Kemet

3

Welcome to the first issue of Kemet! We are very excited to present to you a publication that is the first of its kind. Kemet

magazine strives to bring you the very best of Egypt and to embody the culture, lifestyle and atmosphere of

this great country.

The name of our magazine, Kemet, means Ancient Egypt in Egyptian hieroglyphics. We chose this name as

it is completely exclusive for Egypt, it originated from the country as an official name for the nation. This is what Kemet

magazine is aiming for, to be exclusively about Egypt and to be a representation for everything this country stands for.

This is our first issue of our seasonal collection. The articles and ideas discussed in this magazine act as an introduction to our dear readers of what to expect from Kemet in the future. We’ve been to various exciting places for this issue and we have stories to tell that

will open your eyes to an Egypt you never even knew existed.

We have travelled down sandy dunes, explored the idea of an underwater museum, learnt the Nubian language, listened to some of Egypt’s best folk music talent and

looked at some of Egypt’s best renovation projects that changed the country, and that is just a small sample of what we have been up to this season.

We hope that this issue will be the first of many to inspire, explore, entice and educate readers of

the wonders that this beautiful country holds and what Egyptians can do to better their

homeland in the near future.

To our readers, thank you for giv-ing Kemet the opportunity to be your personal guide around one of the most amazing countries in the world, we hope you enjoy this issue and we look forward to receiving your feedback by writing

to us or sending us an email on [email protected]

Yours faithfully The Kemet team

Designed by: Ahmed Fahmy

Writers: Radwa Emad, Noha Ouda, Nouran El Kady, Mai El Sayed, Hana Mashhour, Youcef Badawi, Ibrahim El Shakankiry

Printed by:

Flower HPCopy Center

The Team

3

4

Geology:The Valley of Whales p. 6-7Al Mokattam p. 8-10

People and Places:Life at Caroun Lake Shore p. 12-13The Land of Peace p. 14-15Downtown: The Bearing heart of Cairo p. 16-18

Historical Places:Egypt’s Renovated Treasure p. 20-23

Site Seeing or Visionary p. 26-29Beneath the Pyramid p. 32-33

The Restoration of Abu Simbel p. 34-35

Ecology (Environment):Greener Egypt: How to Recycle Wastes p. 38-39

Energizing the Egyptian People p. 40-41The Toshka Project: Reality or Illusion? p. 43-48

Mapping out Ancient History p. 50-51

Ecology (Kingdom of Animals):The Crown Jewel of Zoos p. 54-55Looking Deep in: Fennec Fox p. 56-57Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals p. 58-59

Culture:The Nubians Saving their Lost Language p. 62-63Riding Egypt’s Killer Dunes p. 64-66Fish Goddess p. 68-69A Touch of a Woman’s Voice p. 70-71

Contents

4

6

It is a place where you can find old history that dates back 40 million years and modern history going back to the World War II. It was

proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2005 for its hundreds of fos-sils of some of the earliest forms of whale, the archaeoceti (a now extinct sub-order of whales). Whales Valley is a paleonto-logical site in Fayuom Governorate of Egypt, some 150 km southwest of Cairo.

The origin of the place dates back 40 million years. The valley was created be-

cause Wadi El-Rayan lies under a great ocean called Tees’s Sea, and for some geo-

logical changes ocean receded. Leaving be-hind remains of some marine animals buried

in the sediments, so we can find the structures of fossilized whale primitive teeth and shark and shell-

fish and other marine animals.The first fossil skeletons of whales were discovered in the

winter of 1902-3. For the next 80 years they attracted relatively little interest, largely due to the difficulty of reaching the area. In the 1980s interest in the site resumed as four wheel drive vehicles became more read-ily available. Continuing interest coincided with the site being visited by fossil collectors, and many bones were removed, prompting calls for the site to be conserved. The remains display the typical streamlined body form

The Valley of WhalesRadwa Emad

Geoulogy

7

of modern whales, yet retaining some of the primitive aspects of skull and tooth structure.

