RAMSBOTTOM AND TOTTINGTON PROBUS CLUB The President George Vaughan welcomed fellow Probus member Alan Hayhurst as our speaker.

Alan's subject was "600 miles down the Nile" and was lavishly illustrated by slides. Egypt has been called 'the gift of the Nile' and 98% of Egyptians live close to the river in the 3% of the country which can be cultivated. Until the Aswan High Dam was built in the 1960s the Nile flooded annually to provide rich soil for crops and although it no longer floods local farmers are still able to produce three crops a year.

Alan had wanted to visit Egypt from the age of 8 and forty years' later he and his wife arrived at Giza.

Their splendid hotel looked out over the Great Pyramid and its two neighbours built some 4500 years ago. They stand 450 feet high, each made of a million blocks of stone weighing 15 tons apiece. In fact 64 pyramids remain and Alan was not limited to the famous three. He also visited the first to be built, the Step Pyramid with its mortuary temple. Some of the ancient buildings are remarkably well- preserved, usually because of being buried in sand for centuries while others have been recently restored by the authorities and this particular mortuary temple was built in 1987.

Memphis was the next site to be visited. The Sphinx is the main attraction but there are many statues and temples featuring Pharoah Ramases II who reigned for 60 years. The Egyptians were master craftsmen in stone and some of Ramases's statues are 65 feet high. Alan then flew 600 miles south to the Aswan High Dam which holds back the waters of Lake Nasser and where there is a huge memorial to the 451 workmen killed during its construction. After Aswan came Abu Simbel and then the journey north to Luxor and the Valleys of the Queens and Kings. The Valley of the Kings contains the famous Tomb of Tutankhamun with its glories of solid gold, wood and stone. Here was a fitting climax to the archaeological treasures of Egypt.

After questions Bernard Wilson gave the Vote of thanks to Alan on his return to the club for a most fascinating and comprehensive talk. The Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday 19 April and all members are urged to attend.