Notes from Egypt

The house (called the American research center in Abydos) is made of mud brick, concrete, and other miscellaneous brick material all plastered white. It has three courtyards surrounded by various rooms (many egg-like and some flat – which are good for sitting on). It might be found in Santorini with its blue doors and windows and planters full of flowers and vines – bougainvillea, jasmine and hibiscus (photo from Alex M.). The house has a live-in staff that run the place – they make things work, which can be a tricky thing in southern Egypt. They know how to get things and fix things and without them the egg house would be abandoned, and the sand dunes around it would fold in over it and consume all we’d left behind. This is what they’ve done to the countless other structures we’re here to find. The sand has taken tombs and temples and whole city walls and hidden them and churned them and blasted them to smaller and smaller bits.