The modern history of the valley that can easily be found on a high rock is round in shape, called “Ger-mans’s Rock”. There were signs in German indicating the identity of a fighter pilot who made an emer-gency landing (Juncker 88 A) near the Rock in 1942, during WWII. None of the crew bodies were found except in 1999.

The Whales Valley (or continent hell) as it was called in old days, falls within the protected desert of Wadi El Rayan and Fayoum; where the protected area contains a number of artificial lakes.

Inside the protected area you can find a mountain plateau on the form of a circle and on the other side there are three plateaus in

Radwa Emad

Photo credit: Radwa Emadclose resemblance to the Giza Pyramids. There you can see water running between the plateaus from the lake making line in the form of tongue. Also found below the mountain is a beach about 500 meters shaded by the shadow of the mountain.

Only about 1,000 visitors a year drive into Whales Valley by 4WD due to the fact that the track is unpaved and crosses unmarked desert sands. For the most part, visitors to Whales Valley are foreigners, who usually camp in the valley on winter weekends. Because Whales Valley is within the Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area, the same protection management plan restricts visitors to prearranged guided tours along a prescribed trail. Sustainable tourism is be-ginning to develop and grow in the area, and the 4WD are alternatively being replaced by foot or camel treks. Since part of Whales Valley was transfered into a tourist venue, walkways between the main fossils were laid out and small shelters built. This public park is now regularly visited by tourist groups, and a small camp site is present.

The site in Valley of Whales reveals evidence for the explanation of one of the greatest mysteries of the evolution of whales: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. No other place in the world yields the number, concentration and quality of such fossils, as is their accessibility and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. This is why it was added by the UNESCO to the list of protected World Heritage sites.

Photo credit: Radwa Emad

7

8

When you go to Al-Mokattam Moun-tain, you feel you’re in the heart of Cairo as you can see all districts of Cairo from the highest peak. But the view is completely different and

more wonderful when you’re on the upper plateau of the mountain where the elites live in palaces, villas and splendid buildings. As for you the view, it is a fascinating scene and the weather is clear and pure. Nevertheless, there is a dark side to this district which is fiercer and more violent. It’s the poor side of this area where a lot of poor people live in the middle and lower plateau of the mountain. Those poor people live in slums; they live in ruined small houses and cottages and they breathe in the smell of rubbish and polluted air.

Al-Mokattam consists of layers of l imestone combined with layers of c lay and marl . These rocks date back to the middle and late Eocene (36 to 52) mil l ion years.

Al-Mokattam is located on the eastern region of Cairo and its area is about 70 Km. It’s divided into three plateaus, the upper plateau containing vil-las, palaces and splendid buildings, the middle and lower plateau are considered slums where there are cottages and ruined houses.

Al-Mokattam represents one of the important re-gions that encompass a great number of dwellers during the recent years.

Al- Mokattam: Palaces and Slums

Noha OudaPhoto credits: Noha Ouda

Geoulogy

8

9

Geological problems in Al-Mokattam:

Water leakage whether ordinary water or sew-age is the essence of collapses in Al -Mokattam as the rocks have the characteristic of swelling and this leads to the mountain’s complete de-struction.

According to Dr. Mahmoud Sami, profes-sor of geolog y at Ain shams Univers i ty and a member of the committee of the study of the nor thern edge of Al-Mokattam at Cairo Governorate, the geological for mation of Al-Mokattam Mountain is the cause of a l l these geological problems whose res idents suffer from, as the main component of the Mountain is made of c lay which al lows wa-ter to leak through causing i t to swel l and eventual ly breaks and col lapses.

Earth quakes constitute another threat as they are wide and long waves that shake the ear th right and left, resulting in the destruction of rocks and, thus, the final collapse of the mountain.

There is another factor which is more dangerous. It’s the heavy vehicles and their running close to the edge of the higher plateau. This leads to the shaking and the vibrations and this causes the collapse of the rocks.

