KHD PROJECT 2026
KHD DIARY 2026 OCTOBER
DAY ONE - 5 OCTOBER
Disembarked from Cairo looking like an origami man owing to tiny seat...and the presence of an American doofus who told me firmly that the pyramids were older than Egypt and he knew this because he had watched a video on YouTube. My response was snappy enough that we didn’t talk again for the next five hours. Sheesh! Cleared passport control no problem although gone are the days of the sexy looking full-page visa...and naturally Narmer went to the wrong terminal and left me stranded before puffing up, full of apologies. The name Narmer is to the Egyptians what William the Conqueror is to the English, which is entirely fitting seeing as the original Narmer was contemporary with - and who knows, was maybe at - the site I am working on!
Orwell once said that London would be great once it was finished. Back atcha with Cairo…though rather than endless cranes and roadworks, there is a sense that it started well and everyone walked off the job before the cleanup. It is certainly the most refuse-filled city I have ever seen, and as a bonus everything is covered in sand and dust and a sort of a layer of detritus.
My heart of course belongs to the grand, peeling, decaying grandeur of the late 19th to early 20th century houses, doubtless ostentatious in their youth, yet now faded to a mellow glow in the orange rays of the setting sun. The Polish house is only a short stop. It is an area called Heliopolis, and the house itself is an exact example of what I mean about good Cairene architecture. There is a truly ramshackle gate, which doesn't lock properly and the whole fence is interwoven with a tangle of bushes and holes that cats glide through with boneless elegance. Yet once inside the glory of the building is obvious. It looks a bit like a wedding cake, with a profusion of verandas, columns, pillars, and marble steps winding up into... what turns out to be something of a labyrinth of rather under decorated school-dorm-like rooms. The Polish mission has been here for the better part of a century, although their tenancy, unfortunately, is now coming to an end. The value of the land – which was probably worth nothing when this was a sleepy suburb has to be simply astronomical I would have thought, so I have a horrible feeling that once the landowner gets it back, this grand old lady is doomed.
“You be here yes?” enquired the warden. I nodded. He pointed out my name on a board with the keys ("Lawance Owen”) then vanished and I never saw him again. I lugged my painfully overweight luggage up the stairs into my dorm and threw stuff everywhere (is it just me or does this not make a place more familiar and homely? More pants on the floor, I say!) then glared with irritation at my phone. I really, genuinely, cannot understand how we ever coped without these wretched things...and how paralysed we thus become when the roaming plan you paid a fortune for just plain sucks. Having failed entirely to find the rest of the team, I picked up a 2" thick wedge of banknotes (worth about $25) and went out in search of some carbohydrates.
I ended up at Tabali, just down the road from the Polish house. Do you have Wi-Fi? Not a chance! So, I sat there and stared at the cat who wound its way out of a corner somewhere and came and watched me unblinkingly as I waded my way through about a kilo of foul, half a kilo of falafel and a plate of baked halloumi that drove the cat into a frenzy. It was a lovely warm night. T-shirt weather. The weather in England is now closing in, so it was nice to get one final gasp of sunlight before we entered that dismal nightmare which is our winter. The meal cost about LE440 which is maybe £7…adaptation is going to take me a day or two!
DAY TWO - 6 OCTOBER
Archaeologists are a fearless lot, what with all the stone balls, the snakes, the spiders, the Nazis...but what really gets us is admin and shopping! The last members of the team are straggling in today so we have a list to complete, involving sinking into the loudest city I know, haggling, shouting, ancient cars missing half their paint, police whistles, microshops overflowing onto the pavements, absolute chaos, incredible noise and an utter lack of regard for safety or the preservation of your sanity. I DID manage to find coffee, though...and I don't mean the Turkish sort that is half grounds and will put you into cardiac arrest, but actual wussy lattes and so on...things have changed since I was first here in 1993! In those days my other half and I could only eat at the Hilton (club sandwiches and OJ) as every other food made her ill...notably the excellent and affordable kushari (a sort of student-y glut involving pasta rice and beans) which cost 25 piastres (1/280th of a £ in modern terms)! So thank you for caffeinating me, Breakfast Coffee...and seriously...maybe a little less Nutella in the croissants (sugar takes the place of alcohol in most Middle Eastern countries I've been to!).
Al (Dr Aloisia de Trafford, officallly!) and I stoked up on lattes and croissants, and were found to be fascinating by the staff who couldnt get enough of my height and our Arabic! Refreshed, we sallied forth and retrieved Mariusz and Ada, fresh in from Poland, changed a modest amouny of money that turned out to be three housebricks of Egyptian notes, then hit a cafe, a kebab shop (with many cats), a table store, an ironmonger, Vodafone, a hardware store and a newsagents in quick succession, arriving back triumphantly to the Polish House with two tables balanced precariously on the roof of the oldest car in Cairo, which had no mirrors and no glass in the rear window. Spent the rest of the afternoon wrestling with luggage and SIM cards, then a huge amount of carbohydrate as the last team members arrived, The night is warm and balmy and the air is full of suppressed excitement. Is this the one that will make us famous? No matter their high ideals, archaeologists DO lust after the big discovery...and no it's not gold...but something that changes the field, such as the name of a new pharaoh, for instance...which is entirely possible at this remote period of history...in fact on the very edge of history. To the site tomorrow!