They must park a good quarter-mile away. Here we met North Americans from Vancouver to Miami, most travelling on organized tours. The graceful Temple of Luxor, remarkably preserved and guarded by the massive statues of Ramses II, is a breathtaking and vivid scene of ancient Egyptian life. Despite the return of foreign visitors, this will be a poor tourism year for Egypt. We expected three million visitors in 1998.
Many Egyptian citizens feel devastated by the recent tragedies in that democratic nation.
In my country, we believe in greeting visitors as friends, not as strangers. All the same, the treasures of ancient Egypt have endured for millennia and are well worth the journey to this mystical land, which shall far outlast any terrorist threats. Egypt Air flies five times weekly from New York's JFK Airport non-stop to Cairo. Ignore the guidebooks. No visas are required.