The festival honors four Egyptians; veterans actor Mahmoud Yassin, actress Boussy, Director of Photography Tarek el-Telemessany and set designer Nihad Bahgat. It also honors a number of Hollywood stars, including Kurt Russell, Denzel Washington, Charlize Theron, and Alicia Silverstone. US movie celebrities attending the festival include Director Stuwart Townsend, US actor Martin Henderson and British actress Julia Armond. Add to the star-studded list Susan Sarandon who won an Oscar for best actress in Dead Man Walking (1995), Goldie Hawn who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Cactus Flower (1969) and Mira Sorvino who won Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite (1995).

Egypt State Information Service

In the tourist resort of Nuweibaa, some 150km north of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Gulf of Aqaba, a nongovernmental organization called Himaya (protection) is helping needy Bedouins. It collects and sorts garbage, selling some of the solid waste to cover costs and making the organic waste available free of charge to Bedouins it deems need help, allowing them to sell it on. Proceeds from the sale of the solid waste also help Himaya fund regional development projects, such as the renovation of classrooms in primary schools in South Sinai. Another is the creation of green spaces in urban areas.

Middle East Online

Image via Wikipedia

Jane Akshar of Luxor News has posted an article by Ray Johnson, Director of the Epigraphic Survey Chicago House about the urban renewal program in Luxor and its effects on the local population, tourism, antiquities preservation, and the archaeological community. The following is an excerpt:

Since I started working for the Epigraphic Survey in 1978, I have witnessed the transformation of Luxor from a sleepy, charming, provincial town into a 21st century tourist mecca. In 1978 the horse and carriage and a few battered Mercedes were the main modes of transportation; Peugeots came later, and I remember when the first big tour bus hit town in the 1980s. I have witnessed a series of development programs that were launched largely due to increasing tourism. The most radical until now was the riverbank development project of the late 1980s that transformed the natural, tree-lined riverbank of Luxor into a concrete, terraced mooring and touristic area four kilometers long. In that project the existing infrastructure along the Corniche was respected, the riverbank was extended outward, the Corniche was widened, and a pedestrian walkway with garden areas was created along the edge of the riverbank for the local families and tourists alike which is still tremendously popular with everyone.

This current development program is the most ambitious one to date and is more radical than anything ever seen (even in the pharaonic period, which is saying something). As has been stated, the program has its good and its bad points.

The issues that the new development program address have been of concern to the Government of Egypt (GOE) and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) for a long, long time, but until now the SCA alone did not have the resources to deal with them properly. The main issues are:

1. The need to enlarge and upgrade Luxor’s infrastructure and antiquities site facilities to accommodate radically expanded tourism, east and west bank.

2. The encroachment of the modern community on antiquities sites, east and west bank.

3. The excavation and development of new antiquities sites (like the sphinx road between Luxor and Karnak temples) for tourism, but which (the thinking goes) will also safeguard the sites from future encroachment.

As most of you know by now, the Chicago House facility and its neighbors along the several kilometers of the Luxor Corniche are being directly affected by a new Corniche widening and development program sponsored by the GOE. Chicago House can live with these changes. But some of our neighbors are not so fortunate. One of the saddest parts of Luxor’s new development program is that rather than encouraging the mingling of the tourists with the local population, which enriches the visitors’ experience (and generates valuable income for the locals), the GOE’s policy promotes segregation of the two groups.

A related issue is the encroachment of the modern community on the antiquities sites. The city’s clearing of the residential area around Karnak and creation of a huge plaza all the way to the river, occurred at the same time the residents of Gurna and Dra Abu El Naga were moved from their homes - which were then torn down - and re-settled in the newly constructed community of New Gurna to the north. This form of site management - clearing away all modern encroachment from the vicinity of antiquities sites - has been the ideal of the GOE and SCA for generations, conceived when there were far, far fewer buildings around Karnak or houses over the Gurna necropolis.

As has been noted, the sad reality for the scientific community and local population in Luxor - and in many cultural heritage sites all over the world - is that the prime motivation for the city’s new development program is increased tourism. The entire GOE is behind Luxor’s program, and the goal is clear: to create the means by which the maximum number of tourists can visit the maximum number of sites in the shortest time possible. The challenge of our community is to continue our conversation with the city, the SCA, and the local population to help Egypt mitigate any potentially negative affects on the antiquities sites that we are all committed to preserve.

Click on Luxor News for the full article.

“Can you believe our government can do nothing for us, and this thing that was built thousands of years ago is still helping me feed my family?”

Image by liber via Flickr

For citizens and foreigners alike, there is no escaping the truth that Egypt is inextricably linked in the public consciousness with pyramids, especially the Great Pyramids of Giza. Yet living in the shadow of past greatness is not always easy.

