An ambitious $100 million canal project to bring water from the Nile river to the Toshka desert 225 km south of Aswan in Egypt to convert arid regions into farmland and boost animal production has been completed.

The Sheikh Zayed Canal project, funded by the Abu Dhabi government, is part of a bigger human settlement plan that aims to construct all modern civic amenities in the desert.

The grant was mainly used in the construction of the canal, three irrigation stations and development of farmland.

The canal has a capacity to irrigate about 100,000 acres within the integrated irrigation system envisaged for the development of the southern valley covering over 24 km.

As part of the larger project, farms, irrigation and road network, agricultural facilities and buildings, laboratories, factories and other amenities will be built.

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Photo: Supreme Council of Antiquities

Egyptian archaeologists carrying routine excavations at the so-called “Avenue of Sphinxes,” have unearthed the remains of a 5th century Egyptian Christian church and a “nilometer,” a structure used to measure the level of the Nile during floods.

Divided into five sections, the Avenue of Sphinxes is now yielding a number of archaeological remains.

On the second section of the path, the archaeologists found the ruins of a 1,600-year-old church. The stone remains revealed that the building was constructed with recycled limestone blocks.

At the avenue’s fourth section, the team also discovered remains of a cylindrical sandstone nilometer with New Kingdom (1569-1081 B.C.) clay vessels at its bottom.

The structure, 7 meters (23 feet) in diameter, was encircled by a spiral staircase descending into the Nile. The steps allowed for a quick reading of increase in water level, thus forecasting floods.

The archaeologists also unearthed a collection of foundation stones used to install the sphinx’ statues. Some of the stones were decorated with scenes depicting King Amenhotep III, who began construction on the avenue.

The fragmented sphinxes are now under restoration. Soon they will be placed on display along a section of the avenue.

Discovery News

Photo from Theban Mapping Project

Dr. Nicole Hansen mentions in her Facebook page that she has received news that Susan Weeks drowned in the Nile late last night/early this morning (13th December) in Luxor. She apparently fell from the dahabiya, a houseboat she and her husband acquired in 2001, and drowned. The police found her and she was identified.

Archaeologists Kent and Susan Weeks have lived in Egypt for four decades. Dr. Kent Weeks is the project director of the Theban Mapping Project, an effort he and his artist wife began in 1978 to create a comprehensive archaeological database of the ancient city of Thebes, modern Luxor.

Susan (Howe) Weeks is the Theban Mapping Project’s artist. She received a B.A. in Graphic Arts at the University of Washington in 1965. Susan was very interested in archaeology and ancient art. When she learned about the Nubian Salvage Project through Kent Weeks, who was a graduate student at the time, she joined the team and has been working on Ancient Egyptian and Nubian sites with Kent ever since.

Susan and Kent raised two children, Christopher and Emily.

The 10-month Corniche Development Project has been designed by Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Engineering and is being implemented by the army. It is budgeted at LE250 million, LE150 million provided by the Tourism Development Fund and the remaining LE100 million in the form of a European grant.

Due to start in January, the Corniche will be divided into three lanes, two reserved for emergency services and the third for horse drawn carriages. The Corniche will be widened in places up to 14 meters, and several luxurious 100-bed hotels are planned. Floating wooden sidewalks will be provided so pedestrians might feel they are walking on the deck of a boat.

The façades of buildings overlooking the Corniche will be made of sandstone and lit in a manner that makes them appear old. Both Luxor and Karnak temples will front directly on the river, as the ancient Egyptians intended, and be accessed directly from the Nile with docks to allow tourists to disembark. The plan is eventually to restrict transit between the monuments on both banks of the river to feluccas.

On the West Bank a dock is already under construction. When complete, it will be able to handle 10,000 tourists a day. Bus and car parks are also being built, alongside places for camels and horses to be tethered, and bicycles chained.

Al-Ahram

Luxor residents evicted for tourism

Residents living between Luxor and Karnak Temples–along the “Avenue of the Sphinxes” have recently been given three-day eviction notices as heavy machinery is quickly tearing down buildings six days a week.

Late October, the governor of Luxor General Samir Farag reported that  “It is our philosophy now to evacuate the whole city here, between the two temples (Luxor and Karnak) to an area west of the railway line”

Residents say it is not clear how much they will receive for their homes; compensation varies from about LE40,000 to LE60,000, according to several interviews.

Egypt News

The Rocco Forte Collection has been appointed to manage The Shepheard Hotel in Cairo as a five-star hotel within their renowned brand after assisting in the full renovation of the hotel.

The company’s plans are in place to convert the 279-room Shepheard Hotel, strategically located along the famous Nile River in the heart of bustling downtown Cairo, to a full-fledged Rocco Forte Collection Hotel after an extensive renovation period.

