When I Least Expect

 Two Brooke Hampton quotes I like very much (source: here; I added the color 'blue'):

P.S. Picture on the background is not from Brooke. I added the ancient Egyptian goddess Nut because she is the mother of the sky (I wrote about her before in 7-2017 in post 'Stars That Know No Rest'). Image: an individual homo sapiens on planet Earth looking at the sky on a clear night. Everything on planet Earth takes place under her wings and body of stars. She makes the sun rise every day by giving birth to it. And she makes the sun go down by swallowing it in the evening. And at night? Then the sun travels through her body. She is the mother of everything in the sky.

Blue of Heaven and Golden Glitter of Sun

The blue stone 'lapis lazuli' was for the ancient Egyptians the real thing. Its colour combines the blue of the heaven and the golden glitter of the sun. In the ancient Egyptian language  it's called 'ḫsbḏ'. The colour of the cosmos, fertility, sustance and rebirth. But this stone was rare and expensive because it had to be imported, via Mesopotamia, from the Kokcha River valley in Afghanistan (Sar-i Sang mines).

Scarab made from lapis lazuli: 

To meet the high demand of blue the ancient Egyptians invented the pigment called Egyptian blue. The term for it in the ancient Egyptian language is 'ḫsbḏ-ỉrjt', which means 'artificial lapis lazuli'. Unknown is who invented it, where and how. By accident just like glass-making? In our time and age Egyptian blue is known as calcium copper silicate. A mixture of silica, lime, copper, and an alkali. It was first synthesized during the Fourth Dynasty (ca. 2613 BC–ca. 2494 BC) and used extensively until the end of the Roman period in Europe (400 AD). No written information exists in ancient Egyptian texts about the manufacture of Egyptian blue. It was first mentioned only in Roman literature by Vitruvius during the first century BC.

 

Egyptian blue on a fragment showing Nebamun hunting in the marshes around 1350 BC.

Recipe to make this pigment (source: NILE, september 2021):

Recipe according to Vitruvius, 'De Architectura', Book VII, Chapter 11 (here):

In the early Christian tradition lapis lazuli was regarded as the stone of the mother of Jezus, Mary. The blue of the heaven and the golden glitter of the sun. The stone of Mary.

P.S. The scarab is on display in The Met as 26.7.755: here.  The hunting scene is on display in the Michael Cohen Gallery of the British Museum: here.

Box with Butterflies

In 1925 it was found like this near the Great Pyramid of Giza, Cairo, Egypt:

After reconstruction of the jewel box:

In color:

These objects are silver bracelets from Queen Hetepheres I (around  2600 BC) inlaid with turquoise, lapis lazuli and carnelian in the form of a butterfly. More details of  'G 7000X' at Digital Giza: here and here.

Wondering:

• Are all bracelets identical? 
• Why does someone want to have 20 identical bracelets? (Assuming that all two rows are full.)
• Did the bracelets belong to one person? For her use only?
• Did Hetepheres I - her mummie is missing - wear the four missing bracelets?
• What did the Ancient Egyptians "read" when they "saw" - mark that we have more senses - an butterfly? According to Haynes in 'The Symbolism and Significance of the Butterfly in Ancient Egypt' (Stellenbosch University 2013): freedom, re-birth and safe passage to the after-life. Source: here.

I found these on The Internet. They don't look like the originals. Copies? 

10

Well... what to say, 10 years after date? Today, it is exactly ten years ago I started this webblog. To share me with you or me4you.

You! You brought back the happiness of writing and sharing me. Too long I was a kid playing alone in a sandpit. Not interested in the world outside my own sandpit with books and projects. A long list of books and projects tumbling over each other. For the viewer outside it must seem inextricable and random but for me it all makes perfect sense.

Between 17 and 21 I kept a personal handwritten diary. Last week I checked it out for what exact images I used before I went for six months to the Sinai, Egypt in 1987. I couldn't find what I was looking for. A bottleneck for me is that I don't want to read too deep and close because I dislike the younger version of me ... I was so over the top and intense. Unbearable lightness of being. 

I want to share with you today some of my #Sinai experiences: 

#Minefield. Remember the two stones I sent to you? I found those handmade artifacts while being trapped in a minefield. I realized I was in a minefield when I saw the back of the minefield-sign hanging on barbed wire. Just a split second after my first thought: which moron turned over the signs and why? Realizing that we had walked too long on the beaches and clambered over rocks and lost our situational awareness. I was more a tourist than being a soldier who takes each step carefully.

