We now know that Agatha Christie, who we might associate exclusively with England, was also a Woman of the Middle East, and with Max, derived satisfaction connected with that area as she was developing her story lines. Viewing the online bibliography of her works, and strictly limiting the dates to the 1930s, from 1930 when she met and married Max to 1939, just before the war started, I find she wrote 20 novels and six collections of short-story mysteries, a prodigious amount of output for just one decade. Certainly many of those works center on England, but our purpose here is to talk about three from that decade that notably center on the Middle East.

A Middle East Pseudo-Trilogy    With all the experience gained from Agatha and Max traveling so frequently on archaeological expeditions to the Middle East, she drew on those experiences as the basis for some of her plots, notably Murder on the Orient Express (M/OE), published in 1934, Murder in Mesopotamia (M/M), 1936, and Death on the Nile (D/N), 1937. While there are minor connections between these three novels—connections which are not often cited—I don't think they were really meant to be a trilogy, so I'm calling them a pseudo-trilogy. We'll also point out two ancillary, less known, of her works about Egypt.

Murder on the Orient Express    As we said in the last posting, she loved to stay in Aleppo at the Baron Hotel (ba.RON). As for the hotel, we know that the Syrian war took a huge toll on Aleppo, moving it in rank from the biggest city in Syria to the second, after Damascus. There are a great many ruins in Aleppo. I understand that the Baron Hotel is still standing, but damaged, empty and looted (Photo by Preacher lad). This picture dates from 2011. It's the oldest hotel that currently operates in Syria—or did, before the civil war---opening between 1909-1911. It is located on Baron Street in downtown Aleppo. It has served for decades as a stopping place for Western travelers. Initially most guests were German railway engineers and British archaeologists. One of the numerous famous guests was TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), working as a British intelligence officer during WWI. We came across him in the last posting visiting Leonard Woolley at an archaeological site, also in Syria.

Lawrence stayed on the second floor of the Baron in room 202. Two decades later, Agatha Christie stayed in 203. As mentioned earlier, she started visiting the Baron in 1930—I don't know if it was coming, going, or both ways. Considering how long and arduous the journey from England was in those days, Christie’s excitement at stopping off in Aleppo at the Baron was understandable. She wrote in her diary: "Alep! Shops! A bath! My hair shampooed! Friends to see!" The creature comforts would be welcome either after the long OE trip, or after some time at a dusty archaeological site. Agatha and Max frequented the Baron numerous times together as well.

In the last posting we said that in 1933, Max was working at Tell Arpachiyah, near Mosul, and Agatha was there, helping. It’s likely that M/OE was freshly inspired and perhaps even blocked out at that time. It was then time for her to return to the UK, so, once again traveling solo, she would have made her way by bustitution to wherever the railhead had reached at that point, then taken the Taurus, but only as far as Aleppo, where she made one of her usual stops. It was at the Baron, staying in room 203, that she actually started writing M/OE, on the hotel’s main balcony, while sipping tea.

It was inspired of course by the journeys she had taken, and still would be taking, on the OE, influenced by the colorful roster of passengers she had observed and perhaps met. Her notable attention to detail is evident throughout the novel--she checked out the cabin layouts, door handles, and light switches, noting down their positions. These crucial details would lead Poirot to solve the case. The original book (tho not my copy) was dedicated to Max, who was still located whence she had just come: "To M.E.L.M. Arpachiyah, 1933", the initials standing for Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan.

This YouTube video (1:40) shows the Baron Hotel in its current state. At 1:12, note Agatha Christie's room, 203.

But we're also aware that the Pera Palace hotel in Istanbul claims she wrote M/OE there and today maintains an exhibit to her in her room 411--which is also rentable (Photo by Steve Hopson). This is further described in 2021/1. We can now assume that it was written in both hotels, one right after the other, on her return trip in the latter part of 1933, with a UK publication date of 1 January 1934. This is the dust cover illustration of that first UK edition. I find the subject matter odd--stokers shoveling coal into the engine firebox. It has nothing to do with the mystery, and little to do with passengers.

But when we come to publication, the subject gets weird. Here are the facts. The book was published in the US two months later, on 28 February 1934. But this mystery, among Christie's most famous, didn't have the same name, since become very famous! The reason was that the British author Graham Greene had just written his first truly successful novel in 1932 called "Stamboul Train", using the older English form of "Istanbul", still used in some other languages. Fair enough. But Greene's American publisher decided to change the name of his book to "Orient Express". Why? Did they think Americans wouldn't figure out where Stamboul was? And worse, his novel was made into a film in 1934 under the name "Orient Express" as well. And worse still, in his story, the train went from Ostend to Istanbul, eastbound (not westbound like M/OE), and isn't set on the Orient Express either, but on the Ostende-Vienna Orient Express. At Vienna it did combine with cars of the OE, and then at Belgrade, it combined with cars of the SOE. Thus Greene's American publishers, surely unwittingly, set a trap in advance for Christie's M/OE. What a mess! Their solution was to rename Christie's book as well, from M/OE to "Murder in the Calais Coach" (M/CC). Actually, that's not a bad name, because the story does unfold in the Calais Coach of the [S]OE, and is nicely alliterative. But while the world was reading a book called M/OE, Americans were reading the same book called M/CC!

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The first link shows an American edition put out by Pocket Books in 1940 under the name M/CC. But then, in 1978, the nonsense came to an end, and Pocket Books put out an addition (second link) called, logically, M/OE, with the note "Formerly titled M/CC". The American edition I own is called M/OE, with the notation on the cover "Also published as M/CC".

You would think that would be the end of the confusion, and it is, I suppose. However—surprise--M/OE had already been published in the US the year before! Thus the first true publication was the US serialization in six installments in the Saturday Evening Post magazine from 30 September to 4 November 1933—and the title was already M/CC. But the first hardcover book was the UK edition above, which is what counts. At least this final information allows me to set earlier Agatha's return trip—Mosul-Aleppo-Istanbul-London from late 1933 to mid 1933, to allow for the American magazine version to appear at the end of September. (A UK serialization appeared later still, in three installments in the Grand Magazine in March-April-May 1934.)

M/OE, like most of Christie's works, is internationally known. Here are French and Hungarian editions (Photo by Yann Caradec). Note how the title is translated into French as a crime (which could have referred to a robbery), and not further specified as a murder. We have of course, a few more examples. But these examples will also illustrate a quirk about English.

We've discussed many times how English is a Germanic language, but with an extensive overlay from the Latinate languages via Norman French, brought in after 1066. The appropriate example we'll use now is the pair murder/assassination. When English has a doublet such as this, the meanings usually diverge so that they don't mean exactly the same thing. While murder describes any unlawful killing, an assassination is a killing with political or similar overtones. So what do we find in some other languages?

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German (above), also being Germanic, uses Mord, which makes it look particularly close to English. Similarly, the Dutch title is Moord in de Oriënt-Express, and we also see how Dutch is a stickler for showing that this IE is not a digraph, but two separate vowels, indicated by the dieresis: IË.

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On the other hand, when we get to a Latinate language like Spanish (above), we find a word that reminds the English speaker of "assassination", tho the meaning in Spanish means to imply "murder". However, in another context, asesinato could also imply "assassination". In other words, English has a doublet to differentiate, while Spanish doesn't differentiate, since it just has the one word. The exact same situation applies to Italian: Assassinio sull'Orient Express.

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I end with the Russian name, not because I have any comment about the first word, which I'm unfamiliar with, but because of the name of the train, as we've discussed in the past. I apologize for the picture, which shows the title beautifully, but isn't for the book.

Murder in Mesopotamia    What title of a mystery could scream "archaeology in the Middle East" more loudly than M/M? Murder in Mesopotamia, was published in July 1936, which falls in the 1935-1937 period Max was working, with Agatha, in Chagar Bazar in Syria. It features Hercule Poirot and is set at an archaeological excavation in Iraq, but not Chagar Bazar, but back in Ur, since descriptive details derive from Agatha's visit to the Royal Cemetery at Ur in 1928 and/or 1930. It involves Louise Leidner, the archaeologist wife of archaeologist Dr Eric Leidner. Louise is a widow, had married Eric three years earlier, and is killed at the small house they shared at the site. But beyond the mystery itself, there is much else of interest here.

There is a linear link between M/M and M/OE. Even tho M/M was written afterwards, Agatha contrived to move it up to first position. We said above that, at the start of M/OE, Poirot had just solved a mystery in Aleppo dealing with the French army, a story that was just barely alluded to and not described. That was evidently because Agatha wanted to have a reason for him being in Aleppo where she started writing the novel, and then for his later being in Istanbul to take the OE. But when she wrote M/M, she fudged around that little detail. She pointed out that M/M didn't take place at the present time, but three years earlier, before M/OE. She then reasoned that Poirot had come to the Middle East initially to investigate the M/M mystery. Then, on his way home, he stopped in Aleppo for that non-event, then made his way to the OE for that mystery. With this explanation, she no longer needed that non-mystery in Aleppo, but it had already been written in stone.

It's said that, when Agatha killed off the widowed, then remarried, archaeologist Louise Leidner in M/M that she'd based the character on Katharine Woolley. On the surface, that seems like an extremely odd thing for her to have done, since, as we know, they'd been good friends; Katharine had coaxed Agatha from Baghdad to Ur, had visited Agatha in London, with Leonard, and had introduced her to Max. Why would Agatha do that to a friend?