The Shepheard Hotel was founded by an Englishman called Samuel Shepheard Hotel in 1841 and became the leading hotel in Cairo for much of the twentieth Century. The original hotel was destroyed by fire twice, in 1891 and 1952, and then rebuilt on the banks of the Nile in 1957 where it remains operating today.

The refurbished Shepheard will emerge as a luxury hotel within The Rocco Forte Collection brand in early 2012 offering 275 large elegant bedrooms, state-of-the-art facilities, outstanding design and the latest technology complemented by the highest standards of service and attention to detail.

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Cairo Airport Private Arrival Transfer

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The Egyptian government and several private companies are preparing to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in an ambitious effort to revive shipping along the Nile. Their plans call for at least a half dozen new ports, a series of barrages and extensive dredging. Advocates say the work will help relieve pressure on Egypt’s congested highways and lower transport costs for industry.

The British, during their occupation of Egypt, understood the importance of the Nile as a cheap and relatively hassle-free thoroughfare. To oversee the river, they established the Inland Water Transportation Agency, later to become the River Transportation Authority (RTA). Following independence, budget-conscious state-owned enterprises built river ports to transfer goods from Upper Egypt to Lower Egypt and vice-versa.

The climate changed during the 1970s as custom tariffs dropped and the country opened its doors to imported goods. Merchants demanded faster transportation to cope with intensifying competition. Trucks became an attractive option and the Nile began to decline as a trade route.

Much of the river traffic ended up on the country’s highways. In 2008, there were nearly 515 million tons of goods transferred by land in Egypt. Trucks carried 93% of this amount — nearly 500 million tons — while rail transport’s share was only 6%. Less than 1% was transported by other means, including river ships. The number of trucks has skyrocketed: There are over 1 million on Egypt’s roads, including 600,000 that are considered heavyweight vehicles (those over 30 tons).

A barge will travel from Cairo to Alexandria in three days, while a truck can make the trip in few hours. While slow, barges create their value in economies of scale. They can carry large quantities of heavy goods for much less than a truck. In a single journey a standard barge will haul as much as 30 heavy trucks.

Another economic advantage of barges is infrastructure. Building a 1,500-kilometer road would cost around LE 3 billion, the same stretch of rail would be nearly double that, while preparing 1,500 kilometers of river for sailing costs only LE 800 million.

Egypt has four main river routes connecting the country from north to south. Three of these connect Cairo with Damietta, Alexandria, and Aswan. The fourth route connects Aswan to Halfa on the Egypt-Sudan border through Lake Nasser.

Three years ago, the RTA started dredging the first three routes. A 450-ton barge needs water at least 2.5 meters deep. But in many areas the water drops to less than 2 meters in the winter. The dredging efforts ended in May this year at a total cost of LE 800 million.

The Nile has the potential to be part of a future integrated transportation system in Egypt, but only if the government plays it right. Dredging the channel, building barrages and installing navigation systems are all efforts that will attract investors to the Nile.

Excerpted from an article by Ali El-Bahnasawy for Business Today Egypt

Egypt and neighboring Sudan are the Nile’s largest consumers. Egypt, which lies at the end of the river as it flows into the Mediterranean, does not contribute any water to the Nile system. But it has the largest population — 80.24 million — and the greatest military power among the riparian states and thus the highest demand for water. For Cairo, safeguarding the Nile water is a strategic objective.

The problem stems in large part from the absence of multilateral agreements concerning water-sharing. The only agreement that does exist lies at the heart of the dispute — the 1929 accord between Egypt and Britain, then the predominant colonial power in Africa. It gave Cairo veto power over upstream projects that could impede the Nile’s flow levels — as Turkey’s current ambitious dam-building program is cutting off the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates to Syria and Iraq.

Britain claimed it had acted on behalf of its African colonies, but its motivation undoubtedly had a lot to do with maintaining strategic control over the Suez Canal to hold its empire together. A bilateral treaty between Egypt and Sudan in 1959 allocated Egypt 55.5 billion cubic meters of water annually — 87 percent of the Nile’s flow — with Sudan getting 18.5 billion cubic meters.

The other riparian states say this is grossly unfair and demand an equitable water-sharing pact that would allow for much wider irrigation for crop-growing (an increasingly vital issue because of global food shortages) and hydraulic power projects.

Egypt argues that the upstream countries have far greater rainfall than Egypt — which has hardly any — and other sources of water than the Nile.

The river provides 87 percent of Egypt’s water resources. An Egyptian government report in July warned that the country’s water requirements would exceed its resources by 2017.