Accidents and collapses:

There was much argument about the danger of this mountain on people’s life and structures, especially after some recent collapses as the accident of January 1994 and El Deweka accident of 2008.

The accident of January 1994 took place as a result of the wrong usage as the owners of stone quarries broke the Lime Stone from the mountain to be used in building tombs and stairs. This lead the composition to be weak-ened, collapsed, fallen and destroyed .and AL Deweka ac-cident of 2008 was as a result of stone fall to the front of the mountain.

Dr. Adel Ramdan, the dean of the faculty of sci-ence, geolog y depar tment, sa id, “ It was expected for Al-Deweka disaster to happen as there was a big crack in this region and we warned the gover-nor of Cairo about the danger of this s i tuat ion, but the red-tape led to this disaster ; the government was supposed to evacuate this area on Tuesday, but the accident happened on Sunday.”

The sewage water is a lso considered one of the causes of the col lapse of Al-Deweka ,but the main cause for the disaster is due to people’s behavior which led to the col lapse of Al-Deweka as people constructed drainage pipes pour on the mountain and that fur ther led to the col lapse.

Though it is only one mountain, divided into plateaus of geological rocks ,it also composes of different classes of people.

Al –Mokattam is an obvious example of social and economic contradictory inside the same area. You can

see the poor people at the foot of the mountain in the middle and lower plateaus and the billionaires on the top of the mountain and all of them are in danger.

The Middle Plateau

The middle plateau of Al Mokattam mountain which is settled by the poor is considered to be one of the most dangerous categories, as its residents are illiterate and in spite of warning them of the danger, they are continuing on settling the drainage pipes on the mountain.

“Those dwelling in the middle plateau, especially Al-Deweka residents, are different from any other humans. As they behave differently. This is due to their lack of education and awareness,” said, Dr. Sami.

People in the middle plateau make sewage pipes on the mountain which leads water to reach to the rocks so that it leads to their collapses.

Dr.Samir Abdel Tawab, A professor of geology at Ain Shams University said,” There is a church in the middle plateau called Anba Saman church where the people plant palms, trees and vegetables inside the church, they irrigate these plants , thus, adding more danger.”

Dr.Mahmoud sami, said,” Anba Saman church officials fixed sewage pipes to pour on the mountain, but when we discovered that we ordered them to stop planting palms and trees and just plant crops that need a little amount of water.”

The residents of the middle plateau are facing a lot of dangers unless the government cares much about them. Dr. Sami said,” the government has warned people against the danger of water leakage on the mountain, yet , with no avai l . But the government a lso took steps as i t prevented bui lding in the middle plateau and evacuated a l l houses f rom the dangerous re-g ions and provided the i r res idents new houses in 6th of October and Badr c i ty.” After 25 January the houses that the government evacuated have been re-built because of the lack of police authority, but these houses wil l be demolished again to protect the moun-tain from collapsing.

Photo credits: Noha Ouda

9

10

Middle Plateau resident’s life:

Middle Plateau residents are suffering a lot, as they live in very cruel conditions. as they suffer from hunger, cold and poverty.

Assmaa El Sayed Kamel, one of the residents, said that we live a very cruel life in the cottages as my baby died from the rain and cold.

Tahiya Mohamed Rizk, one of the residents of Al-Deweka said that, they wait for the night to bathe above the mountain as there is no private bath as we all live under the poverty line.

“ The government has promised to give me a new flat in October city and the government evacuated my small house in Al-Deweka, but I have not received a flat yet and I am still living in a cottage, but some people got their flats after paying bribes to the chief of the suburb Moustafa Abada,”Tahiya said.

Mahmoud Abd El Halim, one of the residents at Al-Deweka said that the chief of the suburb Moustafa Abada said to us that we live in danger, we should leave our small houses and the government will give us new houses in October city. But we found that the government gave us new houses in El Fayom but we refused that as our jobs and living is in Al-Mokttam.

