Ash Kodsy is a local tour guide in Cairo, Egypt speaking العربية (native), English

For years I wanted to visit the pyramids, but living in Cairo like many of the locals you would feel this option was available any time.

Believe it or not, my first visit was when I turned 18 and got a driver’s license. That visit grow some interest in them but did not go any further till one of neighbors motivated me to join tourism university in Cairo for Egyptology academic study. I had to decide quickly as the dead line for application would terminate in 3 days.

The sarcastic issue is I applied he didn’t.

With 5000 years of recorded history, the study was like a downpour of information that was extremely hard to absorb – no wonder.

My growing passion to such civilization started to flourish and gave me a real push to continue studying. Studying Egyptology is the other way around; you need to visit sightseeing you study before reading, than go back and visit again. I made nearly 40 visits to the Egyptian museum before the life exam where any one of us would be ready to offer his presentation of any statue (few hundred of 1000s of statues in the museum).

The final “oral exam” was the real challenge where a student would be examined in the whole of Egypt history in just 4 hours. With no time to think plus the tension many of us failed.

My real passion started maturing after I had got my license and work as a professional tour guide and being able to share with my guests what I have learned (and still learning)

After 33 years performing my job with the same enthusiasm I have realized that my passion to Egyptology is endless and I have been doing the right job.

It is a blessing from God indeed.