Africa

On Egypt’s Giza Plateau, six Old Kingdom tombs, constructed in the Fourth Dynasty (2890-2686 BC), are to be opened by the end of 2012. The most famous, that of Princess Meresankh III, granddaughter of the pharaoh Khufu, has been closed to the public for 25 years.

The other tombs were built for the overseer of the House of Life, the overseer of the soul priests, the overseer of the king’s farms, the overseer of the royal treasury and King Khufu’s treasurer. The restored tombs have façades, rock pillars, large chambers and decorated walls.

I saw the subscriber’s letter “On the Tarmac with Qatar Airways” (April ’12, pg. 26), regarding this airline and the long waits she endured on the tarmac. My wife, Margaret, and I have had a generally good experience with Qatar Air, with one exception.

I made reservations through Spiekermann Travel on Sept. 23, 2011, for a special Gulf Air bus to take me, on Dec. 3, from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, over the causeway to Bahrain to catch the airline’s flight 707 that afternoon to Addis Ababa. The cost for the bus and the plane together was $320.

These arrangements were confirmed in November by Spiekermann Travel via e-mail.

The subject of September’s photo can be found within the city of Gondar in Ethiopia. It is one of the 17th-century palaces in the Royal Enclosure.

14 days / 12 nights. Highlights: Kalahari elephants, lions in Chobe National Park, BOTSWANA / in ZIMBABWE, Mpisi village / Lake Kariba / game drives in Matusadona National Park / Victoria Falls. Land, from $5,579. From New York, from $7,009. Single supp., from $900. Book by Dec. 14, 2012, for $900-$1,000 discount. Discovery Tours by Gate 1 (Fort Washington, PA; 877 / 900-9777, www.discovery-tours.com).

by Charlotte Temple, Framingham, MA

I took the “Southern Africa Odyssey” trip with Odysseys Unlimited (Newton, MA; 888/370-6765) and it was mostly wonderful. However, my experiences with luggage handling at the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, left me with a very unpleasant aftertaste.

On Oct. 7, 2011, I flew from Portland, Oregon, to Washington (Dulles) and Johannesburg, then transferred with my luggage to a flight to Cape Town. Upon my arrival in Cape Town, I found that the lock had apparently been cut off my suitcase and my case had been rifled through.