However,Dr Mahmoud Sami said, “ Not all the residents words of Al-Deweka words are true. We will investigate the matter and if these people de-serve new flats we will provide them. Some residents demol-ished their flats on purpose to get new flats.”

The Upper Plateau of Al-Mokattam:

The other face of the mountain is the upper plateau where the elites live and enjoy their lives. When you go there, you feel you live in a very luxurious district and you feel the scent of fresh air and its purity.

The upper plateau is not immune from dangers as there are a lot of other factors making this plateau also in jeopardy such as irrigating the gardens by using traditional methods and this leads to leaking huge amounts of water on the mountain fur-ther weakens the rocks.

Saving Al-Mokattam

There are steps the committee will take to prevent leaking the water of irrigating the gardens such as changing the sys-tem of irrigating the gardens and trees in Al-Mokattam and using spraying and dropping.

The committee has found another solution by banning the heavy vehicles from running near the higher plateau. The committee also issue instructions not to give new li-cense for construction in this region. The other steps the committee was taken that the committee made a very good deal with a German company (GTA) to establish a good sweage network to protect the mountain.

The residents of Al-Mokattam either those who live in the upper or the middle and lower plateaus hope to feel secure.

“We achieved 80%of our goal and our duty is to end these fears.” comments Dr.Sami

Al Mokattam Mountain is the best example and evidence to show the great difference between the classes in Egypt and on one mountain the rich and the poor live together in spite of the difference in education, economic standard and social standard. They all live in danger.

10

12

As you are driving through the Northwest-ern part of the province of Fayoum, about 27 km away, and at the entrance of a small village called “Shakshok” you will see fisher-

men at work on Caroun Lake. It is one of the hugest and deepest natural lakes in Egypt, with some spots reaching 100 meters deep. This wonderful lake with a weird history has a lot of stories to be told that could fill hundreds of books. So, what are the secrets behind this lake?

The story behind Caroun Lake is mentioned in Al Quran. Caroun was one of Prophet Mosa’s people, who used to live in the area. He was a scientist that God gave the ability to transform sand to treasure. He collected a huge fortune from this, though the keys to the room where he collected his fortune were hard to be held by 10 strong men in those days. Caroun was teasing his people by walking around with his fortune and gold knitted clothes every day, without extending a helping hand. The wise men told him times and times that he had to help the poor, but he wouldn’t listen. One day while he was walking by the market, God punished him for not helping the poor and denying the power HE gave him. And from then on, the lake bore his name.

Fishermen work there in a very systematic and or-ganized way. They are divided into 11 rings along the lake; each ring has a commander who manges the work. These commanders are chosen after elections, fisher-men elect who they love, trust and the most educated one among the candidates. These elected commanders are there to solve the fishermen’s problems, and provide them with services. These commanders are called mem-bers of Caroun Lake Community, who are responsible for fishermen who use and store their own boats in the designated areas.

The ring I planned to stop at and see how it works, was the responsibility of Mr. Samir Al Shora, a member of the fishermen community of Caroun Lake. He start-ed explaining what exactly he was doing for the fisher-men. Every day he gives them a bill with the weight and the price, for each LE 100 the fisherman receives LE 5, and the rest is kept for him in the community fund, indeed the fisherman can ask for this money any time he wants. For each LE 100, the fishermen community re-served LE 10 in the community fund; to cover expenses in case of illness or death. Moreover, the fisherman can get them if he needs to develop his boat.

Ayad Eid Mohamed, a helpful fisherman, directed me to his boss, Mr. Samir, who told me how the daily work goes on shore. One fisherman told me that they use two types of hooks: the transparent one, and the colored one. However, fishermen prefer the colored ones because they attract fish; whereas, the remains of the sea stick on the transparent ones turn fish away.

Surprisingly, the issue of having a syndicate is of no importance to fishermen despite being raised in an Egyptian TV program eight months ago. “We have a community which performs better than any professional syndicate,” Ayad said.

