It will take me a long time to get through this, though I must admit I am finding it easier to read than I thought I would. I think it really is a diary, written at the time, unlike the earlier document.
It is quite a mixed bag. Some days we just get a handful of words, some days skipped entire, but other days we get a short story. The first page (inside cover) says simply:
B Benson 6122
"6" Flight [or C or G?]
14th Squadron
5th Wing
Royal Flying Corp
1916
Then we get the diary. The first few entries are quite short.
Saturday Jan 1
Struck all our tents and re-pitched them in the afternoon
Sunday the 2nd
On guard - fixed bayonets here tho none of us know how to use them. Mount at 8 a.m. Missed Service this Evening
Monday the 3rd
Odd jobs round Camp
Wednesdsay the 5th
Carting stones to aerodrome. Met an Australian named Moore who knew Hinckley and Barwell quite well. We are expected to be on parade shaved at 6.30 now - a most unreasonable demand. It is only just real daylight at that time so that with the small duration of the daylight our plight can be imagined. They expect us here with the disabilities of Active Service to do more than we did in England with all the conveniences of the barracks. It is not good enough.
Sat the 8th
Still stone laying. B.O. told me I should be in charge of the camera obscura here which X.A. Pare making shall be glad to get on it.
A "camera obscura" was used to track bombs, especially during practice. BO and XA could be titles?
The next entry is interesting...
Sunday the 9th
Half day so went to the pyramids. Took an electric car to Cairo and a tram to P. From Cairo it is 8 or 9 miles and the fare 1 piastre.[A piastre is an Egyptian penny] The trams are like Alexandrian ones. Most of the way was thro flat fertile country except for a slight rise just before the terminus. ???[looks like mule!] away the pyramid be right in full view straight ahead. There you ascend a steep hill with the P. towering over you. On the left is the Gt. P. with the other one a little to the right of it. Every 20 yds a native offers his services so we haggled with one and engaged him at 2 pt[piastre] each. He took u first round the right of the GtP so that we have a good impression of its height and immensity. A steady stream of adventurous spirits are climbing up and down one corner to and from its top. On our right lies the smaller pyramid. Its top is still smooth and looks as if the P itself has got a cap on.
Past the two P. which are part of a set of 9 we descend the slope of the hill, this loose shifting sand which comes over our boot top at almost every step. Here is an old tomb resembling a square pit with 2 coffins in it - one granite and the other alabaster. The guider ??? of some fantastic tale about them and we pass on to where a rounded sort of rock can be seen in the desert. This on approach resolves itself into the Sphinx. Passing by the f??? there was subdued sort of feeling amongst us as we viewed these remains of Egypt Greatness. The Sphinx should have augmented this, but the numerous crowd caused its reverse effect. We did the best we could, jumped on camels and had our photos taken.[That photo!] Close by are the ruins of the Sphinx Temple. If you could imagine Stone henge, square and underground you have it. You look down into an oblong excavation and see huge blocks of stone forming rude portal and chambers. This we pass on to that chief feature of all the P. Coming up on the side opposite to the one which we passed before, swing round the corner and ascend a few feet of the side.
At first there is a roadway, then you have to climb up two or three steps each about 3' high and you reach the entrance. We sat down and pulled off our boots. Then we left daylight behind and entered the 3' square hole in the rock. I was going to say we plunged on. If so there would be an end of us. Once inside there is a small tunnel, about the size of the entrance, sloping downwards at an angle of about 30°. That is why you take off your boots. Only your stockings give you sufficient grip. The tunnel is about 40 yds long and you slither down it as best you can illuminated only by the guide's candle. This tunnel ends suddenly with a 3' drop, a couple of yards where hands and knees barely bring you low enough and you are in a small chamber. There seems to be plenty of air tho' it is exceedingly warm.
Clambering up 6' of rock you go up a ||| tunnel.[Three close vertical lines; he might mean vertical?] All the way the passage is rendered precarious by reason of the numerous other visitors who are going in the opposite way. At the top of this slope a horizontal tunnel leads you into the Queen's Chamber, a high place with nothing in it except the place where her coffin originally lay. A strip of Mg ribbon lights up the ceiling - a series of shallow arches.[Mg is magnesium; it burns very brightly!]
Returning to the top of the tunnel and dodging a deep well on the left, you jump up another stone, ascend another tunnel and stand in a small place - its the centre of the P. A few ft further and you are in the King's Chamber. Across the floor is his coffin - of granite. Even here there is plenty of air. The guide shows us two air shafts here in the walls. Otherwise the chamber as ||| the Queens. Once back in the centre room of the P. you see that its height is almost unbelievable. In fact it goes almost to the apex of the structure. The King's body was let down here on interment. Here too you can see the huge size of the stones used and can speculate on enormous labour needed to get even one in place. More sliding and you once more reach the outer air to see the richness of Egypt sunset twice magnified by the darkness of the inside of that vast edifice.
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