The pyramids are proof of Egypt’s endurance but these monuments to Egypt’s early ingenuity are also an ever-present symbol of faded glory. It is hard to escape comparisons between an Egypt that once led the world in almost everything and modern Egypt, where about 40 percent of the population lives on $2 a day.

The ubiquitous nature of antiquities has helped mold a collective consciousness, a national identity, that is uniquely Egyptian.

Egyptians, as a group, are extremely patient, though given the growing pressure of daily life, a bit less than they used to be. Their it-is-what-it-is attitude is often attributed to a strong religious faith and a conviction that all events are God’s will. Yet growing up and living amid so much history has something to do with that view, too; the abundant antiquities in everyday life are a constant reminder of one’s place in time.

These days, Egypt is rarely spoken of in a positive context. The education system is in crisis, and unemployment, traffic and pollution are all major problems. Top to bottom, the state seems to have seized up. When the historic Parliament building burned recently, firefighters bungled for hours before bringing the blaze under control. When a rock slide crushed a neighborhood, the authorities responded slowly, infuriating rather than rescuing. And at nearly every level, there is anxiety over who will rule when Mubarak is gone. The president, who is 80, refuses to clarify the issue of succession and seems out of touch with daily life in his country. His son Gamal Mubarak, who appears positioned to inherit the job, says that it is premature to discuss succession.

And there is ample evidence that Egypt itself can be expected to continue to endure. It may be down for the moment, but this country has survived the test of the time, a lot of time, where so many others have not.

Excerpted from an article by Michael Slackman for International Herald Tribune

Image by ©M o c c a . CHOCOLATA via Flickr

Forty-five tribes have populated Egypt’s deserts for millennia and yet their existence remains a mystery to the country’s urban masses. The Characters of Egypt Festival aims to showcase their ways of life. The aim of the festival is to provide a meeting opportunity for representatives of the various tribes that have inhabited different corners of Egypt’s deserts for thousands of years without previously encountering one another. Injy El-Kashef was there with his son Yassine.

“By the end of our stay Yassine and I were revived. I was purified from my urban burdens, and filled with the joy that only comes from experiencing genuine life. My son, whose expanding curiosity about the world we inhabit was satiated by the incredible amount of information he processed while having fun, has now learned about traditions, camel riding, fire- making, track reading, plants, astrology, and, most importantly in such speedily globalising times, about diversity. He has sung with the Nubians, eaten the Ababda’s food, heard the poetry of Sinai, balanced on the dancing poles of Siwa, jumped rope with the Farafraweya and prayed with the Bishariya for rain.”

Abdeit bism elli ala al alam rageeb
Ya khaleg al ensan min teenen rateeb
Wi khaleg al jannat l’eshhab al habib
Wi khalagt elli wogoudha nass wi hajar
Al khatawi elli megassemha al kareem
Wel hagawi besaheb al arsh al azeem
Wi a’oudhou berrahman min sharr al rajeem
Westakhert Allah wi naweit al safar
Min ard Sina elli biha esht wi radeit
Wi shebe’t fiha min al maaani wertaweit
Wi katabt beit al she’r yom enni naweit
Ajabel wojouh al nashama wabtesher
Ehna doyouf Allah fi Marsa Alam
Fiha rajal, fiha hayaa, fiha karam
Wi fiha osoud yeshhad lahom hebr al galam
Wi yeshhad lahom seif al maragel fil khatar
Wi magsoum li fi rehleti aaref naas
Min sobou’ al badeya khayr al jenas
Yengedou koll el maani bel ehsas
Wakhoss nasen tefham bebo’d al nazar
Wi taheyya lel sho’aar fi yom al sebag

I begin, in the name of He who watches over the pen,
O Creator of man from damp clay
And Creator of Heaven for the Prophet’s companions
And Creator of that the men of which are fuel.
Steps are divined by the Provider,
And supplications are raised to the God of the Throne,
The Merciful is my shield against the Devil’s evil.
I prayed for Allah’s guidance intending on travel
From the land of Sinai whence my content living,
Where I have wandered and quenched my thirst.
I wrote these verses the day I sought
To meet the faces of brave men and rejoice.
We are Allah’s guests in Marsa Alam
Where we found manhood, grace and generosity,
Lions, to which attest the ink of our pens
And the chances of valor in menace;
I am destined to encounter on my travel
Lions among the Bedouins, finest of races,
Safeguarding values with their passion.
To the foresighted I dedicate my words,
And salute the poets on this day of match.

The above lines are by Sinai’s tribesman Haj Hussein Eid, winner of the Characters of Egypt poetry award.

Extract from an article by Injy El-Kashef for Al-Ahram Weekly

The elaborately-painted Hetep-Bastet coffin and the mummy inside, a woman who was in her 60s when she died, likely in part due to a broken hip and abscessed cavity, are on loan to the museum, which plans to hand the ancient wooden coffin back to its owner, the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), in far better condition than when it left.