That's because there's a great deal more to Katharine Woolley than meets the eye. As it turns out, Katharine presented a Dr Jekyll personality to Agatha, but a Mr Hyde personality to most others. Put simply charitably, to most people she was eccentric, but also demanding and hard to work with. Granted that she was a good archaeologist and extremely competent. And to be fair, she was a taskmaster, and authoritative women even today may have a difficult time supervising men, and nine decades ago, it wouldn't have been any easier. But it's more to it than that. Most of those who worked with and for her had unfavorable opinions of her. It's said that many of the workmen at the excavation at Ur were supposedly terrified of her. She was described as ruthless, calculating, and manipulative. A noted fellow female archaeologist even called her dangerous.

From when Max first started working at Ur in 1925, he'd had a good relationship with Katharine, but over time described her as having a "dominating and powerful personality". While Agatha and Katharine were good friends, their friendship subsided after she married Max, probably due to Max's developing poor opinion of Katharine. After Agatha and Max were married, both were unwelcome at Ur. It's been suggested that Katharine enjoyed the attention of being the only woman on site at Ur and wasn’t pleased when Max directed his attention to Agatha.

It then becomes easier to understand why Agatha based the M/M victim Louise Leidner on Katharine. Katharine had also been a widow when she came to work at Ur and married Leonard three years after arrival—there were many noticeable parallels between the two.

So, to be charitable, perhaps it was Katharine's unusual life that had that strange effect on her personality. I've wondered what Leonard thought about her behavior, but all I could find was the statement that "Leonard initially had a favorable opinion of his wife". His thoughts afterward remain unknown, but he was the only one in the position to take her medical condition(s) into consideration.

There are two interpretations as to what Katharine thought of her portrayal in M/M, a novel that has been described as "a study of the persona of Katharine Woolley". It was said that she was aware Leidner was based on her and apparently enjoyed the notoriety, despite the character's portrayal as being difficult. On the other hand, Max claimed that "Katharine did not recognize certain traits which might have been taken as applicable to herself, and took no umbrage". There's probably a bit of truth in each interpretation, but I go along with Max, that she didn't see herself as so many others saw her, and might have taken personality descriptions of her in M/M as gross exaggerations. It's a warning to us all. Do others see us in the same light as the personality we feel we're projecting publicly?

Death on the Nile    The third of Agatha's mystery novels in what might be considered a pseudo-trilogy is D/N. Yet a most interesting point about it is how it came about. Agatha wrote it in 1937 when she took a solo trip to Egypt, all the way south to Aswan. Tho she might not originally have intended to, she, rather unusually, stayed in Aswan almost a full year doing so. Let's first get some background on Egypt, then get to D/N itself.

Seeing Egypt in the 1930s    Now up to the last couple of days, I believed 1937 was her first trip to Egypt since she went with her mother in 1910. But then I just happily found two sources that tell me differently. In 1933, about halfway between their marriage in 1930 and her solo trip in 1937, both Agatha and Max went to Egypt and cruised on the Nile on the PS Sudan (PS=Passenger Ship). It was surely that first trip that inspired her to write D/N four years later.

TRAINS: Now I have no further details about how travel was done to and from Egypt on either trip, so we'll have to make an intelligent guess. With their commitments in Mesopotamia, it's unlikely either trip was by ship from the UK to Alexandria, then Cairo. Nor is it likely that it was directly by OE/Taurus from the UK to Cairo. It is reasonable to speculate that both trips to Egypt were side trips out of Mesopotamia, first as a couple from Tell Arpachiyah in 1933, and then Agatha solo in 1937, leaving Max in Tell Brak--as mentioned in the last posting. We'll again use this same Taurus Express Route Map (below) as before (Map by Matsukaze), but instead follow it on the Mediterranean Route down to Cairo.

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It's hard to calculate a Mosul to Cairo rail trip in the 1930s, since that wouldn't have been a common connection and the thrice weekly days of service on each branch don't match anyway, with 1-2 overnights in Aleppo needed in any case. So let's make it a side trip that we're taking connecting to the main trip in Aleppo.

The side trip would leave Mosul at 13:15 on T-Th-Sa, and we'd arrive overnight back to Aleppo at 6:59 in the morning on W-F-Su. Since we'd have a hotel stay no matter what, let's enjoy a few days' stay at the Hotel Baron.

In the last posting, we said the Taurus arrival from Istanbul in Aleppo would be at 20:12 on Day 5 out of London. We'll maintain a double tally. We'll leave Aleppo, our Day 1, on the evening of Day 5 out of London, so we'll write it as Day 1 (5L). But we have to schedule it carefully, because a precise reading of the Cook's timetable shows that just one of the three days a week it leaves actually offers Wagons-Lits thru service all the way to Cairo.

The Taurus leaves from Aleppo at 21:31 on T-Th-Sa--but only Sa works for us--with a 6:39 arrival in Tripoli on W-F-Su (we're Su) on Day 2 (6L). The Cook's timetable then says we go "By Motor", departing Tripoli promptly at 7:00; Beyrout [sic] arrive 9:30, depart 14:10, which seems like a long layover. Arrival in Haifa is 18:00.

But then, tho it's daily service that leaves Haifa at 7:00 on Day 3 (7L), we'll be glad we've chosen to be here on a M. There are two stops before arriving in Ludd (Lod, Lydda) at 10:46. A connection to Jerusalem is indicated in Cook's, but with no times given.

But then daily service ends, and the Taurus leaves Ludd, with a dining and sleeping car, only on M-W-F (so we're glad we made our choice to be here on a M) at 11:15; Gaza 13:21; Rafa 14:24; Kantara-East at 18:00. There's then a note in Cook's: "Passengers are conveyed across the Canal at Kantara by ferry (journey about 15 to 20 mins.)" Kantara-West departs at 19:27 for a Cairo arrival at 22:35. I therefore calculate the trip from Aleppo covers three days, which would be seven days out of London. So let's assume, since it's the most logical, that Max and Agatha did this or something very similar as a round trip in 1933, which Agatha repeated it solo in 1937.

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So here we are sitting in Cairo, and want to get to Aswan. We have two maps of Egypt and the Nile that supplement each other to guide us. The above one (click) emphasizes the Nile watershed. For orientation, find Alexandria, Cairo, Asyut (spelled here Assuit), Luxor, Aswan, the 1st Cataract, Aswan (Low) Dam, Aswan High Dam, Lake Nasser, Wadi Halfa, the road (and rail) route to Khartoum, and the 2nd to 6th cataracts.

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This yellow map (click) supplements the first, with more emphasis on monuments. Find the Pyramids at Giza, Saqqara, Luxor (the site of ancient Thebes), the Valley of the Kings, Elephantine Island, and Abu Simbel. Keep both maps available.

You'll remember that the Nile flows north. Why? Cairo and its region are at a lower elevation of 23 m (75 ft), and has therefore always been referred to as Lower Egypt, and Aswan and its region are at a higher elevation of 194 m (636 ft), making that Upper Egypt, all of which explains the northward, downhill flow of the Nile.

So, still sitting here in Cairo, how do we travel? By overnight train round trip? By boat round trip? One of each? On our 1965 Grand Mediterranean Circuit trip, visiting Egypt on a quick five-night guided tour off the Hellas, Beverly and I, as reported earlier, were given the train route each way. In the last posting I wrote: My Cook's reprinted August 1939 guide says there were/are two trains, both overnight, on the Nile Line. Southbound they were: Cairo 19:50-Aswan 10:25, which I believe is the one we took, and Cairo 22:50-Aswan 16:50. I now think I was right. I find, in the front of Cook's, a solo entry for the STAR OF EGYPT EXPRESS, leaving Cairo at 19:30, stopping in Asyut (spelled there Assiut) from 0:55-1:02 and at Luxor from 6:20-6:30, arriving in Aswan (spelled Assuan) at 10:10 (and adjacent Shellal at 10:30, the last stop—more later). The return is listed as Aswan 16:00 to Cairo 7:30. With this prestigious name, this is the one the tour from the ship must have had us booked on. The old Cook's said the train ran "Winter only", which would have perhaps suited travel patterns in the 1930s. But Beverly and I were there in the horrible, hellish summertime (see below) and the train was indeed running, again perhaps based on altered, modern tourist year-round travel patterns.

SHIPS: We've found as a fact that Agatha & Max sailed the Nile on the PS Sudan in 1933. I would guess round trip, but if they went one way, they could have taken the train back. I don't know if Agatha in 1937 repeated that sailing, but if she was planning on writing something called D/N, it's a good guess she was. Her trip home could have been either way.

Way back on page 370, the Cook's August 1939 guide actually does list Nile steamer sailings for the winter season, which is apparently the only time they went back then, the rest of the year being too hot for tourism. There were 14 sailings leaving roughly weekly from Dec 6 to Mar 6 on four different ships, the Arabia, Egypt, Thebes, and Sudan. (I've since learned that the entire fleet was run by Thomas Cook! No wonder they were listed in the Cook's timetable!) The Sudan was scheduled to sail three times a winter, so I'll pick one of those dates as an example. The Sudan's first sailing of the season was Voyage 6 on January 10, leaving Cairo at 10 AM. It arrived in Asyut, somewhat vaguely "in the morning" of the 13th, and in Luxor "in the morning" of the 16th. It seemed to spend the 17th in Luxor, since it sailed "at dawn" on the 18th, arriving in Aswan "in the afternoon" of the 19th. The 20th was spent in Aswan, and "at dawn" on the 21st, the Sudan returned, making the same stops again, with an arrival in Cairo in the morning of the 30th. It was then about ten days Cairo to Aswan, and roughly double that round trip. My guess would be for a round trip for Max & Agatha, and might assume Agatha could have chosen the Sudan again for her solo trip out of nostalgia, at least southbound to write D/N, but that's again speculation.

