Luxor, Egypt

History teacher in Cairo; oh, my word! Living in Cairo for the past four years enabled me to explore the country to a degree not possible as a visitor. Based in Maadi to the south of the old Islamic city, I live about 20 minutes’ walk from the Nile. A real pleasure is to take a felucca on the Nile, where the chaos and din of the noisy capital vanishes into silence on the world’s greatest waterway.

Giza, on the edge of the Sahara, with the three great pyramids and the Sphinx, is just eight kilometres due west of Maadi. The pyramids defy adequate description. They are deceptive in their simplicity, and their semi-ruinous nature tells little of the complex mathematical knowledge weaved in their design. They are quite huge and inspire reverence...