As part of the restoration, curators are taking paint that has flaked off and reattaching it to the surface of the sarcophagus, gluing the broken wooden fragments together, and cleaning the coffin with a vacuum and soft brush to remove modern blue paint on the lid.

The public is invited to watch on Nov. 19, 20 and 25 as curators restore the coffin.

Once the work is complete, the coffin will be on display as part of the exhibit Tombs of Eternity: The Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, which opens Dec. 19.

CBC News

Image by Abe WORLD!!!! via Flickr

“Unlocking the Great Pyramid” (8 p.m. Sunday). So the Egyptians just used a giant ramp to cart those 2-ton stones up to the top, right? Actually, there’s no way that happened, despite what you saw in the movies.

In this program Nat Geo contributor Bob Brier teams up with French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, who in early 2007 announced he had figured out how the Egyptians got their rocky mountains so high. Using sophisticated software, he could show how workers carted those stones to a height of nearly 500 feet above ground.

Brier — who has been Houdin’s biggest champion in the English-speaking world — is an eager co-conspirator and an enthusiastic guide. He’s able to turn this seemingly dry scientific story into one of those whodunits where the detective is personally invested in solving the case.

Other ancient mysteries airing later in “Expedition Week” are the mummy caper “Mystery of the Screaming Man” (8 p.m. Friday) and “Herod’s Lost Tomb” (8 p.m. Nov. 23; yes, the “Week” is actually eight days).

KansasCity.com

Although its closing was supposed to happen on September 28, the organizers decided to extend the exhibit until Nov. 15, and now until the end of the year, according to sources from the organization.

“Egypt’s Sunken Treasures” showcases over 500 Egyptian antiquities rescued from the sea bed by the team of archaeologist leaded by Franck Goddio, including colossal statues some six meters in height and objects that have more than 2,000 years of history.

Translated from madridiario.es

Image via Wikipedia

Archaeologists have discovered a new pyramid under the sands of Saqqara, an ancient burial site that remains largely unexplored and has yielded a string of unearthed pyramids in recent years. The 4,300-year-old monument most likely belonged to the queen mother of the founder of Egypt’s 6th Dynasty, several hundred years after the building of the famed Great Pyramids of Giza.

The discovery is part of the sprawling necropolis and burial site of the rulers of ancient Memphis, the capital of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, about 19 kilometers (12 miles) south of Giza.

All that remains of the pyramid is a square-shaped 16-foot (5-meter) tall structure that had been buried under 65 feet (25 meters) of sand.

Zahi Hawass and his team has been excavating at the location for two years, but it was only two months ago when they determined the structure, with sides about 72 feet (22 meters) long, was the base of a pyramid. They also found parts of the pyramid’s white limestone casing — believed to have once covered the entire structure — which enabled them to calculate that the complete pyramid was once 45 feet (14 meters) high. Hawass said he believes the pyramid belongs to Queen Sesheshet, who is thought to have played a significant role in establishing the 6th Dynasty and uniting two branches of the feuding royal family. Her son, Teti, is believed to have ruled for around 20 years until he was possibly assassinated, a sign of the time’s turbulence.

The find is important because it adds to the understanding of the 6th Dynasty, which lasted from 2,322 B.C. to 2,151 B.C. It was the last dynasty of the Old Kingdom, which spanned the 3rd millennium B.C. and was the first peak of pharaonic civilization.

The pyramid is the 118th discovered so far in Egypt. The last new pyramid found in Saqqara three years ago is thought to belong to the wife of Teti’s successor, Pepi I.

CNN

Opening Friday 14 November at the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta

Trained in the fine arts, Harry Burton was working as a photographer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art when he joined the Howard Carter team. In his eight years with the expedition, he shot a breathtaking 1,400 negatives that bring the viewer into the realm of discovery and the world of ancient Egypt.

Burton romanticizes the expedition, and he is keenly aware of how he could control the public’s perceptions of it through images. But he is also a masterful storyteller, and his artistic eye is really what’s on display here.

The way Burton transfers the lustre of gold to black-and-white film is spectacular. The soft, warm light emanating from the photo of a chariot brings up that universal and unmistakable wonder of gold.

Burton’s deft use of light reaches its greatest in his photos of statues. The light hits the statues’ faces at the right spot to bring each depiction of King Tut to life.

What sets the photographs of King Tut apart is that these were of the first well-photographed, National Geographic-style excavation. Many photographs show objects that don’t even exist anymore, underscoring the importance of historical documentation.

An interesting addition to Burton’s photos are the newspaper clippings from the 1920s covering the excavation. Lord Carnarvon, the chief financier of the expedition, gave exclusive photos and news rights to The Times of London. He was a savvy celeb way ahead of his time.

Excerpted from an article by Bridget Riley for emorywheel.com