PS Sudan    To my great surprise, the PS Sudan (Photo by Fig wright), a side-wheel paddle steamer, is still sailing today! Here she is on the Nile at Luxor in 2011--click to inspect her name on the paddlewheel. Along with the PS Arabia, she was one of the largest river steamers in the Cook fleet.

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This is an undated period picture of the Sudan showing it as being a Cook ship back in the day. It was built in 1885 as a gift for the Egyptian royal family and launched as a cruise vessel in 1921. It retains the Belle Époque grace that inspired Christie to write D/N. The ship still plies the Nile on five-night cruises that launch from either Luxor or Aswan. I suppose it will be no surprise that one of the larger suites, on the starboard side of the prow on the upper deck, is called the Agatha Christie Suite, with a panoramic view of the Nile from its bay windows. Adjoining it is one of the smaller cabins, is the Hercule Poirot Cabin. Its two windows look over the deck passageway to the Nile. And dependably, we have a YouTube video (2:50) of the PS Sudan sailing between Luxor and Aswan.

Seeing Egypt in 1965    I refer back here to 2021/2 and my description of the Grand Mediterranean Circuit Beverly and I took in 1965. I need to clarify further the events in Egypt, partially to compare them to what Agatha might have done and seen, but also for my own edification. Travel that Beverly and I planned on our own remains clear in my mind. But details of travel that others planned for us/me in a number of cases, tho well remembered, has been unclear for decades. I'll cite as one example my recent discussion of my 2005 trip across Siberia on the Golden Eagle (2020/7), where only when reviewing those events online in the present did all of what we did actually become crystal clear. A second example will be when I discuss in an upcoming posting the trip Beverly and I took in 2002 on the VSOE Cruise Train using vintage OE carriages. A delight, but only reviewing the facts recently have I found a number of surprising revelations. And so, going back still further (56 years!), to 1965, when the Hellas arranged a five-night guided tour of Egypt for us that they planned, I remember well what we saw, but have been confused as to what was where. Where was Luxor as compared to Aswan? Why does Aswan have two dams? Just where was the Valley of the Kings? Did we get to see Abu Simbel, or do I just remember it from reading about its rescue in the newspapers? The only travel arrangements I remember in detail is that we went from Lower to Upper Egypt by train, and it was the hottest weather I've ever experienced. Therefore, now that I've reviewed our travel diary and looked at some maps and pictures, does it all fall into place. And to some extent I can compare my experience with Agatha's.

I've been confused about the overnight stays. I now remember how cleverly they worked that out. In five nights, we stayed in only two hotels, one night each—it's all coming back to me. Here's the quick summary from July 31 to August 4:

Here are more specifics about that trip.

JULY31: We docked and visited Alexandria, then took the three-hour bus ride to Cairo.
AUGUST 1: In Cairo, we took a city tour that included the Egyptian Museum with the King Tut discoveries, including his famous Gold Funerary Mask (Photo by Roland Unger). It dates from c1327 BCE, represents the likeness of Osiris, the God of the Afterlife, is 54 cm (1.8 ft) tall, and weighs over 10 kg (22 lb). We then took the overnight train to Aswan.
AUGUST 2: We arrived in Aswan. We were first taken to a granite quarry from which the 11 obelisks of ancient Egypt were taken. The 12th was never finished and is still lying in the quarry. We went to see the old dam . . . and then . . . the new dam. After lunch we rode in a felucca . . . to Elephantine Island to see the Nilometer, used by the Pharaohs, Greeks, Romans, and finally into the 1800s. We left for Luxor . . . I don't remember how we got to Luxor, but probably by bus.

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Let me elaborate on those notes with additional information I've been reviewing. Keep the above map of Aswan (click) for later discussion of Agatha. At the time, I quite stupidly, never had any maps of these places, or previously studied knowledge of what there was so see, and so we just followed the guide like sheep. It's only now that I can place things I saw. You see the rail station we arrived at from the north. Our first diary entry appears here as the "unfinished obelisk". We'll see where the dams are later on another map. A felucca (click) is a traditional wooden sailboat common on the Nile (Photo by Marc Ryckaert). This is the first of two times we sailed—just a bit—on the Nile—the other was a ferry in Luxor.

I was aware of the famous Elephantine Island in the past. But I always knew "elephantine" as an adjective meaning "massive, ponderous", like an elephant. Only now, to my shock, do I find that the island name "Elephantine" rhymes with "tiny". Who knew? The name is apparently of Greek origin: Ἐλεφαντίνη / Elefantíne. The island may have received its Greek name after its shape, similar to an elephant tusk (see map), or from the large, rounded rocks along its banks resembling elephants (Photo by Marc Ryckaert). Do click to be amazed at the ancient hieroglyphs on these "elephantine" rocks (dual meaning). They date from Egypt's Seventeenth Dynasty, which ran from 1580 to 1550 BCE. Also note the various water marks the Nile has made.

On the map, find on the island the above-mentioned Nilometer (rhymes with "speedometer"). I understand there are still several on the river. One Nilometer design, the corridor design, comprises a flight of stone stairs descending the corridor and leading down into the water, with depth markings along the walls. The best known example of this kind, and one of the oldest Nilometers, is on Elephantine where a stairway of 52 steps (Photo by Hajor) leads down to a doorway at the Nile with the Nilometer (Photo by Olaf Tausch). It was last reconstructed in Roman times and was still in use as late as the 19C CE. The markings include Arabic, Roman, and hieroglyphic numerals. In the 20C, the Nile's annual inundation was first greatly reduced, and then eliminated entirely, with the construction of the Aswan dams. The Aswan High Dam has had the effect of rendering the Nilometer obsolete.

AUGUST 3: We toured Luxor. This morning we took a ferry to the west bank of the Nile, the former necropolis of the ancient city of Thebes. Our first stop was at the Colossi of Memnon, the only remains of a temple. We then went to Queen Hatshepsut's funeral temple [and] the Valley of the Kings, where we visited the tombs of Tutankhamon (18th dynasty and smallest of the tombs), Seti I (19th dynasty) and Rameses IX (20th dynasty). In the late afternoon we took a carriage ride to Karnak . . . At the temple of Luxor we saw the twin to the obelisk in Paris. After dinner we boarded our night train for Cairo.

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Note both sides of the Nile on the above map as I elaborate on the diary notes. The modern city of Luxor, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, is the site of the ancient city called Thebes by the Greeks, the ancient capital of Upper Egypt. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-air museum", since lying within the city are the ruins of the temple complexes of Luxor and of Karnak. Immediately opposite, across the Nile, lie the monuments, temples and tombs of the west bank Necropolis of what was Thebes on the east bank, which includes the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. A necropolis (from Ancient Greek νεκρόπολις--nekro[s] "corpse" + polis "city"--is a cemetery, but in this case, for the royalty from Thebes.

Now follow on the map. This ferry was our second (short) sailing on the Nile. The Colossi of Memnon (Photo by MusikAnimal) are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III of the 18th Dynasty. The statues have stood here since 1350 BCE. Including the platforms, the colossi reach a towering 18m (60 ft) in height, weigh about 720 tons each, and are about 15 m (50 ft) apart. Both statues are quite damaged, with upper features unrecognizable. Their original function was to guard the entrance of Amenhotep's mortuary temple, which is now virtually gone. That might imply they did a bad job of guarding, but actually it was due to centuries of Nile flooding. And never forget—later dignitaries often purloined stones from older structures. That's why the Coliseum in Rome is missing a huge swath.

Queen Hatshepsut was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, who died in 1458 BCE. In the Valley of the Queens (see map) is Queen Hatshepsut's mortuary temple (Photo by Andrea Piroddi), noted for its colonnades (click), which have been extensively restored. A more distant view shows the height of the cliffs beyond (Photo by © Ad Meskens/Wikimedia Commons).

I certainly remember being in the necropolis, and, on seeing these pictures of the Colossi and Hatshepsut's temple, those are coming back to me. But for the life of me, I don’t remember anything in the Valley of the Kings, which is odd, since you'd think the ultra-famous King Tut's tomb would be memorable. Needless to say, Seti I and Rameses IX are even less memorable, especially with so much similarity between these ruined structures. And also, let's distinguish between more visible mortuary temples outdoors, eminently memorable, and dark tombs, eminently forgettable. For the record, I'll show these pictures I've found. This interesting view in the Valley of the Kings shows the entrances to two tombs (Photo by Peter J Bubenik). I'm told that the upper tomb entrance that directly faces the camera is that of Rameses VI (not Rameses IX that we supposedly saw). But in front of it on the right, half-hidden by the mountain, is the entrance to the tomb of Tutankhamun. I assume we must have gone inside. This is an interior view of Tut's tomb, which we said was the smallest. The picture caption points out that the wall decorations are modest in comparison with others in the Valley of the Kings. This is another view that includes a burial mask (Both Photos by EditorfromMars).

