Jasmin Wanderer

I will be absent from my computer until next weekend. Before leaving, I would like to tell about my nightly Jasmin search.....

My hotel at the Red Sea in Safaga, a little green place of peace and happiness in midst of a harsh desert, had a Jasmine bush full of flowers. Every evening I would visit it, approaching it carefully, testing from how far I might smell the flowers. Every evening, I would pick one little flower and bring it home to my room on the first floor, with a little balcony allowing me to see the calm sea beneath a black sky with twinkling stars all over it. I would place the little white flower on top of my bed and sleep in a blanket of Jasmine. A cover of velvety scent which is much softer than the absolute concentrate, less sweet, so clean and yet disturbingly…. dirty. I imagined how happy pharaohs have slept the calm sleep of a supreme, untouchable godlike being surrounded by scents of white flowers, myrrh and olibanum. I imagined how they have sent caravans to Nubian forests, to the highlands of Somalia and other far away places for the pleasure of scents. As a matter of fact, Hatschepsut, female Pharaoh and gifted with an architect who built a marvel of temple, the temple of Hatschepsut which still stands out in a modern line (see picture of this temple), this exceptional woman has sent out caravans to Somalia who brought back Frankincense trees. Trees that were planted at the foot of her temple and the roots of these trees can still be seen, conserved in the desert ground.
She has, in good company with other Pharaohs, managed to collect the labour of thousands, free men and slaves, in order to build monuments that last thousands of years for the glory of herself and her happy survival in the shadow world awaiting her on the other side of the river.

Today, we the tourists from countries where you can buy all the wonders of this world in malls, happy citizens who can travel to all places on this planet with a snip of their credit card, we have become Pharaoh like beings, sleeping our calm sleep in comfortable blankets, enjoying the beautiful scents of this world. But, we will never have a temple built like Hatschepsut has, as our malls are build for today, not for tomorrow.