#Ouch. Remember the biting animal that came out of the 'Conus Textile' shell I found in the Red Sea? I wrote about it before in this post: 'Ouch'. I realized a couple of years ago, I was lucky that day because this shell is the house of the predatory and venomous species of sea snail named 'Conus'. Venomous!

#Adventure. It's more than 30 years ago I went to the Sinai as a drafted Dutch soldier. I wanted to have an adventure and feel - yes feel - the colours of the desert, Egypt and Israel. Away from the girl that caused me back than so much frustration: I wanted her but she didn't want me as her lover. In retrospect I am so glad I went to the yellow of the sun, the brown and red and black of the desert and the blue of the sea and sky. Happily submerged in a world of Others.

#Movie. I remember the countless evenings we went to the "theatre" for watching a movie on a big screen. Together with 100 other soldiers watching a movie, drink a cold soda and behind the screen the island of Tiran in the setting sun or light of the moon. And a cool wind from the sea.

#Postman. I remember the empty roads while driving for hours in a Jeep from one (sector control center) post to another of our sector. My Dutch colleagues being happy to receive snail-mail from home. Being me their post-man.

#Petra. I remember the permission I asked to travel to Jordan to visit Petra. Disappointingly, I never got this permit!

#AloneInCairo. I remember travelling in a bus to Cairo. For ten days alone in this big city. So much to see and check out in a city with as many people as live in my whole home country. At the first evening in my hotel I met a girl from Australia while I was having dinner. We chit-chat a little. Nothing happened. The next morning I met her again at breakfast. We agreed to see Cairo that day together. So we did. That evening we made love for the first time. For the next 9 days we were inseparable. Visit musea and other sightseeings. Make love. Listen to German music (Marlene Dietrich) on my taperecorder. At the last evening together we agreed not to keep in touch. She would travel alone for another week in Egypt and after that to her boyfriend and work in a hotel in Switzerland. I had to take up my telephone-operator work ("Operator, can I help you?") again. Next to not keep in touch we agreed too that if I wouldn't ask she wouldn't tell if she got pregnant during one of our endless making love sessions. I never asked her! So, out there, there could be a child who would be 32 years old now. Being out of touch with me as his or her father.

#SharpTurn. I remember the accident we almost had with our car driving from Eilat to Tel Aviv during a weekend. I was the official driver. One of my colleagues asked: can I drive please? OK for me. On the straight road everything went well. At the first sharp turn we almost crashed. I scolded him and out of breath I asked him: "where did you learn to drive?" His reply, "I can't, I don't even have a drivers licence." I was speechless because it never crossed my mind that someone without a driver’s licence, could or would ask to drive.

#Poet. I remember two colleagues who told me over lunch that I was a poet. The way I spoke and the way I played with images and metaphors... just like a poet. Where did that come from?

#ComingOut. I knew that I was going to study Philosophy after my time in the army but in my time there I never told anyone. I always told that I was going to study History. It was a lie but I didn't want to justify again and again why I wanted to. The strange thing is that in retrospect I did both.

#Shifts. All the above are high- and lowlights. The days in between, most days, were in shifts: 6 hours on and 6 hours off duty. Live in airconditioned rooms. Lunch and dinner in a mess with 99% men. If there was a woman - rare - you could always tell where she walked by all the faces that "followed" her behind. Like a school of fish that change direction time and again as if through an invisible hand. Men!

P.S. I wrote about the Sinai before in 'Gavin Maxwell. My fascination' (February 2010)  and 'It Must Be Wrinkles' (May 2017).

Halo an Echo?

A hypocephalus (Greek: under the head) is a disc-shaped object that was placed under the head of a deceased person in Ancient Egypt. It symbolized the sun and it was believed to protect the deceased and making him/ her divine. On it was written and pictured the daily setting and rising of the sun. A metaphor for rebirth and death. Day in. Day out. Death not as an end but a new birth. These "under the head suns" (my words) first appeared in the 7th Century BC in Ancient Egypt.

Remember a "under the head sun". Making the deceased divine.

And what do we see in the christian iconography? A halo, this is a circle or disk of light that surrounds a holy or sacred figure.

