Back in February I posted a story about two British explorers, Levison Wood and Simon Clarke, who had announced plans to walk the length of the Nile River, something that has never been done before. Since then, the expedition has received a great deal more attention and while no official start date has been announced yet, the two mean are gearing up to begin their journey later this year.

Earlier today, Explorers Web posted an interview with Wood which shares a few more details about the team's plans. He talks about how he and Clarke met (both soldiers stationed in Iraq), their experience as guides and what precautions they're taking for their upcoming adventure. He also discusses some logistics and inspirations for the journey, which will be quite the challenge.

The expedition will commence at the source of the Nile River, located along one of the tributaries in the dense forests of Rwanda. From there, Wood and Clarke will proceed more than 4250 miles (6839 km) to the sea, crossing through Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, The Sudan, and Egypt in the process. They are estimating that it will take approximately 12 months to finish the source-to-sea trek.

At the moment, the two men are reportedly in Sudan and South Sudan exploring part of the route ahead of their start sometime this summer. When they finish up that work, they'll likely head home to London for the final gear prep before setting out. But one of the biggest hurdles they still face is fund raising to help them get the expedition off the ground. With that challenge still ahead of them, they continue to ask for support through their Kickstarter page.

Good luck to Levison and Simon on this epic adventure. It certainly will be one to keep an eye on in the months ahead.

People have been visiting Egypt since before records were kept. But with all my traveling all over the world, I didn't make it there until 1991 or something like that. It's not really on the way anyplace. It's its own destination-- and a worthwhile one for sure, obviously. The food's nothing to write home about, unfortunately, but the history, the culture, the people and the sites... all make it more than worth the time and effort. But U.S. tourists have almost completely stopped going there now. It's just considered too unsafe by most American tourists and travel agents. In 2005, Egypt had around 5.5 million foreign tourists. By 2008 that had jumped to 12.8 million, bringing in around $11 billion and employing approximately 12% of the country's workforce. It peaked at 14.7 million tourists in 2010 (with $12.5 billion in revenue). It's been seriously downhill in the last couple of years.

And that's not because some sharks off Sharm el-Sheikh developed a fondness for Germans, Russians and Ukrainians. Wrecking the country's tourism industry hasn't been a goal of sharks; it has been a goal of revolutionaries. The 2013 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report was another bad blow to Egypt's tourist sector. It ranks 85th in the world, between Colombia and the Dominican Republic, not as highly recommended as trouble spots like Sri Lanka, India, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico and Azerbaijan... but still a better bet than places with open warfare, like Mali, Syria, Yemen, Burundi and Pakistan. A consideration that hurt Egypt was the safety and security category which looks at "the costliness of common crime and violence as well as terrorism" and considers road the prevalence of road accidents and the reliability of police.

It is perhaps little wonder that tourists are spooked — amid ongoing political unrest, Molotov cocktails, gunfire and tear gas have become almost commonplace in some areas.

Two years after the revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, protesters still return to Cairo’s Tahrir Square-- where it all began-- to demonstrate against the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and lament the country’s failing economy.

Earlier this month, Bedouin gunmen kidnapped a British couple who were on their way to the glittering beaches of Sharm El Sheikh. They were quickly released, but Bedouins have taken other hostages and also attacked police stations and blocked access to towns to show their discontent with what they see as their poor treatment by Cairo.

Last month, thugs attacked and entered the InterContinental hotel in Cairo, forcing it to close down while it implemented heightened security measures.

...Emile Asaad, manager of an American Express travel agency in the ancient city of Luxor, home to King Tut's tomb and the famous temples of Luxor and Karnak, said that “the important thing is that when people need to walk in the street they want to feel safe."

"We have over 400 boats on the Nile, there is still 20 to 25 percent occupancy on some of the most popular boats, but others are just sitting and not operating," he said. "We don't know how the future looks."

...[T]ravel companies said many people were staying away.

Bob Atkinson, a travel expert with the U.K.-based price-comparison website TravelSupermarket.com, said unrest in Egypt had "seriously affected the tourist trade."

"The Arab uprisings very much put the Egypt market into a tailspin," he said. Flavia Jaber, owner of Toronto-based company Road to Travel, which includes Road to Egypt, said that "our business to Egypt is dead in the water at the moment."

"People are not going to Egypt right now, at least not from North America," she said.

