Cats featured in the religious and domestic life of ancient Egyptians. The biggest and most renowned cat is undoubtedly the statue of the great sphinx at Giza with its 73 meter long body of a lion. The age of the sphinx is the subject of controversy; but although some consider the statue to be much older, conventional wisdom dates the sculpture to about 2,500BC. It was supposedly sculpted under the direction of king Khafra whose own face was carved on the human head. …

‘Egypt is the gift of the Nile’, wrote the Greek historian Herodotus. The Nile’s gift is a layer of fertile soil, replenished annually at the time of the inundation. The Blue Nile conveys the rich silt from the huge catchment area of Ethiopia; an enormous amphitheatre defined by 4,000 metre high mountain peaks. The turbid water churns through canyons and gorges, collecting tributes from the Rihad and Dinder Rivers. Urged northwards by heavy rains and melting snow it cascades over the cataracts of eastern Sudan. On reaching Khartoum the Blue …

Recently I was involved in a discussion about ‘icons’. Originally the word referred to a wooden carving or a painting of a religious scene. Nowadays the concept of an ‘icon’ has been usurped by modern usage to mean a recognisable image or symbol representing a product or attribute. Computer screens are full of these little graphic representations. Strangely I have also heard people referred …