In November, Crystal World founder and geologist Tom Kapitany embarked on 9 day trip across the Middle East and Egypt. His journey took him through the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Egypt, focused on education, networking with museums, collectors, and field teams — but also filled with culture, history, and moments of fun. Read below to follow his journey.
22 November 2025 — Abu Dhabi Natural History Museum Opening
The Abu Dhabi Natural History Museum is one of a new generation of natural history museums being built around the world. They have curated an extraordinary collection displayed in an architecturally spectacular facility by purchasing world‑class specimens, including dinosaurs, meteorites, and other treasures.
Creating a museum like this requires very deep pockets — probably a few billion dollars. It demonstrates cooperation between scientists, commercial dealers, field collectors, and private individuals. Unfortunately, members of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology often do not support projects such as this. Academics like Dr Thomas Carr (Carthage College) and Dr Mark Uhen (George Mason University) attempt to demonise the private resale of palaeontological specimens.
Two Tyrannosaurus rex specimens are on display: “Stan,” prepared by the Black Hills Institute (Pete and Neil Larson), and a new, unpublished specimen. Some academics refuse to study or publish specimens they cannot control, regardless of the potential discoveries.
The museum has not only acquired specimens but also hired world‑class palaeontologists and scientists across all fields of natural history, including Australian geoscientist Stephen Petkovski. I may be the only Australian attending this opening, and I’ll need a full day to take in the outstanding displays and science exhibited here.
The invitation‑only opening was delayed until 9:30 pm, but it was worth the wait. I’ll be returning to capture more photos and videos.
23 November 2025 — Abu Dhabi: teamLab Phenomena and the Louvre
Today I visited teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, just opposite the Natural History Museum. It was an amazing experience — visually spectacular, immersive, and unlike anything else.
Later, I explored the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The displays were outstanding, ranging from ancient artefacts to modern works, and even the restaurant café was excellent. Abu Dhabi continues to impress with the scale and quality of its cultural institutions.
24 November 2025 — Morning on the Giza Plateau
I’m staying in a boutique hotel complex run by individual owners. The owner, Gamal, doesn’t speak English very well, so we communicate mostly in Spanish mixed with English.
Tomorrow’s plans include visiting the pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum. Staying on the Giza Plateau is remarkable — only a four‑hour flight from Abu Dhabi, landing at the old airport. The drive through Cairo at night was fascinating, and the view from the plateau is breathtaking, surreal under the night sky.
25 November 2025 — Cairo Souk and Cottage Industry
My day was spent exploring the main Souk in Cairo and going behind the scenes into the cottage manufacturing industry. Artisanal work is mostly fragmented and focused on the cheap tourist market.
Cairo is a fascinating old city attempting to modernise, with a population of over 20 million people. Freeways are becoming well developed, though drivers don’t seem to understand that lane markers are there for a purpose. Traffic is chaotic, though accidents appear uncommon.
Police stand in the middle of the road with a frown on their face. Building standards probably don’t exist. Cats and dogs roam freely, sleeping on pathways regardless of pedestrian traffic.
Despite this, people are friendly and the food is great.
26 November 2025 — Giza Plateau Experience
Camels, horses, and dune buggies can take you up the Giza Plateau. Buses also provide easier walking options. I chose a carriage from the bottom, which was a little jarring on the body, but still an amazing experience.
I hadn’t thought Egypt was high on my bucket list, but now I know I need to come back to spend more time here. Tomorrow will be mostly a rest day with a change of hotel before I slowly start my trip home.
27 November 2025 — Geological Museum of Egypt
Visited the Geological Museum of Egypt. It’s an interesting collection with specimens from unusual localities, but the displays feel very dated and could probably use a million‑dollar upgrade. I added an image of the Nakhla meteorite, a highlight amid the older exhibits.