I've told the story many times how Roland and I arrived in Egypt a day after a massacre of tourists near Luxor. The whole country emptied out of tourists. We had the whole place to ourselves. It was just "too dangerous." We literally shared a gigantic Nile luxury liner with 2 other people-- instead of 200. It was one of the best trips we had ever taken-- and it wouldn't have been if it was packed with tourists. And we never felt unsafe anywhere for one second. Is it more dangerous than Manhattan? I'm not sure-- but I would take the same precautions... and Egypt is a lot less expensive. It's the fourth cheapest tourist destination in the world. Everything is a bargain... as long as you're not in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Two British adventurers are preparing to set out on one very long and demanding expedition that will see them pass through seven countries, covering more than 4250 miles (6840 km), along the entire length of the Nile River.

Inspired by Ed Stafford's record setting walk along the Amazon, Levison Wood and Simon Clarke have dubbed their adventure Walking the Nile. If successful, they'll become the first people in history to walk the longest river in the world from source to sea, and along the way they hope to encourage others to get off their couch and seek adventures of their own.

Their journey will begin in the highlands of Burundi and Rwanda before descending into the thick jungles of Tanzania and Uganda. From there they'll walk along the edge of Lake Victoria before entering the newest country on the planet – South Sudan. Crossing through the largest swampland on the planet, they'll move into North Sudan before passing into the Sahara Desert for the final leg of the expedition in Egypt. Wood and Clarke estimate that it should take them roughly 12 months to complete their adventure.

No date has been announced for the start of the expedition, but presumably you'll be able to follow progress on Facebook and Twitter once they get underway. For now though, you can get a sense of what they are facing in the short video below.

Walking The Nile from Secret Compass on Vimeo.

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Egypt has most interesting places to visit. There are lots of Tourist Places and Tourist Destinations in Egypt. The stunning, colossal monuments of Ancient Egypt never fail to astonish. The heat, sight and the light of the desert invigorate. The cool, turquoise waters rejuvenate. A romantic cruise along the world's longest river dazzles the senses. A first class getaway resort in the Red Sea Riviera is pure escapism. No place has the magic, mystery and pleasures of Egypt. Travel to Egypt to discover a world of wonder.

Paces to Visit in Egypt

Cairo

Ancient Memphis 

Pyramids of Giza 
Pyramids of Sakkara 
Pyramids of Dahshour 
Pyramids of Abu sir 
Pyamids of Mydoum 
Pyramids of eleisht
Pyramids of Hawara
Pyamrids of Abu Rawash 
Pyramids of EL Lahaoun 
Pyramids of Hawara 
pyramid of Mazghuna 

The Egyptian Museum 
The Coptic Museum
The Castle of Saladin 
The Old Market "Khan El-Khalili"
The Hanging Church 
Santa Barbara 



Old Islamic Cairo:
Sultan Hassan Mosque 
Refai Mosque

Luxor
Luxor Temple 
Karnak Temple
The Colossi Of Memnon 
Valley Of The Kings 
Temple of queen Hatshepsut 
Temple Of Medinat Hapu of Ramses III 
Valley Of The Queens 
Valley Of The Nobles 
Temple Of Dendera 
temple of Esna 
Temple Of Abydos


Alexandria
The Castle of Qaitbay 

The Pompeii Pillar 
The Catacombs of Kom El-Shouqafa 
The Amphitheatre of Kom El-Dikka 
The Montazah Palace Gardens 


Sinai
The city of Sharm El-sheik
The city of Dahab 
The City of Nuweiba
The City of Taba






Red Sea Coast

Red sea coast 
Monastery of St. paul 
Mostry of St Anthony 
Hurghada 
Safaga
Marsa Alam






Egypt Tourist Attractions

Photo © Xenia Nikolskaya-All Rights Reserved

From afar, it seems Egypt and its people are still waiting to exhale since its popular uprising against the Mubarak regime, and 60 years of dictatorships...and whilst I try my best to counter the lay neo-cons and the agenda-driven commentators who write absurd comments about its current events and future in The New York Times by writing my own points of view (and they all get featured without fail), I fear the internal political situation in Egypt is murky, and will remain unsettled for the near future ...and that's an immense understatement.

So Xenia Nikolskaya's work on the UK's Daily Telegraph suffused me with mixed feelings. Dust is a good title for her photographs of buildings built after the Suez Canal opened in 1869, and before Nasser came to power in 1954, introducing sequestration decrees that would send many of the wealthy elite into exile.

