Ancient city uncovered in Egypt
A team of US archaeologists has discovered the ruins of a city dating back to the Neolithic period in Egypt’s Fayum oasis.
The site is just seven kilometers from Fayum lake and would probably have lain at the water’s edge at the time it was inhabited by the first farmers 7,000 years ago.
The remains consist of walls and houses in terracotta or dressed limestone as well as a large quantity of pottery and the foundations of ovens and grain stores. An electromagnetic survey has also revealed the existence of a network of walls and roads similar to those constructed during the Greco-Roman period.
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/509707-ancient-city-uncovered-in-egypt
Light of Aten didn’t shine equally for everyone
Skeletal remains recently found at Amarna paints a picture of extreme suffering for the people forced to build an inhabit the ancient city of Akhetaten (The Horizon of Aten), very different from the murals depicting the ruling class blessed by the beneficial light of the Aten.
The area, 200 miles north of Thebes (Waset) is an inhospitable desert plain beside the River Nile. Akhetaten has been measured at 6 by 3 miles, a huge size then, built in 15 years and housing up to 50,000 people.
For more than a century archaeologists looked in vain for any trace of the abandoned city’s dead. But recently, British archaeologists made a breakthrough when they found human bones in the desert, which had been washed out by floods. Originally thought to be of a later period, surrounding pottery confirmed that the remains were from people who worked and lived during the 18th Dynasty. They also reveal a grim picture of disease, injuries, poor nutrition and a short life span as a result of hard working and living conditions during the rule of pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7209472.stm
Egypt Pyramids win the "Oscar"
The World Travel Awards (WTA), known as the “Oscars of the Travel Industry”, chose the Giza Pyramids as the world’s leading attraction in 2007 during its fourteenth annual ceremony held at the Beaches Turks and Caicos Resort and Spa in the Caribbean.
Established in 1993, the WTA acknowledges, rewards and celebrates the enormous achievements found in all sectors of the global travel industry. Awards are especially coveted as the votes are cast globally by 167,000 fellow professionals from 198 countries.
Also, the Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh in the Red Sea coast won the World’s Leading All-Suite Hotel award.
Archaeologists discover mummies from Greco Roman period in Egypt
Archaeologists have discovered several well preserved mummies, covered with cartonage, from the Greco Roman period in Fayoum, Egypt.
“One of the caskets contained a badly decayed mummy with a golden face mask,” said Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Some of the mummies were covered with eight layers of linen and tied with rope,” he added.
The mission also unearthed three caskets, dating back to the Ptolemaic Age and adorned with funeral paintings from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.
The mission also discovered necklaces, other jewelery and cloth painted with an anchor and key motif.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=320478
Rare Middle-Class Ancient Egyptian Tomb Found
A relatively modest tomb, belonging to a fifth dynasty priest and politician named Neferinpu, was discovered at Abusir, near modern-day Cairo.
The tomb’s burial chamber, a tiny room about 33 feet (10 meters) below ground packed with offerings and personal effects, had remained undisturbed for nearly 4,500 years.
“It is rare to unearth intact burials of upper-middle class officials such as Neferinpu—a tier below extravagant royal burials but more elaborate than those of the lower classes”—said Miroslav Barta, the Czech archaeologist who led the excavation.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080118-egypt-tomb.html
Egypt & India to sign visa-free travel deal
India’s government agreed to signing an agreement with Egypt on the abolition of visa requirement for holders of diplomatic and official passports, according to the Indo-Asian News Service. It will also facilitate the issuance of residence visa valid for the duration of the assignment to members of diplomatic or consular missions. The agreement will allow a citizen of either country to stay in the other country for a maximum period of 90 days without a visa. India has similar agreements with 35 other countries.
http://www.ameinfo.com/144087.html
Male Belly Dancing Makes Comeback in Egypt, Defying Suppression
Male belly dancing, a centuries-old Egyptian tradition, is making a comeback — against the odds, considering its periodic suppression by government and religious officials.
A carved relief at a pharaonic-era tomb near Cairo shows today’s dance prohibitions were yesterday’s norm. It depicts a chorus line of men at a religious festival; each wears a sash knotted on his left hip, a fashion for dancing men and women that lingers today.
Male performers were once considered more reputable than females. In his book “The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians,” Edward William Lane, an Englishman and prominent Arabic scholar who lived in 19th-century Cairo, observed that male dancers were preferred by Cairenes who thought women “ought not to expose themselves.” From 1834 to 1849, women dancers, known as ghawazee, were banned from the city.
During the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser, male belly dancing all but disappeared because it smacked of monarchical decadence. Nasser took over Egypt in 1954, two years after King Farouk was overthrown by military officers.
No one knows the number of male — or for that matter, female — dancers now. There is no belly-dance association, an indication of the profession’s seedy reputation. (Belly dance is a Western term invented by the French; Egyptians call it simply Oriental or “homegrown” dance.)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=atLloMTgRlEg&refer=europe
-
-
Translator
By N2H
