Sync along our scoop updates
What is a travel tour without an interesting tour guide?! Imagine too much knowledge blended with famous quotes and poetry through history is quite a rich tour in Egypt! Well, the translator, Egyptologist-lecturer and creative tour guide, Ahmed Seddik is considered as a polymath thinker who knows just too much about everything. He takes tours and gives lectures all over Egypt in English and Arabic while Egyptolution was pleased to introduce him as a favorite tour guide!
Learning and teaching. As Alexander the Great's Teacher Aristotle noted: "Teaching is the highest form of understanding." I love to integrate ancient and modern methods of learning and teaching. Although the ancients for learning had ample time on hand, they never squandered the precious sands. They knew that: that which takes time to get, takes time to forget. That is why, they have bequeathed to humanity some of the most enduring icons of civilisation. Also, that is why I learned hieroglyphic; the laconic art of coining icons.
The quest for the origins of things. In particular, a decade ago, I visited an exhibition at the Rare Books and Special Collections Library. I totally forgot what the exhibition was about. I completely forgot all the prominent figures who visited that art exhibition. But there is one scholar, who was not coming to the exhibition, whom I will never forget. He was about to teach a course on Pyramids. It was Dr. Zahi Hawass. I asked him if I could sit in on his course. Not only did he accept with alacrity, he took me on several trips. This was the Egyptological turning point. Zahi's passion for Egyptology is contagious.
Egypt is the Nile that flows from every Egyptian's heart, precipitates intellectual silt, to make one's mind miraculously fertile.
Reading, writing, swimming, horse back riding, hiking, rock climbing, experimenting, going to cinema and figuring out what, how and why.
Walking literary tours of Cairo and the once treasure-laden undulating landscape of the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. It is a kingdom of wonder for which I can not find a more succinct description than that of the British Egyptologist Howard Carter who uncovered its almost completely intact tomb:"“The Valley of the Tombs of the Kings—the very name is full of romance, and of all Egypt’s wonders there is none, I suppose, that makes a more instant appeal to the imagination. Here, in this lonely valley-head, remote from every sound of life, with the "Horn," the highest peak in the Theban hills, standing sentinel like a natural pyramid above them, lay thirty or more kings, among them the greatest Egypt ever knew. ”
Learn few Arabic words, be patient and keep your sense of humour. Even as a guide, I try to entertain to retain my audience, with clairvoyance and clairaudience.
Walking Tours, because you get to think in your feet. We are all familiar with the famous Latin saying: Anima sana in corpore sano i.e. a sound mind in a sound body. However, I rephrase that into my own Seddikism: an agile mind in an agile body. A walking tour offers gymnastics for the body as well as the mind. This is reminiscent of the Aristotelian Peripatetic school of philosophy. As Aristotle used to teach philosophy while walking in the celebrated Lyceum of ancient Athens.
The beauty of a walking tour is that we do not just walk the walk and talk the talk, we walk the talk and talk the walk.
God made dirt, and dirt don't hurt. In fact, it can be extremely useful. In a sense, archaeology is the meticulous study of the excruciating details of dirt. I have come to appreciate dirt more than ever before when Professor Zahi Hawass gave me a chance to enhance my understanding of the ancient Egyptian tradition. I was lucky to participate in the excavation of the Tombs of the Pyramids Builders. It was thrilling and I did feel the annihilation of time that archaeologists are acquainted with.
Professor John T. Swanson is the best spoken teacher I have ever met and learned from. Because I grew up adoring science, and that is why I still pursue it and I am currently translating one of Professor Ahmed Zewail's latest books: Imaging through Time and Space. I am so in love with science, that I often had doubts about Egyptology, since it is partly not an exact science. However, once I listened to Dr. Swanson's intriguing recitation of history, my passion for Egyptology was instantly rekindled. Swanson breathes life into history. His vivid and perspicacious description coupled with his inspiring powerful oration grants him a passport to the past. Professor John Swanson's stunning erudition and love of learning make him the epitome of the Renaissance man I aspire to be.
Egyptolution Crew has been to amazing places in Egypt to bring you their sightseeing adventures and travel experiences with their team of photography and travel writers.
Travel is not enjoyable unless you get to really taste and feel the traditional oriental local experiences of people and...
Read More.Subscribe to our newsletter and get exclusive materials you wont find anywhere else straight to your inbox!
Interested to write for Egyptolution?
Share your piece with us!
How Egyptolution has come to pace with Egyptian travel is an interesting story that was born as a result of Egypt after the Revolution of Jan25, 2011; and with the new rise of Egypt, a new partnership of travel novelty has taken place between Malak Mitch, Founder and Managing Director, and I (Christine Ghobrial, Managing Editor) where we have decided together to build a new threshold of communication ... Read More.
0 Comments on The Poetic Tours Specialist, Ahmed Seddik