In this episode (S02E08), Ben Song takes a time-space journey that transports him to Giza in Cairo in 1961. He suddenly appears in a tourist carriage at the foot of the Great Pyramids. The phrase he says when he realises where he’s at is: “Toto, I have the feeling we are not in Kansas anymore”, taken from the film The Wizard of Oz (1939) by Victor Fleming. This phrase, uttered in the film by the unforgettable Dorothy (played by Judy Garland) shows that Ben is in a distant and strange place, that he has just entered a world of fantasy and fiction. Like Oz, Egypt fulfils this function of strangeness and otherness in the Western gaze.
This cultural distance is emphasised in a sequence in which Ben looks for a way to get from Giza to the Mena House Hotel in Cairo. Walking through the desert, he suddenly meets a young Egyptian man on a motorbike who offers him a lift into the city in exchange for 20 dollars. Ben then asks him if he has a helmet or if the vehicle is insured. The Egyptian does not even respond to these demands, which are meaningless in the Egyptian context of the moment.
Further elements of interest appear in Ben's room at the hotel, which is decorated with multiple Egyptian artefacts (notably two statues of Anubis in the form of a jackal) and Islamic architectural elements. In addition, meetings to unveil the plans of other state agencies take place in antique shops in a Cairo bazaar, where Egyptian artefacts abound, such as the Berlin bust of Nefertiti, among others.

Interspersed throughout these sequences are spectacular images of the great monuments of Giza, the pyramids and the sphinx, with a clearly postcard perspective that reproduces these emblematic places for Western eyes.
The spy plot of this episode, with agents from different services, such as the CIA and the Stasi, means that these picture-postcard locations are integrated into the characters' adventures. Thus, Ben searches through the Kephren Valley temple for an Egyptian agent, Egyptologist and tour guide, Layla Adel. To avoid suspicious glances, Layla offers Ben a sightseeing tour of the sphinx, highlighting the obvious tourist aspect of these places from a European perspective.
If at first Layla is defined as a sexually promiscuous woman, her extensive experience in espionage is soon made explicit and the reference to her sex life is branded by other characters of the series as clearly sexist. This female empowerment is furthered by Layla's own words, as she claims to have stolen political secrets from King Farouk, in order to save the country and women from the tyrant's unjust treatment. In this way, Layla represents a symbol of Egyptian feminism that fought to liberate the country, although it did not work, as Layla herself claims.
Islamic Egypt is also profusely represented, through bazaar strolls and persecutions in mosques.
In short, the setting of this episode is mainly a touristy, picture-postcard Egypt, whose emblematic places serve as a backdrop for the intrigues and adventures of fully Western characters. In this respect, as is often the case, the Egyptian characters appear "westernised" or play no role at all throughout the episode.

Author: Abraham I. Fernández Pichel