Anba Hatre

Aswan, Egypt, Dec 2005: Anba Hatre is an earlier name of the 7th century Coptic Christian monastery of St Simeon- featured here in my previous post. During the exploration I shot some video on a very basic mini-DV camcorder, and due to this being my last tape I edited it all in camera to make […]

The Monastery

Aswan, Egypt, Dec 2005: After exploring some ancient tombs on the westbank of the Nile (featured here)- we decided to walk across the open desert to the ruined 7th century monastery of St. Simeon. It didn’t look far, but in the heat and harsh enviroment of the desert, it proved to be a bit more […]

Airbridge

Decrypt

Egypt, Dec 2005: Inspecting some ancient tombs on the westbank of the Nile- across from Aswan. They were completely off the tourist trail and not mentioned in any guidebooks. We eventually found a man who had keys to them and he let us in for a look- after a certain amount of “baksheesh” was paid. […]

Tokaora

Taranaki, NZ, September 2012: Unlike all the other abandoned schools I’ve photographed, this one has a happy ending… Tokaora school- which has been empty for at least a decade- now has new pupils. A nearby school had to move premises, so have given this little country school a new lease of life…

The Hejaz Railway – part 1

Syria, November 2005: When I learnt that the Hejaz Railway was actually still operational, I knew I had to ride it. I’d always admired David Lean’s classic 1962 film “Lawrence of Arabia”-and to actually ride the rails that T.E.Lawrence and his band of Arab rebels had so successfully attacked and destroyed- well it just had to […]

Knossos

Crete, Greece, April 2003: In Greek mythology, King Minos dwelled in a palace at Knossos where he had a labyrinth constructed in order to retain his son, the Minotaur. Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and considered Europe’s oldest city- the centre of the Minoan civilisation that flourished from approximately the […]

THB

Empire State

New York, February 2004: On my way back to Dublin, I stopped in New York… There had been a blizzard but the Empire State beckoned… Completed in 1931 in distinctive Art Deco style- its roof height at 381 meters (with antenna included 443.2m high)- it’s still one of the highest buildings on the planet- at number […]