And another thing that hasn't changed....

... is the crocodiles! Yes that is my hand on the right, holding today's version of the ancient carving on the left. It had rather alarming teeth but was pleasantly cool to the touch on a hot morning. We're told the larger version nowadays are all up behind the High Dam in Lake Nasser...

There, doesn't that make it all better?

Ok so this is just a ludicrously cute kitten. But one of the reasons I could spend so long watching Egyptian cats, besides the cuteness, is the way they clearly haven't changed since pharaohnic times. They are all skinny - not unhealthy, just right for the heat and for an un-pampered, un-western existence. Their small bodies, big ears and lined eyes are an exact match for the statuette of Bast in the British Museum, or in the Gayer-Anderson House in Cairo. They stalk the same birds close to the river.

It's sometimes difficult to get a real sense of history in the temples and tombs when they are full of people, but the cats have it. Watching the banks of the Nile as we cruised was a similar feeling. Palm trees, small farms, mud brick houses, cows and water buffalo, all more or less as they would have been at least hundreds if not thousands of years previously. The weather seems to add to the continuity in very practical ways - it helps to preserve both the monuments and a certain way of life, at least outside the cities.

So May was silence month - again...

Sorry about that. But I have now been to Egypt and am therefore flooded with stuff to talk about. I could mention the Cairo traffic, the numerous amazing monuments we saw, the heat, the various maladies, the sheer filmic glory of the Nile cruise... but first I should discuss the ancient egyptian art of towel origami.

You heard me. It's a nice touch by the cleaners on board the MS Stephanie (and, for all I know, every other boat out there). You return to find your beds made and your quarters adorned with a cunningly constructed towelling sculpture, occasionally finished with your sunhat or some other helpful item. I was very impressed. I applauded the swan, the lotus, the monkey-bat (we have a domestic disagreement about this one - it swung from the ceiling and had bat ears but it wasn't upside down), the rabbit-dog and the beautiful peacock (as above - crest artfully fashioned from toilet paper).

I am surely not the only person in the world, though, who found the towel 'mummy' more than a little disturbing:

He was right inside the door, very much life size, but worst of all he just looked so sad!

Next - adorable Egyptian kittens to heal the trauma...