The rainbow never sets

walked inside the Cheops to the burial chamber. I didn't get claustrophobia but nearly passed out in the chamber itself, as someone was applying some preservative to the wall which gave off acetone fumes. For a glue sniffer it probably would have been heaven, but not for me. I couldn't even look for the hole which is said to let the North Star shine on the king's head on one particular day of the year. The ancient Egyptians must have been fabulous astronomers and mathematicians! The second pyramid in Giza was that of king Chephren, and the third was built for king Mycerinus, all built around 2700 B.C.

Whilst we were in Cairo we heard that laser examinations had shown that 20 per cent of the pyramids is hollow.

The Sphinx was best seen at night. We went to a "Son et Lumiere" (sound and light) show one evening, which was most impressive. We heard there that Napoleon's troops had shot the nose off the Sphinx.

The most ancient pyramid is the Step Pyramid in Sakkara. From there we went to the tomb of Thi, a high court official. The frescoes were beautifully preserved, telling the viewer about life four and a half thousand years earlier. Artisans, musicians, dancers, scribes, soldiers, and animals. The artist was not without humour. He had painted a hippopotamus giving birth to a baby with a crocodile waiting with its jaw wide open.

On our way back to Cairo we passed through a village, where once the ancient capital of Memphis was. A resting figure of Rameses, a sphinx and some statues were all that was left of its former glory. The Nile was not far away, we saw plenty of bullrushes, and we could almost picture Moses in a basket!

One day Fawzy and Gerda took us along the main road half way to Alexandria. We turned into the desert to the oasis of Wadi el Natroun, where two monasteries were, Amba Bishoi and Abu Makarios. At the first we met a monk who knew Fawzy. He showed us the tomb of a saint who, the story goes, met Jesus Christ in disguise as an old man. He asked him to carry him, because he could no longer walk. So the monk carried him and the weight got heavier and heavier. He nearly broke down under the weight, but he didn't put his burden down. Then it became lighter and lighter, and the saint knew he carried Jesus. Jesus then promised him that after his death his body would not rot but stay fresh for ever. The coffin was built in such a way that people could touch the saint's hand and so receive healing from him. Recently the hole was closed, but people still touched the coffin to receive healing, and kissed the curtains of the altar.

The monastery was surrounded by a high wall against Bedouin attacks. We asked the monk how the teaching of the Coptic church helped people to live a better life in the world, but his answer was not convincing. We felt that superstition and mystery overruled rational thinking. People were held on the level of feeling, and there was no evidence of social involvement.

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