In November of 2022 I went on an expedition to Egypt together with my dear friend Marein. My goal was to travel from south to north, visiting sites and tombs along the way to get a feel for the the landscape while documenting landscape scenes in the tombs that we passed. This in light of…
Category: Travel
Chronicles of a Cairo book buyer
The first time I came to Egypt, and Zamalek, I was 12 years old. It made a lasting impression on me, leading me to study Egyptology. But the first time I really saw the country was when I was a student of 20 years old, back in 2008. At that time I was doing my…
Dealing with grief
It was a hot day for a funeral. The local cemetery was basking in sunlight. The family was sat inside, socially distanced, with the open coffin in front. A grandchild stood up to speak, “Goddamn it, grandma,” began the speech. I was not a part of this. It was not my family. I sat outside…
From bright sunshine to shady tombs: the photographic journey of an Egyptologist
In the fall of 2019 (BC: Before Covid) I packed my bags and my mum to spend one month in sunny Luxor. Staying in a flat on the rural west bank of the Nile, I planned to relax, work on a PhD proposal and take lots of photographs. With the assistance of Julia Thorne from…
Luxor Journal
On this 91st consecutive Sunday since lockdown, I thought it might be nice to write about my stay in Egypt in November-December of last year. It’s based on my actual journal, with some accompanying photos. Enjoy! 18 November 2019 On a dreary Monday in November, after my short contract working on a project in a…
Thomas Cook and the way to see the Nile
When Thomas Cook went bankrupt in September 2019, hundreds of thousands of holiday makers were stranded. Tens of thousands of employees were out of a job, including many local service providers. Thomas Cook and Son was a household name in the travel industry, two men who single-handedly invented organised travel, and paved the way for…
A visit to Cambridge
Last week the Do Not Touch? 3D in Museums conference took place organised by The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. In order to give a very short talk (5 minutes!) about digitising the tomb chapel of Hetepherakhty, I paid a visit to this lovely town. Thanks to the awesome Rennan Lemos I was a guest at…
Musings about Luxor
While night falls over 2018 and fireworks are popping, I fondly think back of my latest sojourn in Luxor. It feels a bit double, because of the recent terrorist attack that killed four people in Giza. Even before this incident, my non-Egyptologist colleagues were a bit wary about my enthusiasm of spending pre-Christmas holidays in…