The camel is an amazing beast! He is perfectly adapted to survive in the desert. A camel can stand out in the hot sun without being uncofortable, insulated by his coat which keeps him warm at night and insulates him from the sun by day.

Look at his nostrils- they close with flaps to keep out the sand when the wind blows. His mobile lips gather up anything good to eat. A camel can subsist on the poorest vegetation. Our camels nibbled old dried up thorny bushes! They can go for a long time without drinking. They do not sweat, except a little behind the ears. The camel's feet are amazing! They are big pads like baloon tires, which adapt to the terrain. Out Eqyptian guide told us a camel can step on a boiled egg without breaking it! Camels are also good to eat, we were told.

Camels are used for riding, for beasts of burden, for racing, for pulling carts and ploughs!
A pack camel can carry 1000 pounds! The camels in Egypt come from the Sudan.
Here are the Camel Cops at the Pyramids in Egypt:

This shows the correct way to ride a camel, sidesaddle with your right foot hooked behind your left. They get the camel to go by prodding it with their feet, preferably bare feet. They guide the camel with voice commands and a stick. The lead rope seems to be used mostly for getting the camel to kneel. To make the camel kneel you hiss in the back of your throat! Camels have 4 gaits, the walk, the running walk (although the ones we rode weren't gaited) the pace, and the gallop. I did the walk and pace, which feels like a rough trot on a horse. It does not have the sideways motion that the horse's pace does. The camel's walk has a lot more action than the horse's. I would think that galloping a camel would be very precarious!

Camels are very patient. They do not seem to ever shy of become frightened. In disposition they are a bit standoffish, but if treated kindly are very affectionate. Here is Souso, the camel I rode in Jordan, giving his boy a kiss.

If you piss off a camel, it will spit at you. Fortunately, we did not piss them off! Camels can also do neat things, like drinking a coke right out of the bottle:

This Camel was in Jerusalem, and loved to perform this trick for the tourists.