The buildings, mansions, movie theaters, and retails stores that are depicted in Xenia's Dust have mostly fallen into disrepair. Due to long standing governmental rent-control policies, these once ornate and grandiose buildings were left to rot, with no repairs or maintenance done, as landlords weren't making money from them.

I recall the names of some of them....Radio Cinema ( I watched movies there, at a time when I was careful to count my change as the women at the ticket had the habit of "rounding" it in their favor), Sakakini Palace, Sarageldine Palace, while others are unknown to me.

Xenia Nikolskaya graduated from the Academy of Art in St Petersburg and then went on to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen. She has worked as a professional photographer since 1995, and became a member of the Russian Art Union in 2001. She first came to Egypt in 2003 as part of a Russian archaeological mission.

Presidential election fever has been gripping Egypt for months, and it'll perhaps come to a conclusion in the coming few days...or in another few weeks, if a runoff is the case.

Along with many millions of Egyptians, I couldn't believe my eyes when watching the first ever presidential debate in the Middle East took place earlier this month. Yes, it was flawed...yes, the two frontrunners went overboard in hyperbole and off topic attacks one each other... but nowhere else in the Arab world, has such a spectacle ever been seen before.

Yes, Egypt's political transition has been farcical, messy, bizarre, chaotic, violent, unpredictable, and serious, ....however after centuries of Pharaonic kingdoms, various foreign occupations, colonialism,  royalty and dictatorships, Egyptians were now experiencing the teething pains of democracy. I raise my hands in wonder when I read articles by educated journalists and pundits who claim that after 30 years of Mubarak's regime, Egypt is experiencing democracy. It's not 30 years...but over 2500 years!

In recognition of this critical milestone in Egypt's (and in the world's) history, I feature Moises Saman's Egypt's Choice as published in The New York Times.

A power struggle of epic proportions between various political factions is currently underway in Egypt...essentially a troika of conflicting interests, the power struggle is manifesting itself overtly and covertly. Overtly, the battle for power is over the presidency, and is between the Muslim Brotherhood, (a comparatively pragmatic Islamic movement) the Salafists (a regressive Islamist faction), and the military establishment. The secular forces seem to have been marginalized, even though it was its youth who sparked and carried through the revolution in 2011.

That said, it's not over till the fat lady sings...and there will be more twists and turns to this story as it enfolds over the days and weeks to come.

I thought the 18DaysIn Egypt documentary being worked on by filmmaker and journalist Jigar Mehta is working on a new kind of documentary is especially timely in such a fluid political situation. It's a crowd-sourced interactive documentary project aimed at capturing the history of the revolution in Egypt.

The context of this documentary is simple enough. In the 18 days of Egypt's uprising that began on January 25, 2011 and that ended with the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, thousands of Egyptians turned to their cell phones, digital cameras or social media sites to document the events unfolding in Cairo and across the country.

Tapping into this wealth of material, American documentary filmmaker and journalist Jigar Mehta co-founded 18DaysInEgypt.

Photos © Nadia Shira Cohen-All Rights Reserved

“Mohammad, Mohammad, Mohammad,” she muttered. The words escaped just slightly under her breath as the tears began rolling down her face.

It's been a year and a day since Hosni Mubarak was forced out of office by the Egyptian people, and I thought it worthwhile to feature the work of Nadia Shira Cohen, which appeared in The New York Times a few days ago.

Her work focused on the Egyptian victims of the country’s so-called emergency law, principally by talking with them first, and then by photographing them.

Whilst Nadia's photographs and synopsis of her conversation, or interviews, with a handful of these victims appear on her website, her photographs also appear on the The New York Times' LENS blog.

All of her interviews are painful to read...but I thought the most poignant was that of the mother of Mohammed Attiah, who's bedridden with grief at the disappearance of her son some 18 years ago at the hands of the Egyptian police.  She has never stopped saying his name since then.

Nadia Shira Cohen pursued her passion for photography at the University of Vermont, with a semester abroad at the SACI school in Florence, Italy. She worked as a photographer in New York City for the Associated Press and for Sipa Press.  She then went on to work at the VII photo agency, then moved Rome, Italy where she continues to tell stories of the lives of people who interest her and which she compassionately feels the need to expose.

