Cairo is huge, everything is written in squiggles, and there are mosques everywhere with neon lights. We arrived late in the evening, went straight to the suburb of Giza, the home of the pyramids, and checked in at Mena House, which has been a hotel since 1869. It has brownish photos of Winston Churchill and the American president Roosevelt making wartime plans on the back of a napkin.

There were roses on our beds and chocolate-covered strawberries on the table. A man brought a tray of juices and cool flannels. I was exhausted, but I had just enough energy to take a look at the Great Pyramid, which was right outside our balcony.

Next day, our guide, Salwa — very nice — took us over to the pyramids. They were ENORMOUS! If you built a wall from all the stones, 10ft high and 10ft wide, it would stretch round the whole of France. Me and dad climbed up one — a bit...

Me, dad and the mummies, The Sunday Times, UK, April 02, 2006.

Can a queen be a king, too? Consider the case of Hatshepsut, an Egyptian ruler of the 15th century B.C. The eldest daughter of Thutmose I and his principal queen, she married her younger half-brother, Thutmose II. His untimely death left her regent for Thutmose III, his son by another wife. At some point, she decided to govern jointly with the boy and took on the title of king. Later, she assumed the supreme title of pharaoh and ruled Egypt in that powerfully masculine role until her death.

During her reign (about 1479-1458 B.C.), when Egypt was emerging as a world power, the country prospered, the arts flourished, and peace, more or less, prevailed. In these respects, her rule might be compared to that of Elizabeth I of England, though Elizabeth had to make do with the less impressive title of queen.

Hatshepsut is the subject of a celebratory show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Met's department of Egyptian art. Organized by the Met and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, it includes many objects from the Met's own extensive holdings, excavated at its digs in the 1920's and 30's. But it isn't so easy to follow Hatshepsut's trail in this overambitious show, what with the number of relatives, subordinates, minor officials and such who also have a place in it, along with scarabs, jewellery, pottery, furniture and other artefacts...

'Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh,' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York Times, New York, USA, March 31, 2006.

fatwa issued by Egypt's top religious authority that forbids the display of statues has art-lovers fearing that it could be used by Islamic extremists as an excuse to destroy Egypt's historical heritage.

Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the country's top Islamic jurist, issued the religious edict that declared as un-Islamic the exhibition of statues in homes, basing the decision on texts in the hadith (sayings of the prophet).

Still, many fear that the edict could prod Islamic fundamentalists to attack Egypt's thousands of ancient and Pharaonic statues on show at tourist sites across the country.

"We don't rule out that someone will enter the Karnak temple in Luxor or any other Pharaonic temple and blow it up on the basis of the fatwa," Gamal Al Ghitani, editor of the literary Akhbar Al Adab magazine, said...

Fatwa against statues triggers uproar in Egypt, AFP via Middle East Times, Cyprus, April 03, 2006.