Archive for December, 2007

Nevine El-Aref from Al-Ahram Weekly sums up the most interesting archaeological events of 2007 — all part of this year’s work for Egyptologists: • Identifying the mummy of the female Pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut • Uncovering the real face of the boy-king Tutankhamun • Restoring the Step Pyramid of Djoser • Reopening the Kuttub Khana • Discovering a New Kingdom... »

Egypt is to pass a law requiring payment of royalties whenever its ancient monuments, from the pyramids to the sphinx, are reproduced. Zahi Hawass, the charismatic and controversial head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the move was necessary to pay for the upkeep of the country’s thousands of pharaonic sites. “The new law will... »

Months after Egypt boldly announced that archeologists had identified the mummy of Hatshepsut, scientists in a museum basement are still analyzing DNA from 3,500-year-old corpse to try to back up the claim aired on TV. Progress is slow. So far, results indicate the linen-wrapped mummy is most likely, but not conclusively, the female pharaoh who... »

Abu Minqar, 404 miles southwest of Cairo, had previously been a bleak moonscape before the government began drilling for water in 1987 in the vast Nubian Sandstone Aquifer. Now, this area is a green stretch of wheat fields and lemon trees. Reclaiming Egypt’s desert lands, which cover about 96 percent of the nation’s territory, has... »

Situated on the Mediterranean along Egypt’s north coast, Alexandria is a city of legend. This is where Euclid sired geometry, Aristarchus deduced that the Earth revolved around the sun (about 18 centuries before Copernicus) and, of course, the young Alexander the Great founded the city as his capital in 331 B.C. The city flourished through... »

An Egypt Exploration Society team of archaeologists, led by Cardiff University professor Paul Nicholson, has rebuilt an ancient glass furnace following the same methods used by Egyptians some 3,000 years ago. It was previously thought that the ancient Egyptians might have imported their glass from the Near East during that time. But with reconstructing the... »

Egyptian artist Taha al-Korany worked seven years to produce the largest mural in the world, entered in the Guinness Book of Records. The painting, now on display at the Cairo Opera House, is 23 meters (aprox. 75 feet) long and depicts images of street vendors, female sellers carrying their infants and buyers bargaining for... »

The Egyptian Tourism Authority (ETA) has announced plans to drive more health tourism to the country. And to kick start its campaign, Cairo will host an international conference on health and therapeutic tourism on December 11. The development of Health Tourism in Egypt was initiated through cooperation between the Ministry of International Cooperation and The Office... »

The ancient Egyptians were always ready to party and celebrate. In fact almost all the days in the year they seemed to be celebrating something or a god. In ancient Egypt, crop failures and the resulting famine are suspected as being at least in part the cause of several intermediate periods of governmental collapse between... »

Now, I can’t even remember why Egypt wasn’t a top destination for me. Maybe it was the travel — 10 hours there from New York, 12 hours back. But too many positive experiences have washed the Egypt Air plane ride from my memory, leaving the country’s color, smiles, tastes and a camel ride in... »