Taken in Cairo a few years back during a business trip using a Canon G3. A clear day in Cairo sort of looks like this at the end of day. There’s just so much dust in the air the sun appears to be behind clouds once it gets lower in the sky. Makes for some interesting shots.

I learned quite a bit about dust on this project (as did others that plagiarized my work). Did you know that if you were behind a tank in the desert creating a huge dust cloud you can’t even see your hand in front of your face (let alone breathe) that the actual amount of real dust in the air is only a few grams per cubic meter? Visual appearance would make you think there’s buckets of it, but there aren’t. Did you know that in a sandstorm the actual sand extends no higher 10 – 30 feet above the ground, and anything above that is just dust? And that sand moves via saltation, a process whereby sand particles only move a few feet in the air, land and bounce the next one up into the air, which in turn lands after a few feet and kick starts the next one? Thats the process by which dunes move. Did you know that dust from Sahara sand storms can reach the American continent? OK, enough of the lecture.

Another Cairo shot from a balcony at my hotel room. Judging by the number of satellite dishes Egyptians probably know a lot more about world affairs than one would think.