I

N THE course of my work during the past five or six years I have seen many parts of the world.

My wanderings have taken me over every capital in Europe and over the length and breadth of the great African continent.

More than once I have traveled over the great Syrian Desert to India, Burma and back, and only recently I journeyed all the way to Australia and return via Rangoon, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies.

Yet with all these wanderings it was not until a few months ago that I made my first steamship voyage, when I crossed from Southampton to New York.

Hitherto my journeys had been made in the air, and my mode of transport was an airplane or seaplane, and when I reflect on my various exploits, somehow I feel that my memories and impressions of the countries I have visited are far more vivid and realistic than are the memories

of the individual who has traveled by of the individual who has traveled by steamship, train, or motor car.

STUDYING ARCHEOLOGY BY AIR

Early in 1923 I made a circular tour, covering about 12,000 miles, over Europe, Egypt, Palestine, Algeria, Morocco, and Spain. My passenger was an old friend, whose greatest hobbies were travel and the study of ancient civilizations.

We had flown many thousands of miles together on previous occasions, but this trip was a little more ambitious. From London we flew to Paris, through France, along the Riviera coast line, across Italy to Greece, and then over the Mediterranean to Africa and Egypt.

Then, for the first time in history, we flew across the whole breadth of Africa, from Egypt to Morocco, after which we crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and by way of Spain and France returned to London.

My passenger was an enthusiast about traveling by air, for to him there was no more delightful way of seeing the countries whose history he had studied. Thus, on our flight from Brindisi, at the heel of Italy, over the Adriatic to the island of Corfu, and down the mountainous coast

of Greece, through the Gulf of Patras and the Gulf of Corinth to Athens, he was able to see spread beneath him the scenes of Greek mythology and of Greek and Roman history that he had read about since his youth.

THE HOP FROM EUROPE TO AFRICA

Our first view of Athens and the famous Acropolis was from the air (see page 357). After a few days in the town, during which we visited the Parthenon and the Stadium, the latter built on the site of the ancient Stadium where the Greeks of old held their Olympic games, we began to prepare for our flight across the Mediterranean.

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One fine day we left Athens and flew out over the Egean Sea; then over the island of Crete, where the first aviators were born. According to legend, their names were Dædalus and Icarus. ing made themselves wings of feathers, they fastened them on with wax and began their flight. Dædalus reached Sicily, but Icarus, exulting, flew too high, and as he neared the sun the heat melted his wings and he fell into the sea.

However, no such ill fortune befell us. We soon left snow-capped Mount Ida behind and then on a compass course headed for Sollum. We were nearly three hours out of sight of land, but at last the coast of Africa came into view and we discovered that we had hit our objective within one mile.

Sollum is an Egyptian frontier outpost on the edge of the desert. On the night of our arrival we were entertained by the resident officer, and the Governor of the Northwestern Egyptian territory was also a guest. The latter spoke of the difficulty of traveling about his desert domain, and said that in the morning he would. have to start on a weary two-days' journey by car to Siwa.

On consulting a map, I discovered that Siwa was an oasis some 200 miles to the south, in the Libyan Desert.* I suggested

* See, also, "Crossing the Untraversed Libyan Desert," by A. M. Hassanein Bey, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE for September, 1924.

that he might fly there in a little over two hours. Readily he accepted the invitation.

We landed near Siwa on a gigantic saltpan, the bottom of a dried-up salt lake, which was as smooth and level as a billiard table and made a perfect landing field (see page 359).

As soon as the machine had come to rest we discovered an Arab convoy with camels, which had been instructed by telephone to meet us. It was dark before we reached the village, so we had to wait

until the morning to see the wonders of the Senussi stronghold. Before the World War, a European visited Siwa at the risk of getting his throat cut, but since the conquest of these people, in 1917, all is quite safe. In fact, we found a solitary British officer, with a guard of native troops, in complete control of affairs.

SIWA STANDS ON A ROCK IN THE SANDS

Until recently the whole oasis was afflicted with malaria, but in ten years un

der British supervision this malady has been entirely stamped out. This was accomplished by requiring that every drop of stagnant water should be brushed or agitated twice a day, thus preventing the mosquito from breeding.

The desert in this part of the world is not sand, but hard, dry earth, in many places as level as a billiard table.

So, on the following day, after enjoying mint tea in an oriental garden with the local sheik, and before taking off from our natural airdrome for Matruh, I took a few palm leaves and swept on the surface of our landing ground-that is, I scratched on this dried earth a huge circle, and then a big T, to mark the site for the benefit of future aviators arriving in Siwa. The governor told me that these marks would remain for at least 20 years, as it never rains at Siwa.

FROM THE AIR THE NILE VALLEY APPEARS A WIDE RIVER OF GREEN

At Matruh there was a beautiful lagoon, and here, according to some accounts, Antony and Cleopatra once had a villa.

After flying eastward for 300 miles

along a barren coast, we came to a spot where the desert abruptly ceased, and in a few yards the land was a mass of rich cultivation: we had come to the boundaries of the great Nile Delta.

In time we descried two peaks on the horizon, and after a few minutes we could distinguish the angular shapes of the Pyramids of Giza. Farther on we could see more pyramids, and then we realized that we were in the land of the Pharaohs.

In flying over Egypt one soon comes to realize that the country is nothing more nor less than Nileland, and that without this great river the nation would not exist. When seen from an airplane at a great altitude, Egypt appears to be a gigantic river of green vegetation, winding its way through a vast desert land, and in the middle of this ribbon of vegetation are the glimmering waters of the Nile, flowing northward, the source of every atom of life in this ancient land.*

From Cairo we followed the Nile to Luxor, and before landing surveyed from

*See, also, "The Land of Egypt," by Alfred Pearce Dennis, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE for March, 1926.

the air the Valley of the Kings, Thebes, and Karnak. Afterward we landed on a clearing on the edge of the near-by desert, and spent several days studying on the ground what we had seen from the air.

OVER THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS AND
THE ASWAN DAM

Now the journey from Cairo to Luxor takes a whole day by train, but we had accomplished the trip with comparative ease in four hours.

Proceeding up the Nile, we passed over many ancient temples, including Esna and Edfu (see page 362), until we came to Elephantine Island, with the First Cataract and the great Aswan Dam beyond

(see page 361). In the reservoir behind the dam we could see the submerged temples of Philæ, which, until the construction of the great dam, stood high and dry.

It was getting late in the year and the hot season was coming on, so we did not wish to run the risk of overheating our engine. We decided to start for Halfa very early in the morning, and soon after dawn we were in the air, flying over the great reservoir and following the Nile southward.

The river here flows through a deep, rockwalled valley. When the dam was constructed at this valley head, the waters were unable to escape over the desert, but were confined within the rocky walls, thus creating a reservoir nearly 200 miles long.

All the way along the upper reaches of the Nile we kept flying over ancient Egyptian temples, until at last we came to the world-famous Abu Simbel, a temple hewn out of the solid rock, with huge monolithic figures mounting guard at the entrance (see page 363). At the extreme end of this great cavern hall is an altar. There are no windows in the temple and the only sunlight enters by the doorway, which faces due east.

We flew on until we came to the Second Cataract, at Halfa; and then, after circling two or three times, we flew back to Aswan, having been in the air about five hours. We arrived at our hotel in time for a late breakfast-a striking contrast to the week required to make the trip by paddle steamer.

On our return trip to Cairo we were