Aswan. Luxor. Sa’aid. Upper Egypt. Gradually increasing “African features”, and changing landscape, colors (even of clothing and houses) as we move steadily south. Even the trip from Cairo to Luxor covered more ground on the map than places that took me more than a month to travel in the fertile northern countries. Yes, in the Syrian desert I wondered at the fact that apart from the narrow fertile strip of the Euphrates it was completely empty with no human habitation and likely no potential for it either. Here in Egypt the same is true on a much larger scale. When I struck out from Bursa on foot, my map only marked the main population centers, yet I was certain that there would be roads (maybe unpaved, but existent), and water to be had, and villages to
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