1- I met zahi hawass in 1995 before he was anything other than an egyptologist and a university professor. The charisma you see on TV is 100% the real him. At the time my family was living in Jerusalem Israel. My dad was an engineer for Intel helping set up a new chip manufacturing facility on the outskirts of town.

In the 90's there were a lot of improved relationships between Israel and its neighbors. In 1973 there was the 6 day war where Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and a could other countries I can't remember, all attacked Israel simultaneously. At which time Israel kicked all of their asses back to their deserts of origin in less than a week.

Anywho... In 1995 Israel opened its southern border into Egypt for tourism. I think they called it the Tabla crossing. I was 15. We drove across the Saini desert in kind of a tour bus. We were the first Americans to make the trip. Long fucking drive too. I think it took something like 5 hours just to cross the endless wastes.

I think Egypt was trying to lay out the red carpet for us. We stayed as a hotel that was unbelievably lavish. Lol, we were told we must stay in our rooms or be off grounds between 5pm and 7pm because they sprayed for mosquitoes. These guys are wearing these gas powered foggers full of DDT that spread a haze you couldn't see through.

We met Dr Hawass at our hotel and he rode with us to Giza. In pictures the pyramids look like they're in the middle of the desert but in reality there's a densely populated neighborhood right next to it. He walked through all of them with us. We walked through every interior room and walkway privately. He showed us his personal dig sites and I saw, with own eyes, heiroglyphs of a kangaroo. There's debate about this but I know what I saw. He took us through the museum and we bought some little statue figurines from a street before that Dr Hawass authenticated. He said they were legit middle kingdom artifacts. It was unreal. I boldly drank tap water because I wanted to develop an immunity to the local pathogens, anticipating a return. I never did visit Egypt again but I did suffer through amoebic dissentary for 3 weeks.

It was years later when I started seeing Dr Hawass on TV. At first I was like.. wait I recognize that voice... Then the holy shit moment when I realized what a true gift it had been to get a private tour. It was me, my parents and my 5 year old younger brothers; 5 days in Egypt, I'm pretty sure the whole things didn't cost $4000 at the time.