Coincidence? Question: is a halo an echo of the Ancient Egyptian 'under the head sun'?

Mark, that we can read the hypocephalus also as a roadmap of day and night, of live on Earth and between the sun and stars on a bark, of being alive and death. From this perspective the christian halo can be interpreted as he/ she who knows the road.

P.S. Source  hypocephalus: here. Source Maria with child with halo: here.

Speak Out

The Ancient Egyptians had at least four creation myths. We have to read them complementary!

• Hermopolis. Frogs and snakes make in water the egg (read: primeval mound) from which the sun and world is born. 
• Heliopolis. Eel in water who creates by separating: water and land; man and wife.
• Memphis. The heart of a god thinks and the tongue makes the world come alive by speaking out their names.
• Thebes/ Aswan. Cosmos is made from clay by a potter on his turntable.

In all four myths we have water, a mound raising from the water and a sun coming out of the mound. An image most likely inspired by the annual flooding of the Nile River, after the withdrawing of the floodwaters fertile soil was left behind. Life re-newed like the first time.

Next to that. The scarab beetle lets the sun rise every morning. An image most likely inspired by their creating and rolling of brood balls.

Next to that the fly was considered courageous and brave. In the New Kingdom they even had a militairy decoration named 'Fly of Valour' or 'Golden Fly' (source picture: here).

Keen observers those Ancient Egyptians, aren't they?

P.S. Information from four creation myths is from exhibition 'Gods of Egypt' in Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, The Netherlands. The details are slightly different according to Vergote, 'De Godsdienst van het Oude Egypte' (1987), Shaw and Nicholson, 'The Illustrated Dictionary of Ancient Egypt' (2008) and Wikipedia, 'Ancient Egyptian creation myths'.

Stars That Know No Rest

For the Ancient Egyptians:

(1) Gold had no economic importance. It was only important for their religion. With their eyes we are supposed to "see" divine, indestructible (color of) sun and not a huge pile of money. 

(2) Silver was more precious than gold.

If fact (1) and (2) are both valid for the Ancient Egyptians the question is: what  are we supposed to "see" with or for silver? Moon (color of)? Sun (another color of)? Primeval mond where the first rays of the morning sun rise or shine (benben stone)? Or ... Is there or could there be have been some religion in Ancient Egypt that worshipped the moon?

The source for (1) is found on The Internet (here) and is not substantiated with source references. On the other hand there are numerous source references for (2).

More details on silver. According to 'Shaw and Nicolson' silver was in the beginning of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, in the Old Kingdom (2681-2181 BC) more precious than gold. In the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650) gold was more precious than silver. It seems that they regarded silver ("white metal") as a variety of gold.

Sun, moon, other five known planets ("stars that know no rest") and stars what were they for the Ancient Egyptians? Answer: all of them travel during the night through the body of goddess Nut. They represent the unchangeable, undistinguishable and reciprocal cycle of birth and death. All this is painted, in great details, on the ceiling of the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses VI (KV9 in the Valley of Kings): 

Detail of the journey of the sun in her body:

Born as white sun in the morning:

Swallowed as red sun in the evening:

For the Ancient Egyptians the cycle/ travel of the sun was the cycle/ travel of life.

• Sunrise was rebirth
• Morning was childhood
• Afternoon was maturity
• Evening was old age
• Night was death and renewal

Thoth as ibis or ape is the god of the moon. He is the shipper and the writer of the gods. He regulates the times and seasons. He makes eternity and everlastingness.  

Thoth is the black eye of Horus. The moon in all its appearances (from black moon to full moon).

According to 'Shaw & Nicolson' gold was the flesh of gods and silver their bones. The Ancient Egyptians had no coinage but gold could also serve the living by melting it down as exchange and as reward for individuals ('golden fly of valour' in New Kingdom).

Preliminary conclusion/ hypothesis. Sun and moon travel for the Ancient Egyptians both through the same unchangeable cycle inside the goddess Nut. A reciprocal cycle of birth and death. Gold represents the flesh of gods and silver its bones. There seems to be no indication that silver represents the moon, the color of a silver moon. The moon as representation of god Thoth makes time and the seasons. Read in month the 'moon'. Better: moonth.

