A recent study conducted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics showed that the number of tourists who visited Egypt in the last four years stood at 24 million.

The total number of tourists surged up from 4.7 million tourists in 2001 to 5.2 million in 2002, 6 million tourists in 2003 and then to 8.2 million in 2004...

24 million tourists visited Egypt in last four years, State Information Service, Egypt, August 03, 2005.

The Old Testament may seem like an unlikely source from which to draw inspiration for a modern-day climatology study. But a story from the book of Genesis — in which Joseph predicts seven years of abundant crops, followed by seven years of famine for Egypt — drove researchers to scour centuries of water-level data for the Nile River to determine if such a cycle actually exists, and if so, what causes it.

Climatologists have already combed the abundant Nile River data and revealed a connection between patterns in the water-level cycles and Indo-Pacific Ocean patterns.   But large gaps in the data, especially after A.D. 1470, have left this analysis incomplete.   Now, Michael Ghil, a geophysicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, developed with colleagues what he calls an advanced technique to fill the gaps.   Analysis of the data, published in the May 24 Geophysical Research Letters, turns up evidence for a seven-year cycle that researchers say may be influenced by the North Atlantic ocean.

Ghil, working with Dmitri Kondrashov, the lead author, and Yizhak Feliks, attributes credit for the idea to Feliks, who thought of the possible biblical connection after visiting a Byzantine-period mosaic that was created a century or two before the start of the Nile River flood records in A.D. 622.   It shows a man clambering to etch onto a column — called a “nilometer” — the highest level reached by the Nile that year...

River of data decodes Nile cycles, Geotimes, Virginia, USA, August 2005.

cf. Oscillatory modes of extended Nile River records (A.D. 622–1922), Kondrashov, D., Y. Feliks, and M. Ghil (2005), Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 32, No. 10, L10702, doi:10.1029/2004GL022156.

cf. Clues of climate and the Bible's seven lean years, Christian Science Monitor, USA, June 30, 2005.

cf. A River Runs Through Egypt: Nile Floods and Civilization, Fekri A. Hassan, Geotimes, Virginia, USA, April 2005.

Rome and Israel was glorified or mildly tolerated, according to a new analysis of "the world's oldest profession."

The findings reveal that attitudes about sex, fidelity and women varied in early times.

Several scholars contributed to the analysis, which is published in the current Zmanim Hebrew historical quarterly...

Ancients Rarely Punished Prostitutes, Discovery Channel News, USA, August 03, 2005.

cf. Origins of the sex industry, Haaretz, Israel, July 29, 2005.

Zahi Hawass wants the Rosetta Stone back-among other things.

Egypt is once again calling for the return of several celebrated antiquities currently on display in museums across Europe and America, including the Rosetta stone, the famous granite slab that was crucial in deciphering hieroglyphics.

The campaign to recuperate priceless artefacts taken by colonial powers is not new.   But in recent weeks Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the public face of archaeology in Egypt, has grown more strident in his demands in a campaign that coincides with a world tour of Egyptology’s favourite son, King Tutankhamun.   Hawass has even threatened to shut down British and Belgian archaeological digs in Egypt if the artefacts are not returned...

Stolen treasures, Cairo Magazine, Egypt, July 28, 2005, via Explorator.