Chapter 25 wilting is normal

Leaving Luxor to the east, we soon enter the vast desert.This desert is called the Eastern Desert, also known as the Arabian Desert. It is not the first time for me to walk through the desert, but I have just lamented the magnificence of human civilization in the ancient ruins, and stepped into the uninhabited wasteland in a few steps. I have never had such a contrasting experience.Not even a transition was given, which made the eyes immersed in the history and culture for a few days do not know where to put it aside, and seemed very flustered for a while. Everything stops.Without ancient and modern, without civilization and barbarism, without investigation and deduction, there is only one kind of surprise: it turns out that human beings only move in such a small space, and our history is just a thread, floating in the gap between the red land and the barren sun. .

In the African desert in front of me, the sand is not thick.All the high and convex places are actually solid rocks, but they are covered with a layer of sand.But these solid stones have no edges and corners at all from the outside, they are the same color as sand and the same shape as mud. flock to the distance. In the distance, nothing but the horizon. Occasionally, there will be a miracle: a tree will suddenly grow out of the barren gravel. It is as graceful as a cover, green and flawless, and even a leaf is not withered and yellow.What's going on here, did Mother Earth alone bury a long and thin nutrient pipeline for it?But nutrition alone is useless, because it must also face the evaporation and deprivation day and night, and fight against the terrible loneliness and loneliness.

From this association, the birthplace of some human civilizations may be just like these trees, struggling to find a small possibility among millions of impossibilities.Judging from the clumps of leaves, it seems to be a climate; judging from the overall environment, they are always in danger, and no one can guarantee their survival period. Some people are puzzled by the final withering of the major civilizations. In fact, what is really worth wondering is how one of them can continue to be anomalous, and withering is normal. Just thinking about it, the scene in front of me changed. I looked at my watch and it was past four o'clock in the afternoon, and dusk began to come.The sand gradually turned dark blue, but the sun on the sand hill became brighter and brighter.Not long after, the color changed again, some of the hilltops turned into a fire color, and some of the hilltops turned into a rouge color. The color blocks were shrinking towards the top, and the dazzling ingredients had disappeared, leaving only the gorgeousness of evening makeup.The convoy finally drove out of the sand and hills, and there was a thousand hectares of flat desert in front of them.It was already dusk, and the mountains in the distance were all hazy in a blue-purple haze.At this time, there is no variegated color between the sky and the earth, only the same tone is changing the shade of light and shadow, and this consistency makes the twilight even majestic.

Unexpectedly, the thousand hectares of flat desert only let us watch for a while, and the convoy rushed into the desert valley, with towering dangerous rocks on both sides, steep and hideous, and at first glance, it was like walking into the scorched Huangshan and Lushan Mountains.Tianhuo harvested the green grass and pines, waterfalls and flowing clouds, leaving only bare bones and muscles piled up here. As if to comfort something, the western sky still left a touch of soft and colorful pastel color, caressing on the back of the rock, and the bright moon in the desert is already shining brightly in the sky.

I think all of this has nothing to do with human civilization, but it is undeniably magnificent and eternal.What human beings have done is to quietly find a small environment suitable for their own living. It should be noted that a few steps away is a vast desert. Civilization is not easy, and it should be cherished. October 17, 1999, Hurghada, eastern Egypt, overnight at Pick Albatros Hotel