I do not remember taking a carriage ride, but Karnak is a temple complex just at the edge of Luxor, with much of it in ruins. Construction started around 2000-1700 BCE and ran into around 305-30 BCE. It's the second most visited site in Egypt after only the Pyramids at Giza. As I review pictures of it, I remember a lot of columns, so that would have been the Great Hypostyle Hall, whose roof, now gone, was supported by 134 columns in 16 rows. (I find that hypostyle means exactly that, a roof supported by many columns.) The so-called papyrus columns are based on the papyrus plant, and their capitals are either open or closed. These are closed capitals (Photo by Djehouty) on columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall (picture fingers pursed together) and these are open capitals--like splayed fingers (Photo by Hamerani). Compare them with the closed ones visible in the next row.

The Luxor temple complex dates from c 1400 BCE. I remember it best for its massive entrance (click), which consists of a huge pylon, defined as an ancient Egyptian gateway building in the form of a truncated (topless) pyramid (Photo by © Ad Meskens/Wikimedia Commons). Click to inspect the large statues guarding the colonnaded interior, and most notably, the large obelisk. As mentioned above, it used to be one of a pair of obelisks here, as this 1832 sketch shows, but the (shorter) one on the right was given to France by the ruler of Ottoman Egypt in 1833 and is now in Paris in the center of the Place de la Concorde, known as the Obélisque de Louxor (Photo by Dennis Jarvis)—click for details. The obelisks are over three millennia old, as is Luxor temple.

AUGUST 4: The train arrived at Cairo, were we did not stay this time, since we were bused off to Saqqara, then Giza. We went 20 km (12 mi) south of Cairo to the site of Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt, to visit the necropolis of Memphis and its six-level Step Pyramid of Saqqara (Photo by Charles J Sharp), the oldest in Egypt, dating from c 2700 BCE (see yellow map). I remember its unusual stepped shape very well, despite the fact that it looked fuzzy without my glasses.

We then went to Giza, the second largest city in Egypt after Cairo (but part of metropolitan Cairo), and to the Giza Plateau, which is the site of the Pyramids and Sphinx, 17 km (10.6 mi) southwest across the Nile from Cairo (see yellow map). We had lunch at the Mena House Hotel in Giza facing the pyramids [then] took a camel ride to the Sphinx. We then went up to the pyramids and "crawled" up the narrow passage to the funeral chamber of the Great Pyramid of Cheops (2690 BCE). Afterward we took the bus back to the ship in Alexandria for the night.

Again, some elaboration. The famous Mena House Hotel today is the Marriott Mena House. It faces due south onto the two biggest pyramids. It had been an 1869 hunting lodge that was converted into a hotel in 1886. It's named for the founder of the first Egyptian dynasty, Mena or King Menes. Many celebrities have stayed here: Arthur Conan Doyle, Charlie Chaplin and other entertainers. Winston Churchill stayed here for the November 1943 Cairo Conference with Dwight Eisenhower and Chiang Kai-shek. The room he stayed in is now the Churchill Suite. Think richly carved screens, a living room, separate dining room, and stupendous terrace looking onto the pyramids. And of course, Agatha Christie stayed here as well—my guess, on her solo trip in 1937.

This is the south view I remember so well while dining at Mena House (Photo by Paul Mannix). It's an ideal view, since you're so close to the two biggest structures on the plateau. The third pyramid is hidden behind the right one and the Sphinx is well behind the left one, and is best viewed up close. This 2008 aerial view (Photo by Robster1983) looks east, so the Mena House would have to be off near that greenery to the left. The plateau is obvious (more so than when I was there!) and Gaza city sprawls off toward Cairo. The third pyramid does show up, but it's much smaller than the two main ones. The Sphinx should be to the east—it could be what we're seeing to the left of the top of the middle pyramid. I hope this map helps and doesn't confuse (Map by MesserWoland), since now north is at the top. Mena House would be somewhere top center, nicely facing the two big pyramids. The small third pyramid is lower left, and the Sphinx is to the right of the middle pyramid. I'll mention once again that, tho there are three larger pyramids (and some tinier ones) in Giza, one hears next to nothing about the smaller third one. My memory of the Pyramids is of the two larger ones, and specifically the marvelous view looking due south at them across the road from Mena House.

As our notes say, we then had that "unfortunate" camel ride over to the Sphinx, the first time I'd ever ridden an animal of any sort. If you look back at 2017/15, you'll find the summary of the five animal rides I've taken over the years, listed in order of enjoyment: camel, elephant, mule, horse, camel. The second camel ride was the glorious one at sunset in the Australian Outback. The first one was this one in Giza. Worst about it was that the camel's owner walked along my right leg, kept on tugging at my pants, and asking for a baksheesh (tip). I saw the same was happening to Beverly on the camel in front of me. I knew the tour had paid these people well, and they had no right to disturb our trip. Added to that was the heat, and my lack of glasses for the day. I'm so glad I had so much a better camel experience in Australia. These are some tourists being touristy with Giza camels, as we had been (Photo by Jerome Bon).

And so we arrived on camelback (!) at the Sphinx, also called the Great Sphinx, since there are others, elsewhere (Photo by Barcex). It's long since missing its nose and tubular chin-beard (click). It's the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt, a limestone statue facing directly west to east, of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle. A sphinx can have the head of a human (as this does), a falcon, a cat, or a sheep. The view held today is that the Great Sphinx was built c2500 BCE for the pharaoh Khafre, the builder of the second pyramid at Giza, and so the face of the Sphinx is generally believed to represent Khafre. At this angle, the Great Pyramid is behind the head, while the second pyramid, that of Khafre, can be spotted to the left. The Sphinx is 20 m (66 ft) tall, 73 m (240 ft) long from paw to tail, and 19m (62 ft) wide at the rear end. Now that it's possible to see the entirety of the Great Sphinx, it's hard to imagine that, when archaeologists first came across it in the 19C, it was largely buried in sand. This picture was taken c1878 when it had been only partially excavated. The paws are only barely visible, and the whole rear end is still underground. The view, however, is nicely placed between the two main pyramids.

We then returned to the Great Pyramid (of Giza), which, along with the Sphinx, is the main attraction here. As our map shows us, it's more accurately called the Pyramid of Khufu, tho many have heard it called the Pyramid of Cheops, but that's the Greek name of the pharaoh believed to have been buried here. The Pyramid of Khufu (Photo by Nina at the Norwegian bokmål language Wikipedia) is the oldest and largest of the three Giza pyramids. It's also the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. It was built as a tomb for the pharaoh Khufu over a 20-year period concluding c2560 BC. Initially standing at 146.5 m (481 ft), the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years.

It consists of 2.3 million blocks of granite—with some limestone blocks remaining--and was originally covered by limestone stones that formed a smooth outer surface. What is seen today is primarily the underlying core structure. So despite its original height, without the limestone outer surface, today it's only 138.8 m (455 ft) tall.

Back to the Great Pyramid. I do remember visiting its interior, and that the passageway getting there was cramped. But only doing present research is it all coming back to me, and I do realize why we wrote in the diary that we "crawled" to the funeral chamber. That's only a slight exaggeration. This sketch shows what my current review found.

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First note the difference in size of the three, and how only the second pyramid is shown to have its limestone covering at the top. But let's concentrate on the Great Pyramid ("Cheops"). There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber (C) is cut into the bedrock on which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The so-called Queen's Chamber (D) and King's Chamber (F) are higher up within the pyramid structure. It's believed that the unfinished Old Tomb (or Lower) Chamber was intended to be the original burial chamber, but Pharaoh Khufu later changed his mind and wanted it to be higher up in the pyramid.

The original entrance to the pyramid is at (B), but the present entrance that visitors use, at (A), is what was originally called the Robbers' Entrance (!) and was later expanded. Here they are, the blocked-off original entrance above (click), and the modern entrance below, with the seated guard in white (Photo by Hajotthu). And here's the lineup (click) for the next tour (Photo by kallerna).

Back to the sketch. There's a first corridor running 28.2 m (93 ft), after which, one reaches the Ascending Passage, which is 39.3 m (129 ft) long. Fair enough. I remembered that the passageway was small, but I still didn't really remember why Beverly and I decided to write in our diary that we "crawled" up the narrow passage. But I do now. I see that the passage is an amazingly petite 0.96 (3.1 ft) high and 1.04 m (3.4 ft) wide! And after that, the same-sized Ascending Passage is a ramp that slopes upward at about 26° (Both Photos by Jon Bodsworth) to reach the Grand Gallery (E). No wonder the floor treads and banisters were added going uphill like this. Let's call the dimensions 1 m square or 3 ft square. Crawl indeed! No claustrophobics need apply! But of course it was meant for a short-term use—build it, bury the Pharaoh, and that's it. They never figured it would be opened for visitors to tramp thru three millennia later!

At the start of the Grand Gallery there is the Horizontal Passage leading to the Queen's Chamber (D). The Grand Gallery continues the slope of the Ascending Passage towards the King's Chamber (F), a rise of 21 m (69 ft). Tho still cramped, the Grand Gallery, 46.68 m (153.1 ft) long, is more spacious at 8.6 m (28 ft) high and 2.06 m (6.8 ft) wide, tho the walls taper upwards seven times, so, at the top, the Grand Gallery is only 1.04 m (3.4 ft) wide. I really have no recollection of just what it looked like inside, just the cramped ascent. But this tiny view of the Grand Gallery (Photo by Pprevos) brings out that it's still quite narrow, while this next view shows more of the ramps and stepped walls (Photo by Jon Bodsworth).