Sources:

1. Wallis Budge, E.A., 'The Gods of the Egyptians, studies in Egyptian Mythology', volume I (New York 1969) page 400-415.

2. Betrò, Maria Carmela, 'Hiërogliefen. De beeldtaal van het oude Egypte' (Baarn 1999) page 153, 176 and 245.

3. Shaw I. and Nicholson P., 'The Illustrated Dictionary of Ancient Egypt' (Cairo 2008) page 46, 131, 150-151 and 304-305.

It Must Be Wrinkles

Where does my interest for Ancient Egypt come from? I don't have a clear and ready to pick answer on that question. So here a couple of different tracks to the top of the same mountain:

• At a very young age. The treasures of king Tut and the curse. The pyramids of Egypt #gold #VeryOld
• For six months I lived near Sharm el Sheikh in the Sinai (South Camp, MFO) #desert #sun #NotTouristLiveHere #selfconfidence
• Puzzling on hieroglyphs #QA more
• Looking for an answer 'What is definition (or definitions) of happiness for Ancient Egyptians?' #QA #happiness more
• Antidote against Ancient Greece and Rome #antidote more
• Ancient Egypt as (partly) birthplace of Western civilization #fringe more
• THAT in Aswan #enlightenment more
• And in old Egypt? Some crafts(wo)man made a lovely goddess out of wood #PlayboyBunny #wrinkles more
• ... - there must be more

As you can see this is a long list and in between lines you can read that Egypt and Ancient Egypt is entwined into my personal life. In a way I grew up with it. #GrowingUp

If I put it in images: I entered a world of Others when I set foot on Egypt soil in 1987. Sun, yellow and empty desert instead of rain, green, houses and roads. When I came back to The Netherlands I knew I was changed. Making fuss about loose tiles in the pavement (more) while people starve of hunger! 

Next to that I am still puzzling. I read a lot about Ancient Egypt but still I don't fully comprehend them. It still feels as a world of Others. In a way I am looking for their "magic". Better: I am trying to re-live their magic world. The magic that somewhere is hidden behind, above, underneath or ... - what image to use? - their eyes who "see" sun and not a huge pile of money when they use gold. #magic more

P.S. Different tracks to same mountain? I wrote about this earlier in blog post 'Frozen?' (2010).

Letter with Cflr1flr2l

Did you know that I talk to my chicken while feeding them? It feels for me that they completely ignore my talking. Three weeks ago one of our four hens died. It feels for me that they completely ignore her death.

C⚘🎕l:

Pretty down to Earth those Ancient Egyptians. 'Gold' for them was a picture of a 'necklace of gold and pearl'. When they want to talk about 'electrum' or 'silver' they add a 'was sceptre' or 'mace'. 'Bronze', 'copper' and 'metal' are not clear to me. 'Iron' was literally 'iron from the sky' or 'metal of heaven'. Read: coming from a fallen meteorite of iron.

The 'Sinai' peninsula was 'country of turquoise'. Turquoise is a blue-to-green stone (better: mineral). Lapis lazuli is a deep blue stone (better: rock). Both of these blue stones were used in the death mask of Tutankamen.

Did you know that for the Ancient Egyptians ... 

• silver was more precious than gold?
• gold was a divine and indestructible metal associated with the sun? 
• gold had no economic importance and was only used for it's limited Royal and religious use?

I repeat. Gold had for the Ancient Egyptians no economic importance. It was only important for their religion. Gold as divine, indestructible and (color of) sun. With their eyes we are supposed to "see" sun and not a huge pile of money.

Sources: wikipedia gold; lookup English-to-Hieroglyphs; C. Nichols, 'Egyptian Hieroglypic to English Dictionary' (2008); iron from the sky; comparison between Egyptian and Roman gold.

P.S. I wrote on value of silver before in blogpost 'Treasure Virtually Unknown' (April 2013).

Less Than Thousand

Less than 1,000 people have been able to read and translate, since Champollion deciphered them in 1822, Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. One of them translated a representative set of Ancient Egyptian texts into English: Toby Wilkinson, 'Writings from ancient Egypt' (2016).

It's a lovely book. With an introduction to every individual text and informative footnotes. For me this is a perfect guide into the world and thoughts of the Ancient Egyptians. Antidote against Ancient Greece and Rome! The world of the Ancient Egyptians is so different. The world of Others. At the same time their words of 4,000 to 4,500 years ago feel sometimes so close.

