Dr. Hauken in Egypt - recent travels in ancient lands.

This ingress is meant to explain some of the texts and pictures that we have put in the link TRAVEL ACCOUNTS.

The need to present a rich photo gallery from Egypt was the inspiration that led me to undertake these journeys - from Alexandria to Abu Simbel. They are still ongoing to this day, and the ingresses may turn out to become numerous, as the remains of ancient Egypt are very numerous. Without the help of Saber Khodary from Luxor this would not be possible - he is my taxi driver and factotum when I am in Egypt, most of all: he is a good photographer.

At the time we decided to found the Bergen Egypt Exploration Society it was obvious that a homepage would be needed, and that means a photo coverage of the old and wonderful land of the Nile. Of the three founding fathers of the society it seems that I was the one with time and means to make two yearly expeditions in order to cover the land. First the most famous monuments were photographically recorded, then followed smaller and less known places.

I have chosen to give each expedition a separate ingress under our link TRAVEL ACCOUNTS on the home page. A short text is followed by a photo-series to illustrate the expedition concerned. This work started in 2009. In 2011 came the revolution that disrupted the almost ideal conditions for travelling, and between March and October things went from bad to worse. The two expeditions in 2010 were the happiest and most successful I ever made.

A word about my travels in ancient lands.

Before taking on the photographic recording of monuments in Egypt I have travelled extensively and photographed Israel, Kypros, Turkey, Greece, Malta and Italy. This has been part of my work as a classicist and New Testament scholar and the result may be seen on my private homepage (aage-hauken.com) under the link Historical cities. As such I have a good deal of experience with travelling in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean world. Egypt is different in the sense that here you need to find friends and collaborators to help you moving around, it is not advisable to go alone, and group travel is not the thing if you want to work on your own. I was lucky in this respect, thanks to the tourist machinery in Luxor. Amongst all the tiresome and unreliable persons you meet in a place like that there are also the good ones, hoping to find a serious tourist to assist and serve. Many of the best photos are taken by Saber Khodary, and he keeps appearing again and again in the photographic record, looking much younger and inexperienced than he is.

The photo records of this homepage is really our joint work.