After my fuzzy views of Giza, the guide got my repaired glasses back as we boarded the bus back to the ship in Alexandria.

It just goes to show that some things, like the Sphinx, or the exterior of the Pyramids, are visually very memorable, while other things, like being within the Great Pyramid or at King Tut's tomb, are not very visual. What counts then is, to use the Latin phrase I coined, HIC LOCUS EST, or This is the Spot—in other words, the knowledge, thrill, and memory of having enjoyed being in a place without necessarily much actual visualization of that place, particularly of interiors.

Agatha in Egypt    OK, we've been away from Agatha for a while, so now that we have a lot more background on Egypt, let's get back to her. We can put aside the trip both Max and Agatha took in 1933, since we've reviewed the PS Sudan, and that's all we're sure of. So we'll concentrate now on 1937 and Agatha's solo trip. We're assuming both rail 'n' sail--the Taurus Express from Aleppo to Cairo, and the PS Sudan again up the Nile for ten days from Cairo to Aswan.

While we don't know the exact month in 1937 Agatha arrived (but probably early on), we do know exactly where she installed herself and stayed for her near-year in Aswan—the historic Old Cataract Hotel, now known as the Sofitel Legend Old Cataract Hotel. (Are there any private hotels left today? Marriott has the Mena House, and Sofitel is here, rather unusually adding "Legend" to the name.)

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I'm repeating above our Aswan map, in case you didn't retain it. Find the listing for "Hotel Cataract", and you'll see how nicely it's located on the Nile adjacent to Elephantine Island. The second link shows a very nice high-level view looking north, downriver, past Elephantine Island--I believe the Nilometer is just a bit downstream. Note at the hotel's roof level the tiny green sign with the hotel name. You also can see where the present-day First Cataract of the Nile is (more later) just a bit upstream from the hotel that refers to it.

The Old Cataract Hotel was built in 1899 by Thomas Cook & Sons, so we see that they ran hotels here as well as the steamboat concession. It's a historic, British colonial-era resort with Moorish-style architecture, and even tho it's been entirely refurbished since Christie’s day, I've read that it still has 1930s glamour. Again, it's not known if she planned at the beginning to stay a year, or if that's just how it worked out.

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Naturally, the hotel has an Agatha Christie Suite (first link), which can be rented, but for megabucks. I know it's just one floor below the top floor, and checking that out on the photo places it in the middle level. The views of the suite I saw online were lush, and typical of the 1930s, but I thought the veranda off the suite with her view of the Nile was of interest (second link). I don't usually present nighttime views, but it does seem that's Elephantine Island across the water.

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Her wicker chair and desk (above) are not in the suite, but in a special roped-off display in the foyer. One is meant to imagine Christie pensively settling into her wicker chair on the veranda overlooking the Nile for inspiration.

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The sign on the desk says that D/N was written at this simple mahogany desk from her suite on the 2nd floor. The wicker rocking chair beside it was the one where she would sit and contemplate the next chapters of her book whilst looking at the view before her. It's also worth noting that, not only did she write D/N at the hotel, she also set its opening scenes at the Old Cataract: this is where the characters assemble before embarking on their ill-fated Nile cruise. In addition, the 1978 movie of the novel was also partially filmed at the hotel.

But she wasn't the only celebrity to stay here. Winston Churchill was a frequent visitor, and on the top floor, above Agatha's suite, is the equally very pricey Winston Churchill Suite.

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And this is his view upstream, which would also be Agatha's view in the daytime. Now we said that both of them visited the Mena House, she six years before he did. But apart from them both having suites at the Old Cataract, they actually met here too.

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They regularly crossed paths while she was a guest and the above picture of the two of them hangs in the Churchill Suite—he's to the left of center and she's to the right.

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Now it's reasonable to assume that during her year here, after visiting Cairo and Giza, she visited most if not all of the sights in and around Aswan and Luxor, most assuredly Abu Simbel (which I never saw), since she wrote it into D/N as a key event. The best proof I can find is this undated photo of Agatha Christie somewhere in Egypt. Since she's solo, it's reasonable to think it's 1937, and given the artifacts, it might be in or near Luxor.

Sailing South of Aswan    Everything we've discussed so far about Egypt has been from Lower Egypt upstream as far as Aswan, but not any further. But we need to go a little further south. For this we'll again need our two maps at the beginning of the D/N section, the watershed map and the yellow monuments map. Take another look at them, altho we'll supplement them shortly with more detailed maps. On the watershed map, we had said to find "the 1st Cataract, Aswan (Low) Dam, Aswan High Dam, Lake Nasser, Wadi Halfa, the road (and rail) route to Khartoum, and the 2nd to 6th cataracts", and on the yellow monument map at the bottom of Lake Nasser is Abu Simbel. Once you're re-oriented, turn your attention to these more detailed maps showing the area south of Aswan.

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This new first map, which we'll call the beige map, shows the area directly adjacent to Aswan on its south side. The gold map, while still showing the whole Nile, makes it easier to find the cataracts. Let's start close to Aswan on the beige map with the dams.

The Nile has historically been known for its floods, but they were temperamental. In good years they brought sediment to enrich the adjacent fields for agriculture, in bad years they flooded and ruined the fields. For that reason, the British built the Aswan (Low) Dam between 1899 and 1902, at which time it was the largest masonry dam in the world. It was built on the site of the First Cataract of the Nile, which is why the present First Cataract has been moved a bit downstream, closer to Elephantine Island. The Low Dam (Photo by Karelj) had to be raised twice, in 1907-1912 and again in 1929–1933. This was still not adequate, which led to the construction in 1960-1970 of the Aswan High Dam 6 km (3.7 mi) upstream (see beige map). The High Dam totally superseded the Low Dam. As we said, with the Nile fluctuations under control, the Nilometer was made obsolete. The High Dam is a rock-filled embankment dam, 4 km (2.5 mi) long and 111 m (364 ft) high. The base is 980 m (3,220 ft) wide and the crest is 40 m (130 ft) wide. This eastward view looks over the Aswan High Dam (Photo by Hajor) with Lake Nasser on the right and the downstream Nile on the left.

The Low Dam had started creating a reservoir, which the High Dam vastly extended, and so this now widened stretch of the Nile is what is today called Lake Nasser (or Lake Nubia in Sudan where the southern end runs into that country). The reservoir is 500 km (310 mi) long and 35 km (22 mi) at its widest. Only in 1976, six years after the High Dam was completed, did the reservoir reach its full capacity. It runs from Aswan (Shellal) to Wadi Halfa, a village that had to be relocated, as was the case with numerous monuments, most notably Abu Simbel.

The Nile never has been an evenly flowing river, and has always been known for its cataracts. The Cataracts of the Nile are six areas of rapids between Aswan and Khartoum, where the surface of the water is broken by many small boulders and stones jutting out of the river bed, as well as many rocky islets. In some places, these stretches are punctuated by whitewater, while at others the water flow is smoother, but still shallow. The first one is in Aswan, but was moved a bit downstream when the Old Aswan Dam was built in its place. It would seem to me that one reason for Aswan developing where it did was because it might have served as a portage area past the original First Cataract, which prevented shipping from going further upstream, putting Aswan at the southern end of the then navigable Nile, reaching north to Cairo and the Mediterranean.

The remaining five cataracts are in Sudan, as two of our maps indicate. However, as Lake Nasser (Lake Nubia) stretched further south, the Second Cataract (also known as the Great Cataract) is now also submerged.

Abu Simbel    I'd been doubtful over the years if we'd visited Abu Simbel. I just checked the diary, and we hadn't, and I also see that we couldn't possibly have as we didn't even spend a night in Aswan. In addition, Abu Simbel is a long 3h25 drive south of Aswan, while Luxor is 3h15 drive north, and to the north is the drive we took. Distances in Egypt can be deceiving. But having been at the site of the High Dam, knowing about the flooding of monuments Lake Nasser had done, and reading all the news about moving Abu Simbel and the other monuments, all ran together in my mind and created a familiarity with the subject, which in turn created the question in my mind if we'd been there—but no. It just feels like it.

Abu Simbel itself is a small village on the west bank of Lake Nasser. But near it are the Abu Simbel Temples, which are two massive rock-cut temples near the border with Sudan, about 230 km (140 mi) southwest of Aswan by boat—as in D/N--and (about 300 km [190 mi] by road, by tour bus). Rock-cut architecture is the creation of monuments by excavating solid rock where it naturally occurs. In other words, you don't move a statue or building materials to the site, you carve them out of the living rock. The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside during the reign of the Rameses II. The statues depicted are of Rameses II and his chief wife, Nefertari. Construction of the temple complex ran for about 20 years, from about 1264-1244 BCE.

Because of the growing height of Lake Nasser, the massive Abu Simbel complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968 on an artificial hill high above the reservoir to avoid its being submerged under water. The project was carried out as part of the UNESCO Nubian Salvage Campaign. If the original construction in living rock amazes, the removal of that rock and bringing it to higher ground should amaze just as much.

