Archive for October, 2008

A speeding tourist bus overturned in southern Egypt, killing six Belgian tourists and injuring 26 other Belgian passengers early Friday. The bus crashed en route from Aswan to Abu Simbel, a famous tourist attraction. Twenty one of the injured had been taken to the Abu Simbel International hospital. Egypt’s state-run news agency MENA said four... »

There have always been collectors of antiquities, especially when you consider the status of having a marble bust of a Roman emperor greeting your guests in the foyer. By the 17th century the art of ancient Egypt was discovered and again students and collectors got involved. By the late 19th century British excavations stirred the... »

Immortal Cities: Nile Online is a persistent browser-based empire building game set in ancient Egypt. Play with thousands of other players as you construct cities and monuments worthy of your legacy as Pharaoh! Nile Online is casually paced; it’s something you can play throughout the day, minutes at a time. The game is free... »

Image by joelogon via Flickr Now integrated into the sculpture halls of the Egyptian Museum’s permanent exhibition, works by Giacometti from the Sammlung der Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung in Zurich invite visitors to listen in to a dialogue between artists as they communicate with each other in a common language of forms which traverses several millennia. By... »

Egypt was awarded the prestigious title of Outsourcing Destination of the Year at the National Outsourcing Association’s 2008 Awards held in London, beating rivals Philippines and Romania to the accolade. The CEO of Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency, (ITIDA) Dr. Hazem Abdelazim, received the award on behalf of his government during a glamorous... »

Image via Wikipedia Global financial crisis and its impact on the Egyptian economy may mean lower tourism revenue this year, according to Egypt’s minister of tourism. Zohair Garanah said in an interview on Oct. 23 that the private sector is panicking because of the economic turmoil and is starting a price war, which will harm the... »

Amal Suleiman Afifi , Egypt’s first female marriage registrar performed her first wedding ceremony at a mosque in the Delta town of Zaqaziq, north of Cairo, over complaints by some conservative clerics. Many conservative clerics believe Islamic law, or Sharia, prohibits a woman from becoming a registrar because it states the testimony of two women... »

by Joyce Tyldesley A new biography of the Macedonian ruler attempts to debunk many myths surrounding her legacy. Egyptologist Tyldesley (Egypt: How a Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered, 2006, etc.) digs deeply into Cleopatra’s life, piecing together a unique portrait of her successes and failures. Many biographers focus too much on Cleopatra’s reputation as a temptress, but... »

10 Oct. 2008 – 8 Feb. 2009 Glypkotek, Copenhagen, Denmark Around 1890, the brewing magnate, Carl Jacobsen, founder of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, engaged Denmark’s leading Egyptologist, Valdemar Schmidt, to create an Egyptian collection in the newly-planned museum, and in the course of the following 35 years, Schmidt succeeded in putting together a collection of ancient... »

(Photo by Charles Domingue) Despite the fact that approximately 300,000 people from 45 tribes lead a nomadic existence in Egypt, according to Founder of the EDPS Walid Ramadan, they are almost always forgotten. Marginalized and misperceived, these tribes continue to uphold and develop their unique value systems and traditions, formed in the unforgiving beauty of... »