By SIR EVELYN WRENCH
A FIRST visit to Egypt is one of the great experiences of life. It ranks with such red-letter occasions as one's first flight, landing in the New World for the first time, and the first view of the Pacific. I had been through the Suez Canal over twenty years before, but last year had my first sight of Cairo and the Nile in Egypt. I have a friend, a much-travelled man, who goes on long business voyages every year. He visits every continent. He is equally at home in Peking or Patagonia, but whithersoever he is setting off he always manages to include a week or two in Egypt on the outward or homeward• journey. For years he raved about Egypt to me. Although I too had travelled the five continents, I did not know Egypt. It was boring to have to listen to endless praises of a country with which I was unfamiliar.
Since my visit to Egypt last year I too understand. Every journey I plan in the hope that soon I may be back again within sight of the Nile. As long as life lasts I shall never forget my first view of the Pyramid of Cheops. I arrived at the Mena House after dark. A large bowl of red roses had been placed in my bedroom by the attentive director of the hotel—one of the best in the world. I walked out on the balcony, but I saw nothing. I was enveloped in blackness. Bats flitted past Inc. Strange. perfumes assailed my senses. The sound of chirping crickets and of barking dogs in the Arab village was wafted to my ears. Right in front, in the direction of the desert, was what seemed a black wall. Disappointed, I returned to my room and undressed. Before turning in I went out on the balcony once more. My eyes grew accustomed to the darkness. The firmament was splashed with stars. A crescent moon, like a sickle, was opposite me. Suddenly I noticed that the stars stopped and there was just blackness in front of me. By degrees it took shape. It was a pyramid, seemingly so close that I could almost throw something at it. . . . A few hours later, after sunrise, I walked up to the Pyramids before the day's work.' I wanted to have that wonder region to myself. I achieved my purpose. Great white clouds rushed by. I reviewed the political events of the past twenty years. We lived in a world of change. The Pyramid riveted my attention. It and I were alone in whirling space. It alone was stable. There it stood as it had rested for 5,000 years, the embleth of eternity.
How explain the charm of Egypt ? It is not only the sun- shine, because often one longs for shadow ; it is not even the wonderful temples and museums, because in shame I confest I sometimes longed to escape from a surfeit of ancient dynas- ties and Egypt's storied past ; it is not only the mosaic of human types to be met in Cairo bazaars ; nor is it the oppor- tunity, of great interest to an Englishman, of studying the problems of the futiire relations. of East and West. I wan- dered into the hotel garden past masses of bougainvillias and exotic plants to the blue-green waters of the swimming-pool. I could not explain to myself the magic charm of Egypt. I only knew that, like my friend, I too would henceforth be held in its spell. Two days later I went for a pilgrimage to see the excavations at Saggara. I met a Scotsman who has spent fifty years in the service of Egypt helping to unravel the story of its past. Although he had:retired he could not keep away from Egypt, he said. He asked nothing better of life than to die' among the ruins, tombs and pottery of his adopted land.
Perhaps one of reasons for Egypt's fascination is that the visitor feels that he is touching the life of his ancestors with unexpected vividness. As he wanders in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor and elsewhere, and as he studies the mural reliefs and paintings on the walls, he gets a glimpse of what life was like 4,000 or 5,000 years ago. He is studying the ordinary things of life. The pictures tell the daily life of ordinary men and women at the dawn of history. He sees a slave fattening geese, a sailing ship on the Nile, a donkey and foal, the winnowing of corn, an ox being thrown, Ship-building, carpenters at work, " clerks " busy in an estate office, village elders coming to give evidence, a dwarf leading two hounds, cattle being driven through a stream and peasant 'women carrying fowls by the wings as they do today on their way with offerings. I had never expected to be made to feel that the ancient Egyptians were real human-beings.
No one should go to Upper Egypt unless he has steeped himself in the wonders of the Cairo Museum—surely one of the most interesting buildings in the world. A few days later I was hearing from the lips of Mr. Howard Carter in the welcome cool of the vestibule of the Winter Palace at Luxor the immortal story of the TUtankhamen discovery.
Life in Egypt could never have been more interesting than it is today. Every time you drive along the road to Giza you move to and fro from the world of Abraham to the world of Henry ,Ford., Despite Mr. Kipling, East and West have met with a vengeance. When I flew from Cairo to Jerusalem in four hours I pondered on the vast changes taking place around us. The Air Age is only beginning. In a year or two we shall be spending week-ends 'at Cairo, we shall be flying across Asia in twenty-four hours. The relations of Europe and the East will become ever closer. This metamorphosis is of vital interest to the British Empire. It behoves us to send the Professors of foresight that Mr. Wells talks of to the banks of the Nile, the meeting place of three continents, to study these changing conditions.
For the traveller in search of sunshine and mental stimula- tion I know no better holiday than a visit to Egypt.
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