In a desert climate, over millennia, sand will cover forgotten monuments, no matter how spectacular they originally might have appeared. We just saw how the Great Sphinx had been largely covered by sand. No less the Abu Simbel site. And incredibly, as with the Sphinx, mid-19C photos exist! There are four colossi of Rameses II in the façade of his temple, the larger one. This is the head of the right-hand colossus taken by a French photographer in 1850, showing the statue in sand up to the lips and one ear. Click for details, including of the person who found a perch on the crown, shown for comparison of size. Four years later, an American photographer visited the site in 1854 and took a picture of as much of the entire façade as was exposed, showing parts of four colossi.

The same photographer in 1854 took this picture of the left-hand side of the Small Temple--it's twice as wide as shown, with six figures. The rubble is obvious, and was not any better in this last historic picture from the first quarter of the 20C. However, the two people give a size of the scale of the façade.

Before we continue, it's worth wondering why Rameses II built these two temples, one for himself, the smaller one for his chief wife. But let's not let the age of the temples detour our thinking from that it was a supreme act of male ego. He wanted to honor himself (and his wife) by placing himself among the Egyptian deities. It was also meant to commemorate his victory in a battle (that of Kadesh, way up in Syria!). But I find that the most interesting reason was to impress. And not just anybody, particularly the Nubians.

Ancient Nubia was the area of the Nile between the first cataract (at today's Aswan) and Kartoum, which is the confluence of the White Nile and Blue Nile (confirm this on the gold map). But as Egypt was expanding to the south, it kept on taking over bits and pieces of northern Nubia, which explains why Lake Nasser, where it runs into Sudan is called Lake Nubia. He not only wanted to impress the might of Egypt on the Nubians, he wanted to force Egypt's religion on them. That explains why a large structure such as Abu Simbel is so remote from the rest of the large sights of Egypt. Rameses II was saying to the Nubians: we're here!

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But these huge temples had to be moved uphill to save them from ending up underwater, and the above drawing shows both locations. We also have a photo of a scale model of the area (Photo by Zureks). Since I've never been there, it clears it up for me, enough to be able to discuss it. We see the temples in their original location, with the site submerged under reservoir water since the 1970s, and we see the rescued and relocated temples in their new higher sites. Between 1964 and 1968, the entire site was carefully cut into large blocks (up to 30 tons, averaging 20 tons), dismantled, lifted and reassembled in a new location 65 m (213 ft) higher and 200 m (656 ft) back from the river, in one of the greatest challenges of archaeological engineering in history. We'll use this one picture of the transitional stage, taken in 1967 (Photo by Per-Olow Anderson). We see the two leftmost colossi with Ramses' face on the second one being lifted into place. The face alone weighs 19.6 metric tons (21.6 short tons). The mouth is 108 cm (42.5 in) wide. This a detail of one of the four heads of Rameses II (Photo by Hajor). It clearly shows the tubular chin-beard typical of pharaohs, but that is today missing on the face of Khafre on the Great Sphinx. He's wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt (more below).

When completed, this is how the façade of the Great Temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbel looked (Photo by Przemyslaw Idzkiewicz). Compare it with the historic photos. The façade is 33 m (108 ft) high and 38 m (125 ft) wide. The single entrance to the temple is flanked by four colossal, 20 m (66 ft) statues, each representing Rameses II seated on a throne and wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The statue to the immediate left of the entrance was damaged in a long-ago earthquake, causing the head and torso to fall away. These fallen pieces were not restored to the statue during the relocation but placed at the statue's feet in the positions originally found, since the face was missing anyway, as can be seen here.

Art can be used in different ways, some representational (picture Renoir's figures), some non-representational (picture Picasso's figures). But Egyptian art is non-representational in a rather unique way, as shown by the statuary here, where importance is shown by size. Rameses II is important—and huge. His family is MUCH less important, and appears in miniscule size. This is one of his sons, also called Rameses (Photo by Hedwig Storch). He appears doll-like, not any taller than ankle-height of Rameses II. Also near the legs of the colossi are more tiny figures, depicting his chief wife, Nefertari, his queen mother, his first two sons (including little Rameses), and his first six daughters.

The temple of Hathor and Nefertari, also known as the Small Temple, was built about 100 m (330 ft) northeast of the temple of Rameses II, and that location has been replicated. This is a panorama (click) of the two temples (Photo by Than217), showing the four colossi, then the six colossi. The Small Temple was dedicated to the goddess Hathor, who was a major goddess in the Egyptian religion with a variety of roles, and to Rameses II's chief wife, Nefertari. She is one of the best known Egyptian queens, among such women as Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and Hatshepsut, and one of the most prominent of those not known to have reigned in her own right.

This is the façade of the Small Temple (click)—compare it with the historic photos (Photo by Than217). It's decorated with three colossi on each side of the entrance, slightly more than 10 m (33 ft) high. Each grouping includes Nefertari in the center with two statues of Rameses II flanking her. Remarkably, this is one of very few instances in Egyptian art where the statues of the king and his queen have equal size. As we've seen, usually the queens are among other doll-size family members. Perhaps it's a reflection of Nefertari's importance.

Egyptian Crowns    I've now learned there are a number of crowns the pharaohs wore. I'll mention three that seem most significant. This is the white crown of Upper Egypt. This is the red crown of Lower Egypt (Both Drawings by kompak). And this is the double crown symbolizing dominion over both Upper and Lower Egypt (Drawing by Jeff Dahl). As to the colors mentioned, if the colors were on statues (painted statues were very common all over the ancient world), they may have worn away, so do keep that in mind. So far, so good. But here are some details I'm not totally sure of.

The word "asp" is a crossword puzzle favorite, coming up all the time. It turns out it's the modern English form of the Greek word "aspis," which in antiquity referred to any one of several venomous snake species found in the Nile region. It is believed that aspis referred to what is now known as the Egyptian cobra, so "asp" is apparently really only relegated only to crossword puzzles and to stories about Cleopatra, altho I've also learned that she committed suicide by poison, and not being bitten by an asp. Oh, well.

I've also come across the word uraeus (yu.RI.is), which describes the stylized, upright form of a rearing, striking Egyptian cobra (asp). In ancient Egypt it was used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity, and divine authority.

Now back to the double crown. It is said that it bore two animal emblems. The uraeus (striking cobra), which symbolized the Lower Egyptian goddess Wadjet, and an Egyptian vulture representing the Upper Egyptian goddess Nekhbet. Now so you don't have to go scrolling back, I'll repeat here from above the picture of King Tut's Gold Funerary Mask (Photo by Roland Unger). Tut is wearing a head cloth covering most of his head and shoulders, but click to concentrate on the royal insignia on his forehead. I see a striking cobra (uraeus) on the right and a vulture on the left. Great, the research panned out. This is the best example of a double crown I can find.

My problem is, I can't always verify this on the statues. Look again at the detail we just saw of Rameses II (Photo by Hajor). This is supposedly a double crown, yet I see no vulture, but perhaps that "coat hook" at the top is a stylized striking cobra. We'll have to assume that iconography might have changed over the centuries. Finally, look again at—and click on--the façade of the Small Temple (Photo by Than217). In the left grouping, Rameses II is wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt. In the right grouping, he's NOT wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt but rather the double crown symbolizing dominion over both. Tho quite hard to see, perhaps the distinction is seen best in the two statues on either side of the entrance—but still, no vulture.

Other Saved Monuments    22 monuments and architectural complexes that were threatened by flooding from Lake Nasser, including the Abu Simbel temples, were preserved by moving them above the shores of the lake under the UNESCO Nubia Campaign. A number of temples and other artifacts were moved to the garden area of the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum.

Four temples were given to countries who had assisted in the works, one to Madrid, one to Turin, one to Leiden (Netherlands), and as New Yorkers are well aware, the Temple of Dendur went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.

This is a drawing made during an expedition in 1819 of the sandstone Temple of Dendur and its gate, in its original location, about 80 km (50 m) south of Aswan. It had been built around 15 BCE. It was dismantled and removed from its original location back in 1963, then later shipped to New York and moved to the Met's Sackler Pavilion (Photo by Jean-Christophe BENOIST), where it's been on exhibit since 1978, when Beverly and I went to see it. That was another connection to the area south of Aswan that blended into my mistaken feeling that we might have seen Abu Simbel.

Sailing on Lake Nasser    We first mentioned Shellal when discussing above the STAR OF EGYPT EXPRESS, that arrived in Aswan at 10:10 and in adjacent Shellal just 20 minutes later at 10:30, which was the actual last stop. The beige map shows that Shellal is on the southeast side of Aswan--I estimate it's about a 15-minute drive. So apparently Aswan has/had two rail stops, in town and on the edge of town, in Shellal.

Thru navigation on the Nile remains unclear to me. I understand that, before any dams were built, a portage around Aswan and the First Cataract had been necessary. But then, when constructed, the Low Dam included a navigation lock on the western bank, which allowed shipping to pass upstream as far as the Second Cataract. So for now, let's limit ourselves to the post-dam first half of the 20C.