The land that gave birth to the first great civilisation needs little introduction. The pyramids, the minarets, the Nile – the scope of Egypt is magnificent.
Visitors are surprised to discover that those legendary pyramids are merely the tip of the archaeological iceberg. Pharaonic nations, ancient Greeks, Romans, Christians and Arab dynasties have all played their part in fashioning Egypt’s embarrassment of architectural wealth.
Cairo’s chaos whirrs around a medieval core that has remained unchanged since the founding days of Islam. Upriver, Luxor, the site of ancient Thebes, is lined with warrens of opulent burial chambers and boasts some of the most formidable monuments in all antiquity. Further south at Aswan, even more geometrically imposing temples write a testament to the power of archaic gods and omnipotent pharaohs. It is here that the Nile is best explored by ancient sail, on a felucca (Egyptian sailing boat) at the hands of the prevailing currents and winds.
Out west, Egypt’s ocean of sand stretches infinitely to the Sahara, with a handful of oases feeding solitary islands of green. Hivelike, medieval fortresses cower out here, interspersed with bubbling springs and ghostly rock formations. Meanwhile, the deep, crystal waters of the Red Sea lie brilliantly awash in coral, surrounded by an aquatic frenzy of underwater life. In the deserts of Sinai’s interior, visitors can climb the mount where God had word with Moses, and spend their remaining days in halcyon bliss at coastal Dahab’s backpacker Shangri-La.
Travel advisory: At the end of January 2011, violent protests broke out in various spots across Egypt, centring on Cairo. Check BBC for the latest news and your government's travel information site for advisories.

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Photo © AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen- Courtesy DenverPost.com

I've seen quite a few errors in the captions of photographs recently, but this one is probably the most misleading. The photograph appeared in the Pictures of the Week on the Denver Post Plog. 

Underneath the photograph is a caption that reads "Eman Mohammed, 7, holds a placard that reads in Arabic, "our army is over our head, and the parliament belongs to the ousted," during a protest in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. The parliament elected in Egypt's first legislative vote after Hosni Mubarak's ouster nearly a year ago held its inaugural session on Monday, with Islamists dominating the 498-seat chamber that will oversee the drafting of a new constitution."

This is incorrect, and is at a 180 degrees divergence from what is on the placard. The correct translation of the Arabic words on the placard is "Our Army is over our head (ie a colloquialism for being held in great esteem)...The Council belongs (or follows) the ousted (for the ousted Mubarak)."

The Council referred to on the placard is not the Parliament, but is the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. This is totally divergent from what the caption incorrectly states. The child is presumably one of the protestors who took part in a demonstration against the military council, not against the civilian Parliament.

I always wondered whether in such a case, would the error be that of the photographer (in this case, an Arabic speaker) or someone else?

Photo © Ed Ou - All Rights Reserved

In remembrance of those who fell in Tahrir and elsewhere. The Egyptian revolution started a year ago today, and is still ongoing.

And to the naysayers, neo-cons and the rest of the mindless individuals who prefer Arab dictatorships, and see democracy (as imperfect as it may be) taking its first steps in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East as an existentialist threat, go screw yourselves.

And to those who are optimistic, here are, via Foreign Policy Magazine, the young Egyptians who will eventually succeed in achieving what they started.

Photo © Ed Ou-All Rights Reserved

The news that "Islamists" seem to have won a majority in Egypt's first Parliament since the ouster of Mubarak is being reported by the US media in disquieting vocabulary, especially since it came at the expense of the liberal parties and youth activists who set off the revolution.  Many secular Egyptians are expressing alarm and anxiety at the result of the initial round of Parliamentary elections, while others shrug off these results by predicting that the Muslim Brotherhood (as one of the factions described as Islamists) may well have a majority, but will either choose or be forced to exert its political clout in a moderate fashion.

Ed Ou has covered the momentous events in Egypt ever since the start of the revolution, and has recently featured his work in progress of The Egyptian Youth.

Ed is a Canadian photojournalist who has been working in the Middle East, former Soviet Union, Africa, and the Americas. He started his career as a teenager, covering the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and the fall of the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, Somalia. He worked for Reuters and the Associated Press, and was also an intern at the New York Times.

