David Down
David Down became interested in the subject of archaeology when, in 1958, he took his family on an adventurous journey by car and home-built caravan all the way from India to England. As it was a never-to-be-repeated journey of a lifetime, he did the thing properly, parking the caravan among ancient ruins, sometimes for days on end, while he explored them thoroughly. The round trip took the best part of a year and after that David assured his long-suffering wife that he had got the travel bug right out of his system.
Nine years later he was back, leading the first of what were to become the annual Diggings Tours. That first tour had to be cut short when the Six-day War broke out between Israel and its Arab neighbours, but instead of becoming discouraged, the experience only whetted David's appetite for archaeology and adventure. In 1969 he returned to the Middle East and shortly thereafter began his annual lectures on Egyptology in the Sydney Opera House.
David's style of lecturing is relaxed and friendly. He knows his subject inside-out and the enthusiasm he displays is catching. As a result of listening to him, people not only want to visit the Middle East and see the pyramids for themselves, they want to do so with him! Hence the tours and everything else.