In the 1930s, that "improved Nubian stretch" of the river was not yet Lake Nasser, but it was more navigable than it had been and did have regular passenger ship service. Ships left from somewhere on the Shellal side of Aswan, apparently for convenience. The Cook's timetable points out there was just one ship that served that area—part of the Cook's steamer fleet, of course—the PS Thebes, sailing south once a week round trip. That schedule is boldly listed in the 1939 Cook's under the heading: ASWAN (Shellal) TO WADI HALFA AND BACK—confirm this route on the gold map, or on the watershed map. It lists ten voyages--always in the cooler winter season--from December 30 to March 2. Let's follow the first one, which I'll list not with AM/PM as Cook's did, but with the modern 24h clock.
VOYAGE #1: Dec 30, leaving Aswan (Shellal) at 13:00, arriving at Abu Simbel two days later in the afternoon of Jan 1, and leaving very early on Jan 2 and crossing into Sudan to arrive at nearby Wadi Halfa on the east bank--32 km (20 mi) by water—in time to catch the 9:30 train to Khartoum.
It then spent Jan 3 in Wadi Halfa and sailed in the morning of Jan 4 for Abu Simbel that afternoon, but left later that same afternoon for an evening arrival on Jan 5 at Aswan (Shellal), for a total of six days. I mention this so specifically, since we'll find that THIS is precisely the trip Christie described in D/N!

But do keep the time frame in mind. Do realize that the Thebes served the original Wadi Halfa, not the one relocated because of Lake Nasser, and even more strikingly, Abu Simbel in its original location.

Then came the High Dam. None of these 1930s services still exists. Downriver there are cruise ships only between Luxor and Aswan, and after extensive searching, I find nothing that says ships can pass the High Dam in locks or canals. I find that odd, so maybe there is some accessibility, but I cannot find it. I find online that modern cruise ships do ply Lake Nasser between Aswan and Abu Simbel, but I find no service all the way down to Wadi Halfa.

Death on the Nile    Some time ago I read the novel, and did see the film and TV versions. It's a fine story, and Christie knew what she was doing. Still, without the present knowledge we've been reviewing, my picturing of what happened was totally wrong. I always pictured that it was the lower Nile that people traveled on, perhaps as far upstream as Aswan. It always seemed to me that anything beyond was really the boondocks, and only Egyptologists would go that far. Even Rameses II built Abu Simbel that far upriver just to lord it over the Nubians.

And then to my surprise, I find that D/N has nothing to do with the lower Nile whatsoever. It starts and ends in Aswan—right in the Old Cataract Hotel, as we know--where even scenes from the film were shot—and the Nile that the title refers to is the "improved Nubian stretch" that decades later would become Lake Nasser. Not only that, but Abu Simbel—and I wasn't sure earlier where IT was located—plays a central part to the plot. Who knew?

This is the first edition cover drawing of D/N, published on 1 November 1937. I like it. It does let one know that Abu Simbel is involved in the plot, and has to be showing the original location of Abu Simbel, which is now under water. But it's obvious the illustrator took gross liberties with the facts. Neither the Nile nor any steamer ever came that close to the statues proper, even in their original location in the 1930s. And to use the PS Sudan for comparison, it has three decks. Allowing 4 m (13 ft) per deck, let's say it rises 12 m (39 ft) above the waterline. The colossi are 20 m (66 ft) tall, meaning the statues are about 1 2/3 the height of the ship. So the illustrator takes huge literary license showing them SO much taller.

As just mentioned, the schedule of the PS Thebes would be the schedule of the plot of D/N. It has to be assumed that Christie rode on the Thebes when she was living in Aswan, and we know she had ridden on the Sudan. Of course, she gives the steamer in D/N a fictitious, yet appropriate name, the Karnak.

Here's an absolutely bare-bones summary of the events after leaving Aswan (Shellal). Poirot meets his shipmates, and the Karnak stops at Abu Simbel, where socialite Linnet Doyle narrowly avoids being crushed by a large boulder that falls from a cliff. But did it really fall, or was it pushed? (Thus, Abu Simbel is part of the story.) In any case, she's later killed on board the ship by a shot to the head. True to the Cook's timetable, the ship then stops at Wadi Halfa, where Poirot's friend Colonel Race boards the steamer for the return trip. (Where might HE have been coming from? Khartoum?) He works with Poirot to solve the mystery, and the steamer arrives back in Shellal for the passengers to disembark.

I think Christie was depending on the fact that readers, tho possibly (but doubtfully) familiar with Abu Simbel way back in the 1930s, would have little to no idea where Shellal and Wadi Halfa are, which is certainly what happened to me. But here literary license had to be exaggerated, since it's explained that Poirot is on vacation in Cairo and boards the Karnak to tour the Nile. That's impossible! It's a week by boat from Cairo to Aswan alone, and I'm not aware of the ships connecting. Maybe we're supposed to assume he took the overnight train? Or maybe we're not supposed to be familiar with Nile geography to see the discrepancy? Yet D/N is still a great read.

The Pseudo-Trilogy    We'll we've looked a bit into M/OE (we'll do more), M/M, and, after a thoro review of Egypt, D/N. So on what flimsy basis am I suggesting they're a pseudo-trilogy? Aside from the fact that they're all Middle-East-related, there are a couple of minor cross-references between them.

In Part II, Chapter 21, of D/N, Poirot refers to having found a red kimono in his luggage. This is a basic reference back to the plot of M/OE, forming a minor link between them. In other words, he's saying in D/N that he's been to the Middle East before, and rode the OE.

In D/N, Poirot also explains how archaeology inspires his sleuthing. He says: Once I went professionally to an archaeological expedition—and I learnt something there. In the course of an excavation, when something comes up out of the ground, everything is cleared away very carefully all around it. You take away the loose earth, and you scrape here and there with a knife until finally your object is there, all alone, ready to be drawn and photographed with no extraneous matter confusing it. This is what I have been seeking to do—clear away the extraneous matter so that we can see the truth . . .

The purpose of Christie having Poirot say this is to very importantly show Poirot's—and thereby Agatha's—reasoning about clearing away extraneous matter to reach the truth. You see her archaeological experience coming thru in this reference. But the quote simultaneously shows the direct connection between D/N back to M/M and Poirot being in Mesopotamia, which in turn was after-the-fact meant to precede M/OE. Do these cross-references make a trilogy? Probably not, so I call it a pseudo-trilogy.

Films    The earlier novel, M/OE, was made into three films of note. As for the oldest, the ◊1974 M/OE, I loved the star-studded cast and stage setting, tho Albert Finney's ponderous Poirot grew tiresome. We'll discuss and illustrate this film more later. I greatly enjoyed the ◊2004 British television version with David Suchet, part of the series called Agatha Christie's Poirot, which we'll discuss separately below. I did not see the newest version, the third, ◊2017 M/OE, with Kenneth Branagh as Poirot, but we saw above the Russian movie poster about it.

As for this novel, D/N, once again a third version, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, was due to come out in 2020, but is now scheduled for September 2021.
But I am familiar with the first two, starting with the one from 1978 with Peter Ustinov as Poirot. I find it amusing that, even though Albert Finney had played Poirot four years earlier in the train movie, when it came to the boat movie, he did not wish to undergo the heavy make-up required for Poirot in the Egyptian sun. I certainly know what he meant about the heat, but I also question how well his interpretation of the role had been received. And so Peter Ustinov starred for the first of his six appearances as Poirot. I enjoyed Ustinov, but Ustinov playing Poirot looks like just that, Ustinov playing Poirot. Others in the all-star cast included Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury, and David Niven. The 1904 PS Memnon was used to represent the fictional PS Karnak. In the film are shown beautiful scenes of Luxor, Karnak, and Aswan. The hotel that they stay in before boarding their Nile cruise is none other than the Old Cataract Hotel. There were many shots filmed within the hotel and outside of it for the movie. Bravo for that.

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But there is so much that's changed. As I check the summary online, it all starts in Cairo and, as the above link shows, it goes out of its way to show pretty pictures of the Great Sphinx and Pyramids, surely for promotional reasons to gain public interest. How do you show a film about Egypt without showing pyramids? Then they board the Karnak and are all suddenly in Aswan at the other end of Egypt, so I don't see how the trip "starts" there. But then the trip goes out of sequence first north to Karnak (in Luxor) then south to Abu Simbel. And the falling rock takes place somehow off a pillar in Karnak, and threatens not a woman, but a couple. It's maddening.

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Above is Peter Ustinov as Poirot. He did an adequate job, and does have a type of requisite moustache. But he's no Suchet and has little parallel to Christie's descriptions of Poirot. The second link shows the cast of stars. Standing, I recognize from the left (click): 3 David Niven, 4 Ustinov, 6 Jack Warden, 7 Maggie Smith (!), 9 George Kennedy. Seated: 2 Mia Farrow, 3 Angela Lansbury, 4 Bette Davis, 5 Olivia Hussey. If only they'd gotten the story right!

The British TV series "Agatha Christie's Poirot" was aired from 1989 to 2013, with David Suchet (su.SHÉ) as Poirot. The program ran for 13 series with 70 episodes in total. In the US it ran on PBS and I saw them all. (I find that numerous full episodes are available on YouTube, including M/OE, M/M, and D/N.) Each episode was adapted from an original Christie Poirot novel or short story. When it concluded, every major literary work in the Christie canon featuring Poirot had been adapted and presented, an admirable feat. Take a look at the opening titles of each program on YouTube (1:04). The opening is a work of art itself in the Art Deco style of the period, coupled with some Cubism of the period in the faces. Pause it at 0:24 to admire the Art Deco train, ship, plane, and industrial cityscape, noting at 0:30 how the gray wheels on the train (the OE?) turn into the O's of Poirot's name. Then watch Suchet as Poirot up to the end, tipping his hat.

