My involvement in Cairo coincided with my falling in love, so it has a unique place in my affections. I had spent a week travelling up the Nile by train. When I got to Cairo, I met a Belgian girl who lived there. She took me around the city and both she and it completely turned my head.

Initially, I was seduced by the orientalism of Cairo. Later, I became fascinated by the way that the past and present rub up against each other. Despite having been ruled by foreigners for such a long time, the Egyptians have retained their own identity. Islam and Christianity were imposed on them, Greek Roman, Persian and Turkish governments ruled them bringing their own laws and language, yet they are still recognisably different from their neighbours.

My wife and I go back every year for at least a month, but recently I have felt that I ought to stop because I hate seeing things I know disappearing. After the earthquakes, a lot of the mosques were damaged and are still covered in scaffolding or have been clumsily restored. But when I get off the plane and smell the air, which has a uniquely earthy smell of thousands of years of humanity in one place, it does something to me.

• The Pharaoh's Story: Travels in Ancient and Modern Egypt by Anthony Sattin, is published by Victor Gollancz at £20.