I'm giving plenty of notice of this for several reasons.

I'll be at Giza from 23 February so let me know if anyone has any photographs they'd like taken.

Something new this time is that I'll have a Hand Held GPS with me. It will include an altimeter and compass if I get the one I'm thinking of.

This is a completely new thing for me and I know little about it but it should be interesting.

I'm hoping it will help me navigate to points I've spotted on Google Earth as I've found so often that once I'm on the ground I just can't work out where I am. I'm particularly talking about the Southern area beyond Giza where I've walked and ridden but usually been completely lost.

Last time, for instance, a long and eventually only partially successful search for the Layer Pyramid should have been much easier if I'd had the ability to zero in on it's co-ordinates. (I had to give up in the end but not before I'd eventually spotted it on the horizon).

But I'd also be interested in anything else that anyone can think of that a GPS meter could be usefully used for on the Giza Plateau. I'll have the luxury of time as I stay at Giza and will probably spend several days on the plateau. So I'm giving plenty of notice for people to have a think of anything I could do or record or come up with Google co-ordinates that I might be able to reach.

The tolerances on the positioning that you can achieve with GPS isn't easy to establish as it varies according to a lot of variables. It might be no better than 20 feet. Which means a point could be up to 40 feet off. But with any luck it will be much better than that and the altimeter should be accurate to about 10 feet for an absolute value above sea level and much better than that for relative heights on the plateau itself.

I've got a few requests already for Giza but even if you've already let me know if you could PM with details again I'd appreciate it.

I'll also be paying a visit to the EES Library in a few weeks to check on references etc to take with me.

I'm looking forward to travelling with a GPS but I'm also quite prepared to be totally baffled by it as maths really isn't my thing and I have absolutely no sense of direction.

If anyone has a knowledge of using Hand Held GPS then I'd be interested in any advice.

Saqqara and Dahshur will also be on the itinerary but I keep things flexible and plans could change.

Jon

www.egyptarchive.co.uk