1 MARCH 1919, Page 19

Through Egypt in Was-Time. By Martin S. Briggs. (T. Fisher

Unwin. 21s. net.)—The fortune of war sent Mr. Briggs, who is an architect, to Egypt, and caused him, as an officer of the SanitaryCorps, to spend much time not only in the Fayyum but also in the little-known oases of Siwa and Kharga and on the lonely ooaat towards Tripoli. The campaign has been described before ; but Mr. Briggs, knowing what to look for, found much that was interesting in the queer little desert towns, monasteries, and ruins. Near Kharga there is the wonderful temple of Ammon, which was cleared of sand by an American expedition ten years ago ; Darius built this temple in the desert, over a hundred miles from the Nile, to guard the great trade route to Darfur. Mr. Briggs went from Mersa Matruh on the coast to Siwa in a Ford ear, traversing in a few hours the rough track through a stony desert along which Alexander the Great had paseed with his guards to pay his famous visit to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, where he was bailed as divine. Hedevotes a chapter to Damietta and Rosetta, which few tourists visit, and gives an account of the route from the Canal to El Arlah

and Gas► along which our army marched and fought. His sketches and photographs are excellent.