He is the recipient of a Global Vision Award from POYi, a 1st Place Contemporary Issues award from World Press Photo, and other recognition from the Overseas Press Club, Ian Parry Scholarship, Best of Photojournalism, PDN Photo Annual, UNICEF, among others. He has been selected for a Getty Images Editorial Grant, PDN 30 Under 30, and took part in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. He was recently awarded the City of Perpignan Young Reporter Award.

via PhotojournalismLinks

Photo © Moises Saman-All Rights Reserved  

How wrong I was! I always dismissed the idea of photographing street life in Cairo by saying that there was nothing to photograph there...not much color, no vibrancy....but that began to change after the January Revolution. Was it a subconscious rejection of the then-prevailing environment? Or simply because I was blase about photographing in my own backyard...albeit one that I left for more than 30 years? Was it both? Perhaps.

That admission being made, I have to clarify that I speak only of street life rather than particular cultural subject matters, such as documenting Sufi rituals such as those I photographed a few years ago.

What changed my mind is the brilliant photo essay in The New York Times titled Cairo Undone by Moises Saman.  The photo essay (it's really a gallery as there's no storyline nor timeline) is of snapshots (I use this term very respectfully) of daily life in Cairo...the gritty, the edgy, the incomprehensible, the political and the anachronisms that dominate this teeming city.

I intended to post this as soon as I saw the photographs, but I was in Siem Reap and just couldn't find the time. I have viewed and re-viewed this work many times, and it revived in me a hunger to document facets of this city. Is it a nostalgic yearning? I doubt it...I don't think that way. It's similar to my documenting the Sufi rituals in various countries...that is nothing more than an intellectual and aesthetic pursuit.

It's the same for Cairo...nothing more nothing less. But time will tell.

Photo ©  Miguel Ángel Sánchez-All Rights Reserved

Since elections are going full steam ahead in Egypt, The New York Times' Lens blog has featured Portraits of Egyptians, a series of wonderful photographs by the talented Miguel Ángel Sánchez.

I absolutely love seeing photographic work of that nature...ethnographic to a large extent, and produced by borrowing the techniques of the Old Masters. Miguel Ángel Sánchez photographed 110 residents of Cairo in his studio; these included musicians, painters, politicians, writers, bloggers, shoeshiners, doormen, and the vendor of flowers above, which is absolutely my favorite amongst all of them. My least favorite is that of Zahi Hawass, the ex-Minister of Antiquities, not because of the image but because of the man himself. I don't know the man, but I developed an antipathy for his brash behavior and loudness in National Geographic television specials (as an example).

You will not find the photograph of the flower vendor on the Lens blog, but rather it's on Miguel Ángel Sánchez website. The flowers she's seen selling are jasmine, which are popular in Egypt for the powerful sweet smell. I believe the jasmine flowers sold on string strands are called "fol", and are popular in Egypt to deodorize one's car or to gift to one's sweetheart while strolling the city's gardens.

But back to the LENS blog...a comment was rather critical of the photographer for choosing to depict the Egyptians in Renaissance settings. I disagree. In choosing the lighting and poses similar to those we have seen so many times in museums and galleries the photographer creates acceptability for his subjects to the Western eye.

Photo © Elizabeth D. Herman-All Rights Reserved

While I'm here in Siem Reap, I am following the events in Cairo with mixed feelings...feelings of pride and anxiety. The outcome of the 'rebooted' Egyptian revolution is impossible to predict, but some pundits have describe the current events in Tahrir Square as Egyptians trying to reclaim their January 25 revolution from the military.

There are a number of recent photo essays from Tahrir Square, but I thought I'd feature the work of Global Post's Elizabeth D. Herman titled Egypt: Women of the Revolution.

This is a compelling gallery of 18 photographs along with captions that tell us the back stories of each photograph. Last month, Elizabeth Herman spoke to 13 Egyptian women about the media’s coverage of women’s involvement in the Egyptian revolution. Their roles were varied, as were their experiences and reactions to the revolution, with some having actively joined the movement and others forced to do so by circumstance. All have much to say about how it has affected their lives, and how their experiences are similar to — and different from —those of other Egyptian women.

As is customary whenever readers' comments on the news of the Egyptian revolution appear in The New York Times, Islamophobia and political agendas raise their ugly heads. Comments describing the Egyptian revolutionaries as 'savages', and others hoping that the upheaval would not harm Israel (presumably this being much more important than Egyptians having basic human rights) are sent to the newspaper and published without consideration.

And, of course...we have some of the US press indulging the American proclivity for inward introspection, narcissism, and insularity. Just take a look at TIME's cover for its US edition as compared to the rest of the world's.

