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featured with offerings of servants and food. Hamadi gave me a short history on each of the main players in these scenes in front of me .   It was fascinating and I found myself drawn into the mystery of this world of long ago.   To think that these people had walked amongst these same columns all those years before!   They had worked, loved, had families and lost loved ones, no doubt had mortgages and debts, just as we do today.   And yet this huge, strong civilisation was no more. It was very humbling and made me realise just how unimportant we are in the general scheme of things.
    We returned to the hotel and I had a late lunch before settling into a sunlounge in the leafy courtyard with a book.   Try as I might though, I couldn’t concentrate.   I re-read the first page three times before giving up and falling into a light sleep in which I was being chased by people with rams’ faces!   I was relieved then when Hamadi came and woke me.   “Come quickly” he said ‘The Australian Embassy is on the phone for you”.
    It was John Turner.   “Sorry to get your hopes up” he said.   “I don’t have any news but I just wanted to let you know I am working on it.   How are you today?”   I said I was fine.   His voice was friendly and warm and I knew from his tone that he didn’t ring all his compatriots to give such an update.   It was nice to hear from someone who seemed to care though and made me feel less alone in this country so alien to me.   “Look” he said “I was thinking I might fly up there and have a look around the Temple of Luxor where the ransom exchange was to take place.   I can ask a few questions and maybe someone will remember something.   If I come up tomorrow will you come out to the Temple with me?”   I explained that I had already been out there but none of the guards seemed to remember seeing anything.   “It will be easier for me as I speak some Egyptian” he pointed out.   “It’s worth a try isn’t it?”   I readily agreed that anything was worth a try and at least I would be doing something other than sitting around.   He arranged to pick me up at the hotel at 1 o’clock.
    I was already waiting outside the hotel when John pulled up in a taxi at the designated time the next day.   “Jump in” he said and gave me a warm smile.   “Let’s go and see what we can find out”.
    The Temple of Luxor was just as impressive on my second visit.   I think I took more in too because on the first occasion I was concentrating so hard on trying to find out something about Kareem’s disappearance.   John was a good guide and pointed out the most important aspects of the Temple .   He explained that whilst Amenophis III built most of the complex, the first courtyard, including the statues of the seated pharaohs and the obelisks at the entrance was the work of Ramses II.     “No other city had so many obelisks and colossi made from a single stone” John told me.   It was nice to be with an Australian again, to talk easily without the language or accent restraints.   I suddenly became overwhelmingly homesick. “What was I doing here, so far from home ? ” I thought for a moment.   Then I thought of Kareem and our time together and I reproached myself for even thinking this.  
    We made our way to the columns where Kareem was to have met with the kidnappers.   John saw a guard in his black garb.   “Here, give me the photo of Kareem” he said.   He took it over to the guard and asked him something in Egyptian.   He was a different man to the one I had tried to speak to on my first visit.   They exchanged a few words and he looked intently at the photo.   He nodded his head and became very garrulous.   John came back to me smiling. “He said there was a bit of an incident that morning.   He heard a cry and came around the corner in time to see a man running away with a bag and another man lying on the ground.   He went over to assist him but he