Nevertheless, Caroun Lake’s fishermen have problems. The boat owners only have the right to receive aid from the community, no developing for the lake, and no sup-port for fishermen.

Stories on Caroun Lake shore don’t end, even though fish buyers can create some of their own to attract customers. One of these weird stories was narrated on purpose to sell fish. While passing by a shrimp’s vendor, he stopped me by saying he has

Life at Caroun Lake shore


By Radwa Emad

People and Places

12

13

the best shrimps ever. When asked about the reason, he said that “the gold buried under the lake sends its chemical to the fish and other sea creatures making them the best ever.” Although, it is a funny story, it may sell to some people.

Fishing is not the only job available at Caroun Lake. Fayoumees can also work as tour guides, traders, and sailors. So, if you are planning to spend a day use in one of the hotels there, you will actually need one of those tour guides. First, he will take you on a small boat through the lake, and then he will narrate the story behind the lake.

In his study on the lake’s future, Dr. Murad Ka-mal, Professor of algologist at Fayoum University, explained that it was a reservoir which saved Egypt through the Nile drought periods and famine as the Lake got filled with water when the rising Nile floods and water remained stored in ponds and swamps. In other words, although all human trials to decrease the size of the lake, or damage, the lake is capable to withstand all of that and survive for a long more time. The lake’s level had been stable for about 30 years af-ter determining the volume of water discharged from Fayoum (365 meters) to the pond at an evaporation rate of 165 million cubic meters.

On the other hand, a recent study conducted by the department of Geography at the University of Asyut

reflects an increase in the proportion of pollution in Caroun Lake and high salinity. The study which was conducted by Dr. Hossam El Din Gad El Rab, stated that “increase in pollution results in low fish productiv-

ity, deterioration of tourist activity, as well as agricultural land salinty.”

Caroun Lake; nevertheless, is a won-derful place for a big or small fam-ily to have a day use or even spend a couple of days. They will find all what they want there; relaxation, entertainment, and fun times. Most classes in Egypt can celebrate their weddings and parties in the desig-nated areas. People who seek the best service will find it in the luxury and hotels run by armed forces, who seek fun time from DJ music to eating small meals with friends, will also find what they want. It is a place that has everything, and where you can do whatever you want.

After all the researches done on the lake, fishermen strongly believe in its generosity. “GOD loves the Fayoumees, because HE bestowed us with Caroun Lake and, thus, whatev-er happens to it, it won’t stop giving us from its treasure,” said Khaled, a fisherman on his way to the lake.



13

14

The Land of Peace

Ras Al-Shattan is a beach camp at the outskirts of the city Nuweiba, it is a place where you can relax and chill out without being bored. This beach resort is one of the fewest places on

earth that remains untouched. But as time went by, I understood the real reason behind dubbing Sinai as ‘the land of peace.’

When I was set to visit Ras Al-Shattan I was expecting nothing but a shining sun, a never ending world underwater and perhaps some culturally rich Bedouin nights; in fact I wasn’t entirely wrong. As I hopped down the bus that I’ve been on for more than 8 hours my eyes caught a spectacular view that I would never forget. What I’ve seen could never be explained nor could be seen on pictures, it was a pleasant sight that was accompanied by a strong feeling of serenity.

Simplicity was the headline of everything there; the camp was made up of 16 beautiful ash huts that didn’t only block the burning sun but also created a natural air conditioning system inside them, before these small huts was a large central one where food and tropical drinks are served in a very inviting Bedouin style, and beyond them laid The Red Sea. Life in the camp is the most simple that can be; with minimum electricity usage, you will find yourself forced to live a primi-tive, but intriguing life.

No wonder this land was fiercely fought for since the beginning of time. Egypt and Israel were plunged into a seven-year-war that ended in Egypt’s victory, but also creating evident tension

between both sides. However, the Camp David Accords allowed Israelis to visit Sinai with no official documents required.