UPI

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Failure by Egypt and Sudan to come up with a common stand during the Nile Council of Ministers’ assembly in Kinshasa, DR Congo, frustrated their attempts to block a new pact to govern the use of River Nile waters. To the disappointment of the two downstream countries, the pact was adopted and will soon be signed and ratified by Nile Basin governments.

This paves the way for establishment of a permanent River-Basin Commission to implement development projects.

Egypt and Sudan had asked for “historical rights and uses” of the river to be recognised through placement of an article in the new pact. But other Nile Basin countries — Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda — had not agreed on this.

The controversial article 14 in the draft pact reads, “Nile Basin states, therefore, in a spirit of co-operation, agree:

a) to work together to ensure that all states achieve and sustain water security,
b) not to significantly affect the water security of any other Nile basin state.”

Egypt and Sudan want part b) of the article to read, “Not to adversely affect the water security “and current uses and rights” of any other Nile basin state.”

The other countries declined this proposal to guarantee a more liberal regime of water use for future economic programmes. These include large irrigation schemes already planned and awaiting implementation in Ethiopia and Tanzania. The two countries plan to draw water from River Nile and its feeders for irrigation. This could affect the amount of water flowing to Sudan and Egypt.

NBI is on an ambitious campaign to secure funds for development projects in the sub region. Some of the investments in East Africa include; a hydro electricity plant at Rusumo Falls for Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi; water management facilities in Malaba for Kenya; water hyacinth control in Kagera region (Uganda) for Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda; and a fisheries improvement project on Lake Albert for Uganda and DRC.

Excerpted from an article by Malingha Doya for The East African

A new development from Flats in Luxor has just opened.

This property, situated in a village on the West Bank of Luxor, has been completely renovated. Originally a simple local house, it now comprises 3 independent units all with original features, combined with modern kitchen and bathroom.

There are three flats, and already one has been sold and is available for 5 years for holiday rentals, until the owner retires to Egypt. The other two are available either as holiday apartments or for sale. With a private garden overlooking the canal and a rooftop overlooking the Theban Hills with the Valley of Kings, a more perfect spot in Luxor is hard to imagine.

The Arabesque House is situated close to the main cross roads on the West Bank and is actually in view of Hatshepsut’s temple and within walking distance of local shops and markets. It is perfect for either a short holiday or long term retirement. As part of the Flats in Luxor group, residents of the Arabesque House can use the facilities of the Goubli building with its swimming pool, children’s pool, library, free Internet and restaurant, only 5 minutes walk away.

Flats in Luxor was founded in 2003 by Jane Akshar and Mahmoud Jahlan. Their mission is to provide high quality flats or apartments for the tourist market and to enable them to enjoy a unique and individual tour of this fascinating and historic country. Jane and Mahmoud are never further than a phone call away and they and their staff are always available to help in any way they can.

FlatsinLuxor

Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife

About 20 percent of Egypt’s foreign currency earnings come from tourism. In 2008, almost 13 million foreign tourists visited Egypt, taking in its pharaonic and Islamic sites along the River Nile. But now, the drop in revenue is hitting the country hard.

Empty tour boats line the River Nile, as boat captains desperately solicit passengers from the meager crowd of tourists strolling along the riverfront walkway in downtown Cairo.

At the nearby Egyptian museum, tourists are still congregating in the front garden. But a thick cluster of empty-handed tour guides speaks more eloquently than statistics.

The trickle of tourists has some guides working, but economists say an 18 percent drop in the number of foreigners coming to Egypt, thus far in 2009, has hotels, tour operators, and even shop owners complaining.

At Cairo’s famed Khan al-Khalili market, streets and alleyways look deserted, with vendors furiously hawking their wares to make a living.

Once bustling sidewalk cafes are half empty and merchants sit idly in front of their storefronts waiting for the providential tourist to appear.

Tourism Minister Garana notes, optimistically, that the government is investing in infrastructure projects during the current slump to come out stronger, afterwards.

Excerpted from an article by Edward Yeranian for Voice of America

No decline in high end tourism

Luxury tourism had not slowed in the year to date. Nile cruises that ply the river in southern Egypt stopping at pharaonic temples and other ancient ruins, for example, were witnessing a high occupancy rate, Garrana said. Tourism from Arab countries, meanwhile, was actually a sliver higher in the four months to end-April, boosted by higher tourism numbers from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, he added.

“One advantage Egypt definitely has is we have a very big variety and diversity of products,” Garrana said.

“People are still very much in demand of high end products, and quality. And people are willing to pay for that. One of the highest occupancies in town is the high end hotels, all over Egypt,” he added.

Excerpted from an article by Cynthia Johnston for forexpros.com