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did not survive, and were laid to rest in Luxor’s foreigners’ cemetery or taken back home by their loved

ones. The only testament to their passing were the small white crosses, placed near to the English Chapel
that was once to be found amid the peace, the palms and the flowers of the Hotel’s gardens; often
described in times past, as the most beautiful in the whole of Egypt. More importantly the true intentions
will be revealed of the powerful deities who have manipulated every word written here. These were the
Ancient Gods who ruled the people of the world’s oldest empire; and whose representative the Goddess

Meretseger, appeared when needed in her Earthly form as that of a mighty and terrifying Cobra; but to
those she loved, they only saw the vision of her as a beautiful woman.

It is now twenty years since I first saw the ‘Old Luxor Hotel’ and met with Muir Birch; and in the intervening
years I have done everything I could to bring about its restoration to what it once was; even delaying the
publication of this book in the vain hope that I would succeed. Now, sadly all my efforts have proved totally

inadequate in overcoming the greed and corruption of the powers that control Egypt; where an endemic
baksheesh culture takes precedence over the well-being of its people and the preservation of its ancient
heritage. This hotel the earliest in Luxor and the first to be built by the pioneering tour operator Thomas
Cook; now lies in peaceful solitude, ensconced amid its once Elysian gardens; itself soon to become a ruin

like the three-thousand-year-old Pharaonic Temple it overlooks; or even worse a modern reincarnation,
subjected to the worst kind of historic interpretation, becoming everything it never was.

Whenever possible I have used the very same words that were spoken at the time, by those who feature in
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the pages of this book . The less charitable of readers may accuse me of plagiarism, but in truth this is not
the case. Only by adopting the exact identical sentences, grammar, words and even the punctuation that

they used to describe the parts they played in this play of life and death, can the reader ever truly
appreciate the events and the very feelings and emotions they experienced; of times, long since confined
to the past. In doing so they too like the hotel will live again. Their names have been spoken once more.
This to me is the only true path to everlasting life; to the ancient Egyptians it was known as the ‘Field of

Reeds’ – the one place that we all seek, but very few of us will ever reach.

This book is dedicated to the few who have known of this much neglected Egyptian treasure; but especially
to the almost countless more who did not.

“To speak the name of the dead is to make them live again, and restores the
breath of life to him who has vanished.”

Funerary Inscription found in the tomb of Tutankhamun

A. A. Aziz

Old Luxor Hotel, Luxor, Upper Egypt, September 2019

© A. A. Aziz 2019 3