Youcef Al-Sayyah was the first one I met in my visit, he is the camp manager where anything you think of doing or knowing, he is the one you’re looking for. Sayyah himself was a Bedouin who came from the city of Al-Arish 100 km north to Nuweiba. “Here is the only place that scares the devil,” he tells me. And when I asked him about the name of the gulf (Al-Shattan) which confus-es with the word Satan, he told me it meant ‘the two shores.’

When I asked him about the reason for Satan’s fear of the place he replied “Because every time he destroyed, [Satan] found more people building.” Sayyah wasn’t just talking about physical destruction, he also meant psychological mayhem. “Is-raeli tourists come here in huge numbers and yet, we find them nice to cope with,” he explained.

Youcef Badawi

People and Places

14

15

By then I felt that he was sneakily introducing me to the system there where Egyptians, Israelis and other foreigners live peacefully together. Personally, I’m not an extremist when it comes to Israel, I will always accept the person I’m dealing with regardless of religion, social background or any other formalities.

As time went by on my vacation, I was fascinated more and more by the peaceful atmosphere that existed. And by the sec-ond day I’ve already made some new friends who were by chance two Israeli honeymoon-ers; Yoav Antian and his wife Ora Saidon.

Seemingly unraveled by me distracting their honeymoon we talked for hours about various topics; from wedding costs to football to favorite meals. The common views and huge similarities made me forget that I was sitting with alleged enemies and the fact that most of the Egyptians will regard my friendship with them as a sin, calling me a traitor and sentencing me to death.

I wasn’t content with what I’ve explored about the others, on the contrary I was thirsty to learn more firsthand and not through a book or a publication. This is when I met the clients’ assistant, also from Al-Arish, Saeed, who was shockingly 18 years of age; he worked here to help himself through college. I was very proud of him due to his will and desire to be; he knew five languages in addition to Arabic.

“You must speak Hebrew to be able to work here,” he told me. And when I asked if he had problems with any Jewish guests he said, “I don’t care if you are an Egyptian or a Jew, I only care about how much you are respectful.” Such mental-ity seems to be so objective and productive; perhaps, this is why Saeed is one of the fastest promoting employees in the Ras. “Tell that to the fundamentalists!” I joked. “These people search for destruction and unrest, and they have harmed us 5 years ago when they blew up this camp (pointing at the camp next to us).” I was really surprised by how mature that young man was.

In 2006, 3 terrorists blew up a minivan killing 18 people (12 of them Egyptians). “We used to have double the number of huts. You could have hardly booked a place if not three months in advance.” Sayyah told me about the period before the unfortunate bombings. “The Israelis

who visit Sinai are not army officials; they are ordinary people who were born with an Israeli passport. They are the peaceful Israelis,” he added.

As I was enjoying the scenery and some of my iPod’s music, I heard interference, it was like music, but it didn’t come from my earphones. As I looked to investigate, I saw a long haired man playing some nice tunes from his flute. When he realized I was enjoy-ing his music, he approached me while still playing. Then after he finished he offered me a cigarette and said, “It is no wonder why all prophets came from deserts,” and introduced himself as Isaac.

He was so correct, as the vast emptiness encourages you to think free from all the cultural restrictions and traditional barriers we were brought up on. “It is exactly why both of us are speaking without knowing each other,” he added.

I felt very puzzled and I asked my self, “Who is our real enemy?” until I met Khogai Ashkelon, a fulltime psychology professor in the University of Tel Aviv who knew a lot about the psychology of societies. We had a very vital conversation about lots of topics;

political, historical and others. We argued sometime and agreed at times, but in the end I was left

with a new horizon.

Israelis are not our real enemies; it is the evilness that lies in

the hearts of some heartless men whom, unfortunately, are regarded as representatives to societies, and have the power to change words into action. It is the fear of the

other, and the instinct to look at them differently. It is why

we experience sectarian violence in Egypt during these days. It is

the absolute ease of creating enemies out of strangers.

