The strong control on the press paired with our inability to understand Arabic left us blind to the rest of the world. Many things happened that we didn't have the slightest clue about until we went on a business trip or on holiday in the West.

In a way ignorance was bliss. Not knowing what was happening around the world also still had the benefit that you didn't waste your life concerned about things that in reality were completely irrelevant to you, but were merely media stunts to sell news.

Living somewhat isolated also allowed you to value the more personal things like your friends around you, culture (Egypt has abundant), job excellence, hobbies and so on.

A trivial example: We became experts in Rubick's cube always starting from a randomly messed up state. We got it down to a fine art always hovering at the 25-30 seconds mark until Johnny Heilvang suddenly hit 14 seconds. That's when we gave up -it simply could not be beat.

Like all other expats we frequented the famous Cairo "souk", the bazaar called Khan el-Khalili. The store owners were quick to spot us as residents and not tourists.

They would make special efforts to invite us in for tea or coffee and not push their trinkets on to us too heavily. They were smart: They realized that we would bring innumerous visitors with us in the future and by befriending us they increased their opportunity for future revenue. And right they were.

But the joke was on us: The price we paid for a given item when we had just arrived was almost the same as we paid when we left five years later!

Being a resident there was ample opportunity to go on quick excursions to Egypt's tourist spots apart from Cairo and the Gizah pyramids. This pictures on this page are dedicated to exactly that.

A quarter of a century has passed since I left Egypt. And I never returned -not even as a simple tourist. What do I miss most?

First, the people, the colleagues and the friendship. We were isolated and in it together with little "escape" possibilities.

Second, Egypt's culture is incredibly rich and a visit once in your life is strongly recommended. Living there offered abundant opportunities to experience all the fantastic sights that tourists never had time to see.

And, finally, one of my favorites. On a weekend going to a small stable close to the Gizah plateau in the dark of the night, traverse on horseback the still sleepy farming villages lodged at the border between the fertile Nile valley and bare desert, cross an hour into the desert and then head back towards Gizah.

The only sound is the pounding of the horse hooves against the stone desert surface and then, the sun rises over the horizon behind the Gizah pyramids. You stop and just sit there staring at the marvelous sight without a word spoken.

There is little evidence from the previous pages that I ever visited the famous places in Egypt like Valley of the Kings, valley of the Queens, Karnak and Luxor temples, the colossi of Memnon, etc.

I have concentrated on photos of these famous places with my friends and family since the sights themselves are easily available in innumerous books in far better quality than my early 1980's photos.

I am particularly proud of my photos from the tomb of Sen-Nedjem (app. 1292 BC.). He was no pharaoh, but a nobleman. His tomb is located in the less heard of Valley of the Nobles at Thebes.

Sen-Nedjem's tomb was not accessible, but our guide fetched the tomb keeper from the nearby village who unlocked the entrance, inserted a steep ladder and provided light with large metal plates reflecting the sunlight deep into the tomb. What an experience! I am sharing the photos with you on this page.