My Interest in Egypt

My interest in Egypt began when I was 12 years old. My 6th grade teacher, Mr. Sawyer taught us about ancient Egypt. I was fascinated. Even though I was only 12, I decided that I would travel to Egypt when I grew up. I was introduced to ancient Egypt in Mr. Sawyer’s Social Studies class.

Egypt is fascinating, and the best thing about Egypt is that new discoveries are being made almost on a daily basis. For example, there is more and more evidence that Egypt had advanced technologies:

• The three pyramids of Giza are arranged in a Pythagorean triangle and are aligned with the stars in Orion's belt.
• The Giza plateau was leveled so accurately that it is only 1/2 degree off from being perfectly level.
• The Great Pyramid is built so accurately that it deviates from true North by only 1/2 degree.

I've learned many things about Egypt through traveling and through reading. I love reading, and I love libraries.

My reading on Egypt is always from books; I don’t use articles. The books I had read before I wrote The Hidden Chamber in the Great Sphinx were The Sphinx Mystery, Secrets of the Great Pyramid, The Giza Power Plant and Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo

On my first trip to Egypt, I flew to Cairo. In Cairo, we toured the city and visited the Egyptian Museum. We traveled south down the Nile by bus. We then went to Luxor, the modern name for the ancient city of Thebes. We visited the Valley of the Kings, The Valley of the Queens and TheValley of the Nobles. We visited King Tut’s Tomb. Then we traveled further south almost to the Sudan border where we saw Abu Simbel. I describe all these things in my book because I wanted the book to be educational as well as a fun and entertaining adventure story.

I have always thought that children's literature should be fun and exciting, and I tried to instill a love of reading in my nephew. When Matt was growing up, I taught him every chance I got. I gave him books and read to him. I also feel that travel is educational, so I took him to Disney World when he was eight. I also took him on cruises to Bermuda, Florida and the Bahamas, and Hawaii.

Do you feel one is more educational than the other? Reading versus traveling? I’d love to hear your thoughts!