Youcef Badawi

15

16

You have not been to Cairo if you haven’t visited downtown. This is the first thing you learn when you go there, the area which is known as the heart of city is very much alive and breathing. Many of the tourists that come here do not get

to see this part of Egypt and, thus, miss out on the chance to discover what Cairo is really all about.

The area itself seems to be frozen somewhat in time. Old buildings from decades ago still tower over the place and shops that have been there for a lifetime still stand strong today. One of the first things that one no-tices was that the shops do not seem to have changed from when they were first built, the décor is the same and the name of the place is written in its original Arabic name only unlike the shops of today which usually have an English translation.

When walking down the streets, get ready for every sense to be overwhelmed with the smell of fumes, the noise of horns and people shouting to sell their products. The aim is to try and avoid the masses of people com-ing towards you as they hurry on with their lives. What strikes one immediately about the area is that it is very genuine, it is not especially built to appease tourists,

when people come here they truly get a taste of what Cairo is like on a day-today basis.

This area has become so busy that in 2010, Al-Ahram weekly reported that the government wanted to impose fees on cars entering certain parts of the downtown area, which might seem like an unnecessary action, but keep in mind that 14 million cars go through Cairo daily and a good portion of them pass through downtown.

“Do not look at how this place is today” Mohamed Mo-stafa, a middle aged man working in a small clothing store warned, adding, “this place used to be great, ev-eryone from the elegant posh families would come shop here, it was the place to be seen.” While this may be the case, downtown is actually reflective of the economic situation of many Egyptians today, and while we can look at the past and reminisce, there is no denying that the area has deteriorated massively.

Monumental Relics

The buildings have seen some years in this city, and though time has taken its toll on them, they are still beautiful. The char-acteristic green wooden windows of the past are everywhere. The story behind the European style buildings is that in the

Downtown: The Beating Heart Of Cairo

Nouran El KadyPhotography credits: Nouran El Kady

People and Places

16

17

1800s, Cairo was thought of as a “city of bugs” that one did not need to visit. Ruler of the time, Khedive Ismail was determined to change this idea about the place and, thus, hired Europe’s most talented artists and architects to make the area a “Paris of the East”. Here, the story of downtown Cairo began.

The large domes over the buildings were once a very popular style in France and in Italy and can be seen in more than one place here in downtown. Names such as Francesco Battigelli, Carlo Prampolini, Pietro Avoscani, Carlo Virgilio Silvagni, Luigi Gavasi and Augusto Cesari began turning this unpopular area into the most glamorous part of Cairo. People such as the Sicil-ian Giuseppe Garozzo, and later his sons, played a key part in creating some of the most important buildings in the area.

One building, which used to be a real jewel in the midst of the Egyptian city, is Prince Said Halim’s Palace, a grand pink marble creation that came to life by the hands of famous Italian architect Antonio Lasciac in 1896. In its former days, it was breath-taking, but standing now in downtown; it is a mere shadow of what it used to be. The reason can be traced back to when the palace was confiscated by the British at the beginning of WWI, when Halim had sided with the Ottomans (the Ottoman logo can be seen on the columns of the build-ing) and, thus, Halim’s beautiful homage to Italian design was transformed into Al-Nassiriyah Secondary School for Boys. It would never be the same.

Another thing which downtown Cairo is famous for is its mag-nificent old churches and there are plenty of them around even branching out into Zamalek. Churches such as Armenian Catho-lic Church, Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church and El Ra-solan Botros and Poles Church only help to enhance the culture and history in this significant area.

A Place for the Intellectuals

One other habit the Egyptians seem to have picked up from the French in the past was going to coffee houses to discuss ideas. Back in the 1930s, many writers, thinkers and philosophers would meet at some of downtown’s most well-known cafés to discuss the latest political idea.

The most famous of them all is, of course, Café Riche. This café has been around since 1908 and has seen most of Egypt’s history go by outside its doors. Many famous people have graced and loved this café including the famous writer Naguib Mahfouz, Taha Hussein, Ahmed Fouad Negm and many more. This café only recently reopened in 2008 to the delight of many who

wished to go back to a time where the value of a good conver-sation was priceless and where you could sit for hours admiring those who had come here before you.