Check out:

• 'Cycle of Hymns to Senusret III', page 96-100. Reminds me of Katie Melua's song, 'If you were a sailboat'. He is ... one in a million, a dyke, a cool room, a rampart, a refuge, a shelter, a shade, a warm corner and a mountain that hinders the storm when the sky rages.
• 'The Great Hymn to the Orb', page 101-106. For the first time in history polytheism changed into: there is only one Orb and one Orb only. The source for the jewish JWH and christian God.
• 'Chapter 125 The Declaration of Innocence', from 'The Book of Dead', page 165-174. For me this is the fertile ground that inspired the jews and christians to their Ten Commandments.
• 'Harpist Song from the Tomb of King Intef', page 223-227. Rare. For me the greatest jewel of this book. More than 3,300 years old. "Follow your heart as long a you live! (...) Do as your heart commands while you're upon earth! (...) Look, no one is allowed to take his possessions with him. Look, no one who departs returns!"
• 'The Teaching of Ani', page 300-311. 25th maxim: "Make a garden and enclose a plot, in addition to your fields. Set out trees in it to shelter your house. Fill your hand with all the flowers that your eye can see."

New for me. The two obelisks of Hatsepsut were wrought in electrum (page 194). Electrum!

In continuation to blogpost 'Happiness as 'Open of Heart. All senses sharp. Stripped of Unsavory.' (November 2011). I've to check out the hieroglyphs behind 'happy' and 'happiness' on page 39, 226 (twice), 261, 267 and 302. And 'joyfull' on page 51.

The hieroglyphs of 'iron' are 'miracle of heaven' (read 'meteorite'). This makes me curious for the hieroglyphs of silver, gold, electrum, copper and bronze. And of lapis lazuli. And of the Sinaï. And Maat and Isfet.

Ancient Egyptians in Australia

Did the Ancient Egyptians visit Australia - 5,000 years ago - long before the Europeans did in the post-Columbus era? History is full of surprises so it could be ... but did they?

Arguments pro:

• There are valid Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs carved in Gosford on the west coast. With a cartouche with the birth name of pharaoh Khufu (2589–2566 BC). Discovered in the early 1900s
• Ancient Egyptians used tobacco and cocaine. They only grew in the continent which makes up modern America

Arguments contra:

• Number of hieroglyphs increased in time (after 1975)
• Carved in a disorganised manner
• Some hieroglyphs are carved backwards
• Some of the used shapes were invented 2,500 years later
• Less erosion than nearby 250-year-old Aboriginal petroglyphs
• Gosford is on the east coast and you'd expect them to land on the west coast

A possible explanation is that they were carved in 1920s by Australian soldiers who served in Egypt in WWI. Back then there was a widespread interest in ancient Egypt after the discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun.

Sources: 1, 2 and 3

Footnote. Ancient Egypt Behind Iron Curtain

Why do we in the western world consider Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome as the birthplace of western civilisation? What is the constraint to accept that Ancient Greece itself was a legacy or colony of the Ancient Egyptians? Because ... white scholars at the end of the 19th century simply couldn't believe that blacks are at the root of Ancient Greek's civilisation.

Coppens in his 'Egypt: origin of the Greek culture' (1999):
"The answer is to be found at the end of the 19th century, and the racial situation of that era. The central question is what race the ancient Egyptians were. The relationship between blacks and white Europeans was a powerful social issue in the United States and Great Britain; in 1879, Britain ruled one quarter of the world. It was at this time that scholars began to awaken to the realisation that the Egyptians possessed a powerful culture; it was at this time that Greece was identified as the cradle of western civilisation. It were largely white scholars who would do anything to make sure that blacks would find no place in history… after all, it could lead to serious social consequences. Blacks surely could never be at the roots of that wonderful Greek civilisation? That “had” to be erroneous. It was simply impossible…"

P.S. The fact is black for Ancient Greece is a footnote on number '3. Antidote against Ancient Greece and Rome' in list 'Invitation to Wander' (October 2016).

Why Ancient Egypt?

The ancient Greeks, and through them the ancient Romans held the ancient Egyptians in high regard as a font of ancient wisdom. The roots of our Greek-Roman civilization of today owe more to ancient Egypt than is commonly realized. 