By this time, Agatha was long gone but Suchet was recommended for the part by the Christie family, who had seen him appear on TV. Suchet, a method actor, said that he had prepared for the part by reading all the Poirot novels and short stories, and copying out every piece of Christie's original description of the character. He then turned himself into the Belgian detective.

This led to some interesting anecdotes. He knew what he needed to do to become Poirot, and wouldn't be deterred by any director. During the filming of the first series, Suchet almost walked out during an argument with a director. Suchet insisted that Poirot's odd mannerisms were essential and should be featured. In that particular case, Suchet wanted to put a handkerchief down before sitting on a park bench, and wouldn't relent until the director stopped interfering with his doing so. Suchet later said "there's no question [Poirot's] obsessive-compulsive". It's widely said that Suchet's characterization is the most accurate one of all actors who have played the role, and closest to how Christie wrote him in the books.

Another actor in the show, who respected Suchet but didn't work the same way, noted that Suchet stopped the action once when he saw that books on a bookshelf were not neatly arranged, as Poirot would have had them. He fixed them, then continued filming. Also, he was one of those actors who didn't break character between filming scenes. He WAS Poirot all the time during the shooting. He said the character became part of him.

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Voilà le Poirot de Suchet. You'll remember that Agatha's daughter was Rosalind, later Rosalind Hicks. In 2013, Suchet revealed that she had told him she was sure Christie would have approved of his performance. Christie's grandson Mathew Prichard has commented: "Personally, I regret very much that she [Agatha Christie] never saw David Suchet. I think that visually he is much the most convincing and perhaps he manages to convey to the viewer just enough of the irritation that we always associate with the perfectionist, to be convincing!"

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As part of accomplishing the incredible feat of doing the entire canon on the series, Suchet did M/OE in 2010, but had done D/N earlier, in 2004. The episode was filmed in Egypt (picture above), with many of the scenes filmed on the steamer PS Sudan, representing the PS Karnak. This version remained largely faithful to the novel, with only some minor changes, largely of characters. One notable change is that again, the rock doesn't fall at Abu Simbel, nor at Karnak, but in an old temple somewhere, where a piece of the roof falls, but does no harm.

Obviously a lot of poetic license was necessary, even in the original Christie book version. The Sudan always sailed north (downstream) of Aswan, either connecting locally to Luxor or long-distance to Cairo. It never sailed south (upstream) of Aswan, to Abu Simbel—that's where the Thebes sailed. But that's a trivial issue.

I hope you have some moments to look at some YouTube videos. First, a short one—this is Suchet explaining how he created Poirot's accent (0:57).
This one's a little longer, but worthwhile. It's an interview with Suchet (8:51) that took place before the final series ran.
Those two should have drawn your interest, but this last one is pure fun, because you see what quirks and mannerisms of Poirot that Christie wrote about and that Suchet is so good at presenting. The theme of this selection (6:52) is food, and is called Poirot's Culinary Tastes. I like in particular the scene with two eggs, and how Poirot likes his bread toasted. You will also see in most scenes, Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser)--he who got on the boat in Wadi Halfa. Also shown are two characters who didn't make it to the Middle East, Poirot's secretary Miss Lemon (Pauline Moran) and the mustachioed Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson). Voici Suchet, le Poirot définitif.

Ancillary Works Based in Egypt    Given Agatha's blossoming interest in Egypt, there are two additional works that take place there. The first is a short story in "Parker Pyne Investigates", which is a collection of 12 short stories featuring Parker Pyne as the detective, first published in November 1934, three years before D/N was published in 1937. The 11th story is also called "Death on the Nile". The details of the short story plot are substantially different, though the settings and some of the characters are similar. This indicates that her interest in Egypt and the Nile had been a work in progress, and she simply recycled a good title. There was another short story in this collection that we'll mention below.

Quite different for Christie was the unique novel called "Death comes as the End", published in 1944. It's a historical mystery novel. It's the only one of Christie's novels not to be set in the 20C, and—very unusual for her--also features no European characters whatsoever. Instead, the novel is set in Thebes in 2000 BCE, a setting for which Christie gained an appreciation while working with Max, but also while living in Aswan, so close to Luxor, which was ancient Thebes.

When we usually think of literary characters in ancient Egypt, Cleopatra pops into mind. But she lived in the first century BCE, while Christie's novel takes place 20 centuries before Cleopatra. The plot involves a new person entering a family, and the calamities that result. We'll show here the dust jacket illustration of the UK first edition in 1945. (The book was first published in the US in 1944 with an image on the cover that was less graphic and less historically striking.)

Four Christie Train Stories    Think again of that Art Deco title sequence to the TV program showing a train, ship, and plane zipping forward. Christie didn't write any stories taking place on a plane. Not only were planes few and far between in the 1930s, but she needs more time than a quick flight lasts to develop and solve a plot. Look how she had the OE get stuck in a snowdrift to allow more plot time!
As for transportation, her mysteries are suited to trains and boats. We've just reviewed Christie's boat story, so let's bring up the four train stories she wrote, three novels and a short story. One is a mid-20C novel and is the only one involving a domestic train in England. The other three were back in the 1920s-1930s and all took place on the Continent.

1) 4.50 FROM PADDINGTON When I was little, my mother would on occasion take me with her from East New York to go shopping in downtown Brooklyn, trips that involved my first subway rides. I'd stare out the window into the darkness between stations and would be fascinated to see another train moving on the next track. It was like looking from my illuminated world into another illuminated, yet unreachable, world. Sometimes the other train would be moving at the same speed and you could watch what people were doing, but then it would move faster or slower and you'd lose sight of the people you'd been watching.

Agatha Christie was aware of this phenomenon that can only happen on adjoining trains, where two disconnected worlds are nevertheless visible to each other, and made it the basis of 4.50 from Paddington, published in 1957—this is the dust jacket illustration of the first UK edition. We find Mrs McGillicuddy is on a train pulling out of Paddington Station in London on her way to visit Miss (Jane) Marple. As her train passes another one next to it going in the same direction, a shade suddenly pulls up and she witnesses a murder, but when she reports it, no trace of it can be found. Miss Marple later investigates and solves the mystery.

The novel was published the same year in the US, but once again, in their infinite wisdom, the US publishers decided to change the name. There might be an argument that US readers might not recognize that Paddington was a rail station, but even if Paddington were a town it would be understandable. And what about Paddington Bear, who appeared the next year? I don't think they gave US readers enough credit. In any case, the selfsame novel appeared in the US with the title "What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw!" Frankly, that isn't too bad. Her unusual name is striking to the eye, and the exclamation point does call one's attention. It's just that the same novel now has two names, just like M/OE and M/CC.

We should cite a punctuation difference. While in American usage, time is written with a colon, as 4:50, in British usage it's written with a period ("full stop"), as 4.50—check the dust jacket again. Of course, that was in 1957. Today it would be written as 16.50.

2) THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN When we spoke in 2021/2 about Agatha's first need to get away from Archie in early 1927, right after her disappearance, and her trip to the Canary Islands, we said: While there, she wrote most of The Mystery of the Blue Train, published the next year, in 1928. It was while writing this book that she first realized that writing had actually become her job. She had been accumulating debts, and decided to pay them off with the receipts from the book.

Thus we can see that The Mystery of the Blue Train in 1928 was a significant early turning point in her life, before she fled to the Middle East. In addition, when we spoke in 2020/8 about Wagons-Lits services, we mentioned Le Train Bleu/The Blue Train that connected Paris (with London piggybacking) with the Côte d'Azur / French Riviera. Christie wrote this as an early Poirot, who, on his way to the French Riviera on the Blue Train, solves an on-board murder and jewel theft.

3) HAVE YOU GOT EVERYTHING YOU WANT? This is the short story in this grouping, and it's also to be found in "Parker Pyne Investigates", the 1934 collection of 12 short stories featuring Parker Pyne as the detective. We just mentioned it regarding the 11th story, which was the first time she used Death on the Nile as a title. We now mention I again because of the 7th short story called "Have you got everything you want?" It is evidently the first time she uses the Orient Express as a location for a mystery. In the short story, a woman boards the [Simplon] Orient Express at the Gare de Lyon to meet her husband in Constantinople and meets Parker Pyne in the restaurant car. She'd found a message at home stating that "just before Venice would be the best time", and sure enough, her jewels are stolen. When they reach Constantinople Pyne meets with the husband, and then with the wife, at the Tokatlian Hotel, and returns the jewels to her, with an explanation resolving the mystery.

4) MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS The fourth Christie mystery on a train is, of course M/OE in 1934. We've already talked about how it came about, and in the next posting we should be taking a ride on the OE along with Poirot.

But a couple of points we can make now. So she actually wrote about the OE twice, once with Pyne and once with Poirot—and both in 1934. Odder still, you might suspect that the Pyne story led up to the Poirot story, but that's not the case. M/OE was published in January 1934 in the UK, then in February in the US, while the Pyne story was published well afterward that year, in November 1934. Now of course, publishing dates don't prove the dates they were written. She could have written the Pyne short story first, then maybe put it in a folder until she had enough stories to make a dozen for the Pyne collection. We just don't know.

There's one last point I referred to back in 2021/1, where we said that in Istanbul, she stayed at the Pera Palace Hotel, but in two stories described action taking place in the Tokatlian Hotel. We now see that one is the Pyne story, and the other is famously where Poirot plans on overnighting in M/OE. I continue to wonder how she chose this hotel, and why she did so twice—and both in 1934.