Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 201
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[Page 201]
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across the rich flat irrigation areas to Ghiza [also spelt Giza], and dispersed into the bell tents awaiting us in the wide shallow sandy valley along the west side of the stony ridge on which stood the three famous pyramids, Cheops, Khefren and Mena. The camp was named the "Mena Camp", and we were to live and train there for nearly fifteen weeks, always within sight of the Great Pyramids one of the seven wonders of the ancient world: before I had been in the camp an hour I had hurried up to take a closer look at Cheops; a pilgrim from the newest country on Earth looking in awe at the work of perhaps the oldest.
The whole of the First Australian Division (artillery, engineers, infantry, and medical and supply units) was assembled in this valley in one big tented camp, the twelve infantry battalions being camped in one long line fronting a long bitumen road running the full length of the valley. The First Australian General Hospital occupied most of the big Mena House Hotel nearby; a fashionable Winter resort of wealthy European tourists in prewar days. Divisional headquarters, all in tents and marquees, was alongside the hotel and just inside the main entrance to the camp.
To most of us Egypt was known as one of the most ancient, mysterious and interesting of all lands, already many centuries old, even in Biblical times. Seat of a former highly organised and powerful civilization of unknown origin, and possessing an exotic and artistic culture that was quite unique. Moreover, Alexandria with its great library and host of Greek scholars was the greatest cultural centre known in the time of Christ; it even eclipsed Rome then, and would certainly have supplanted that city as the capital of the Roman Empire, almost at its greatest extent, if Mark Antony had not lost the battle of Actium.
So, to arrive in the "Land of the Pharaoes" and stand in front of its most famous relics, was an impressive and exciting experience for a young man not long left school.
But we were not there as so-called "six-bob a day tourists", the gibe of the demagogues who opposed Australia's participation in the war overseas, and there was no delay in getting on