be at least six to eight feet deep and the water was very clear. The Nile is one incredibly clean river.

The next photo is one I want to talk about. Many of you who know me – know that I don’t spend money very freely. On this trip, however, I was the one buying most of the souvenirs and making most of the purchases: brass plate, necklace for my wife, shirts for Andrew, and so on. I would have made many more purchases, but Vicky was not in the mood to buy much. This third photo is just one more lost opportunity that I was pitching to her. No one can say I didn’t try…