What are those roots? Answer via book 'The Illustrated Dictionary of Ancient Egypt' from Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson (2008):

• AKHENATEN. For the first time 'There is only 1 God' is born. Freud claims - not in the above mentioned book - that Akhenaten is the Moses of the Bible.
• AMMUT. The creature of the netherworld that eats the hearts of those whose evil deeds (read: the weight of the 'heart' doesn't match 'maat') made them unfit to proceed into the afterlife.
• BOOK OF THE DEATH. 42 negative confessions. Summarized they resemble the 'Ten Commandments' of the Bible.
• ETHICS/ MAAT. Right is live in Maat ('truth' or 'harmony'). Wrong is live in Isfet ('chaos', 'lies' or 'violence').
• FIELD OF REEDS (AARU). Heavenly paradise. Ideal hunting and fishing ground in eternal reed fields.
• HIEROGLYPHS. Language
• SCIENCE:
• CALENDAR. A year has 12 months and three seasons with four 30-day months. Each month comprised three 10-day weeks. Day and night have each twelve hours.
• MATHEMATICS AND NUMBERS. Value for Pi of 3.16. Calculation of the height or angles of pyramids. Moving of large weights of stone.
• MEDICINE. "Egyptian medicine was a mixture of magical and religious spells with remedies based on keen observation of patients."
• PRIESTS. They were the 'servants of God' and held a number of different offices. One of them were the 'hour priests' who  were responsible for the hours and calendar.
• TEMPLE. In the innermost shrine was the image of the deity kept.
• ART. Colums (reflecting a bundle of reeds) and figures. 

P.S. I wrote about this before in 'Following Trails' (2014).

Becoming Fruit

The ancient Egyptians wrote down their wisdom "long" (read: >1,000 years) before the ancient Greeks. Read these, proverbs of more than 3,500 year old and still sound so modern:

1. "Men need images. Lacking them they invent idols. Better then to found the images on realities that lead the true seeker to the source."
2. "Grain must return to the earth, die, and decompose for new growth to begin."
3. "Be patient with a bad neighbour: he may move or face misfortune."
4. "Social good is what brings peace to family and society."
5. "When the governing class isn't chosen for quality it is chosen for material wealth: this always means decadence, the lowest stage a society can reach."
6. "An answer brings no illumination unless the question has matured to a point where it gives rise to this answer which thus becomes its fruit. Therefore learn how to put a question."
7. "Man, know yourself... and you shalt know the gods."

Sources: here, here and here.

Why Give Water?

Ancient Egypt proverb out of the 'Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor': 

Do not act arrogant my friend. In the morning you will be held accountable for your failed expedition for the King. "Why give water to a goose (literally bird) at dawn before its slaughtering in the morning?"

A more literal translation, including the hieroglyphs (source: here)

Nor Divine. Nor Unspoiled. Nor Virgin

A desert traveler writes (2015): "It's no longer imaginable: the divine desert only for me and the camels. Back then [30 years ago J.D.] there were no cars and there was no GPS."

Strange assertion for a historian like me. It must be a 'Golden Years' (David Bowie) kind of view on the traveler's, travels of thirty years ago. But ... back then the desert was nor divine, nor unspoiled, nor virgin, nor without cars, nor without GPS.

Navigation is of all time - no exception for navigating in the desert:

Transport is of all time - no exception for transporting in the desert:

New techniques give new (im)possibilities. With their own (dis)advantages, limitations and range. A walking man can, under a full sun, in "the" desert survive 3 days without water. A camel can walk for 3 weeks without water. A motor vehicle can drive for months without water. A man and camel need food for fuel and a car gasoline. A ship is bound to water for transportation. Etcetera

What's my point? William Roe Polk in his book 'Passing Brave' (1973): "Abu Jurj, it is all gone. Labid is dead. You were right about the truck. It has killed us [the camel and the nomad J.D.] all." Read for trucks: cars, trains or airplanes.

What rests is romanticism. 'Romanticism' defined as "fallible people who pursue the dream of perfection." The camel as transport for salt and other commodities is gone. Since 1900 the camel, in the Middle East, is one of many ways of transport for the tourist, traveler and soldier. A source of revenue for the tourist leader, writer or filmmaker. The desert is a place - with and without a camel - where you must be able to survive as a soldier.

Source photo: Dany Marique