Both hilarious and sad at the same time.

Photo © Tomas Munita-Courtesy The New York Times

Tomas Munita's photographs of Cairo are dark, saturated, brooding and shadowy. One of them shows a couple of policemen peering through the rear window of a bus parked near a mosque in a Cairo tourist area...and to my mind, an analogy of the current situation in Egypt. Shadowy powers, whether military or otherwise, incapable or unwilling to act.

The accompanying article by Neil MacFarquhar paints a bleak picture of a revolution that, after having taken the world by storm, has now stagnated...and is seemingly going nowhere.

Paralyzed by the weakness of a caretaker government that takes its marching orders from the shadowy military rulers known as the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt's economy is heading nowhere...and that's a charitable way of saying it. Stuck in an outdated autocratic mindset, the civilian and military authorities are both unwilling and incapable of instituting any meaningful societal and economical change.

The article quotes Emad Shahin,a professor at Notre Dame University as saying “Egyptians said they had a leaderless revolution, and they were so happy about it then. They are now paying a price for that.” In theory, perhaps that's true.

I watch the unfolding events in Egypt as most others do...with dismay and sadness. All I see for the time being for Egypt is what we witnessed in Myanmar. A subservient "civilian" government controlled by a shadowy military institution, or an outright military take-over of the government. As the fable goes, a wolf in sheep's clothing is still a wolf.

Egypt deserves an infinitely better future.

But back to photography. Compare Tomas Munita's photographs to Jehad Nga's work (mentioned earlier on this blog).

Photo © Jehad Nga-All Rights Reserved

One of my favorite photographers is Jehad Nga, and I've featured his work on many occasions on The Travel Photographer blog for his superb chiaroscuro work, for his distinctive photographic and visual style and for his choice of subject matter.

In recent interviews, Jehad shared that he was no longer interested in editorial work, but I'm glad he decided to feature recent work on Cairo on his website. Those who know his work will realize that the Cairo work is, in a way, more art than documentary-editorial.

There are two galleries relating to Cairo; one of which is Cairo Corners, in which his trademark unabashed shadow-play is clearly evident.

"I respond more to fashion and fine-art, carrying these fields and variables in photojournalism." -Jehad Nga

On a personal note...I've been urged by a number of Egyptians to photograph my homeland, and even to lead photo workshops there...not necessarily in Cairo, but to outer regions such as Siwa for example, which boasts a distinct culture. Such a workshop may well occur in the near future, especially as I pore over Jehad's beautifully crafted images. Is my hesitancy to photograph in Egypt caused by what I call the "native's blind eye"? I don't know....but Jehad's work certainly inspires me to see Cairo in a different light.

With the fall of Libya's regime, I thought I'd feature Yuri Kozyrev's On Revolution Road, a reportage on the past months' uprisings in the Middle East against the sclerotic and despotic regimes that governed these countries for decades.

Kozyrev's focus was on the youthfulness of the revolutionaries, their clever use of social media websites, their embrace (for the most part) of nonviolent protests as a political tool.

As an award-winning photojournalist for the past 20 years, Yuri Kozyrev has covered every major conflict in the former Soviet Union, including two Chechen wars. Immediately after September 11, 2001, he was on the scene in Afghanistan, where he documented the fall of the Taliban. He spent much of the past eight years based in Baghdad, as a contract photographer for TIME Magazine. He has traveled all over Iraq, photographing the different sides of the conflict.

AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini

I also thought I'd feature this priceless image of a man, wearing a t-shirt with the design of U.S. flag, taking part on Friday prayers at the main square of the rebel-held town of Benghazi, Libya, on August 12, 2011. It's part of a larger gallery in The Atlantic's In Focus.

Photo © Platon-Courtesy The New Yorker

The month of Ramadan has dawned on the Islamic world, and I thought I'd mark the event by posting Platon's images of the Egyptian revolutionaries, and in so doing wishing the Egyptian people a future they want and certainly deserve.

Be sure to view the accompanying short videos. You'll first have to suffer Goldman Sachs adverts, but just close your eyes while they play.

According to the news, Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, former interior minister Habib el-Adli, six of his aides and businessman Hussein Salem, are all charged with being involved in the killing of protesters during the 18-day revolt.

I'm not optimistic that the trial will be a speedy one, nor thorough. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it's postponed for a myriad of reasons...but the Egyptian people will eventually get justice. They must.