28 November 2025 — Byblos and Beirut
I woke up in Byblos, a town on the Mediterranean coast north of Beirut. Lebanon is a beautiful country, though politically unstable and often caught in conflict. Just days earlier, Israel had assassinated a Hezbollah leader in south Beirut, a reminder of how fragile the situation can be.
Yet the people I met were warm and welcoming, the food was excellent, and the history of the region was everywhere you looked.
My first stop was with Roland and Roy Nohra, who operate one of the Cretaceous marine fossil quarries. The strata here preserve remarkable specimens of fish, crustaceans, and occasionally rare vertebrates. Seeing the quarry operations firsthand reinforced how much science depends on field collectors and preparators working in difficult conditions.
Later that day I visited the MIM Mineral Museum, housed underground in vaults at the University of Beirut. Founded by Salim Edde, the collection is systematic and comprehensive, and easily ranks among the top three mineral collections in the world, if not the very best. Over two thousand specimens from around seventy countries are displayed with precision.
Beyond minerals, the museum also houses fossils from the region, including holotypes: a pterosaur named after the museum and the oldest known snake that still retains vestigial legs. It is extraordinary to see such a world‑class institution thriving in a country that faces constant instability.
29 November 2025 — Touring the Limestone Quarries
Roy and Roland Nohra took me on a tour of three local limestone quarries. These formations are Upper Cretaceous in age, deposited in a deep sedimentary basin under tropical conditions.
The Namoura quarries are primarily worked for ornamental stone used in landscaping and interior décor, but the same beds also yield scientifically valuable fossils. Walking through the mountain range, you can see how consistent the carbonate layers are, and how occasional fossiliferous lenses provide windows into ancient marine ecosystems.
Tomorrow I will continue with Joulia Quarry, which promises further insights into the region’s geology and fossil record.
30 November 2025 — Byblos and Hakel Quarries, Northern Lebanon
Byblos is extraordinary. It is regarded as the oldest city in the world with continuous habitation, settled around 8800 BC. Today it is a tourist destination that draws people from across the globe, and despite Lebanon’s wider instability, the north feels extremely safe, with little if any crime.
The citadel was built during the Crusades, and surrounding it are ancient temples and numerous tombs where remarkable artefacts have been found. Roman columns lie scattered around the citadel, shipped centuries ago from Egypt, and cannonballs are still embedded in the walls from battles fought about 150 years ago. Walking through the site, you feel the weight of millennia layered into the stone.
The modern town is equally welcoming. Arabic is the main language, but English is widely spoken and appears on most signage. The Lebanese pound has collapsed, so the US dollar is the dominant currency. The community here is dominantly Christian Catholic, and the Pope is visiting this weekend, which is a significant event for the region. The hospitality has been remarkable — people are friendly, the food is wonderful, and the company has made this leg of the journey memorable.
Later that day I travelled to Hakel (Haqil), where two quarries are now mined exclusively for fossils. The Nohra family owns one of these quarries, which has been worked for centuries. They have partially opened it for tourism, mostly catering to school groups but also arranging individual guided tours with a minimum fee of $100 and flexible group sizes.
In Hakel there is also a small museum containing local specimens mined by Roland and Roy’s father. It is historic, modest in scale, but rich in unique specimens that tell the story of the region’s fossil heritage. Both Roland and Roy maintain large private collections that are not currently displayed, saved for a potential future project.
I was fortunate to view some of Roy’s specimens, though I was battling a chest cold and only managed to see select highlights from his storage. Even so, the quality and rarity of the material were striking.
This day underscored how Lebanon’s fossil heritage is preserved not only in major institutions like MIM but also in family‑run quarries and small local museums. Combined with the ancient ruins of Byblos, it is clear that Lebanon’s contribution to science and culture spans from deep geological time to human history, offering lessons in resilience and preservation that resonate far beyond its borders.
Today was the perfect finale to an unforgettable journey, and I look forward to revisiting and spending more time exploring the natural wonders of this region.