While business seems relatively good in this café, what will surprise readers is the attitude that the café owners have toward visitors. After a shoddy experience where the owners refused to be interviewed and gave off a feeling of indifference whenever they were asked a question, one decided to investigate further.

Looking at reviews online quickly highlighted that many people have had this issue with the Café with one unhappy customer saying, “this once intellectual hotspot, needs to hop off its high horse and realize that it’s only a reflection of its bygone glory. We ordered 4 drinks. Then the so-called ‘man-ager’ came and said, ‘We manage a restaurant...so you need to order food.’ When we did order some side dishes, he said, ‘...if it does get busy you need to leave.’ We just cancelled the order and walked out…there was no need to weather the ‘rudeness’ of this establishment.”

There seems to be quite a few similar testimonies which does make one wonder, has living in the past for too long made these owners arrogant about their history? If so, then this would be a true disappointment and one that the intellectual spirits of the café would disagree with.

While Café Riche’s recent opening and restoration has given it a clean finish, other cafés in the downtown need their own spruce up if they’re going to continue busi-ness. Places like Groppi were made for Egypt’s high society and was considered Egypt’s most glamorous tea room. Groppi, has seen just as much history as Café Riche, but, unfortunately, the years have been less kind to this building.

The place is dusty, withering; the walls look like they desperately need a paint job and the once full tea room is now almost empty with just a handful of custom-ers inside, during one’s stay. However, saying that, this does not tarnish the memory of what this place used to mean to so many, people like Dahlia Gamal, a gastroenterologist, saying, “Groppi was the place to be seen, it was enough to say the word Groppi to see everyone’s eyes around you brighten up. All the fi lms used to mention it, so any time me and my family would go, I’d feel like a celebrity.”

Dahlia can still recall everything, from the classy atmo-sphere, to the delicious pastries, to the high society people that would sit and chat. “I saw plenty of famous people there when I was younger, it was common to see them go in and out at that time.”

17

18

Cairo’s Oldest Books

One cannot talk about the intellectual society without mention-ing Matbouli Bookshop; the place where many young aspiring thinkers would come get their reading materials. It is one of the oldest bookshops in Egypt and was started by a simple man selling newspapers on the streets. Matbouli then went on to rent the space and make his own bookshop that would stay a monu-mental part of Cairo for decades to come.

Inside Matbouli Bookshop, the book sellers are more than hap-py to welcome you into the cosy little shop and introduce you to their favourite books. Each seller here has a story, whether it is Hassan Ahmed, a man who’s worked for the shop for more than 15 years and knows each and every corner of it off by heart, or Mohammed Samy, a man in his early 30s whose love of books and knowledge led him to want to work there.

They’re only too happy to give you information on what this shop means to Cairo. “This bookshop is the very image of what old Cairo was all about; people were interested in knowledge, reading and expanding their understanding,” said Hassan. “Mr. Madbouli was a great man, may God rest his soul, he wanted everyone in Cairo to be up-to-date with everything in the world. He would always try and find the latest books to constantly make the bookshop better.”

Hassan reminisces about the past, but when the question of how the bookshop is doing today is brought up, Mohammed has a different story to tell. “People are just not as interested in books as they once were, most people now only buy books that are to do with what they’re studying at school or university, not many people want to expand their own knowledge for the sake of knowledge alone,” he said sadly.

Recent Recognition

Downtown has recently become more popular with visitors due to Alaa Al Aswani’s book, The Yacoubian Building, which became a bestseller and was translated into 27 languages; 75,000 copies of it have been sold in Britain alone. Tourists have been coming to see the downtown and the real Yacoubian building in order to get a feel of what kind of place hosts these fictional characters.

One such tourist was Callie Hummel, a 25 year old American, who, after reading the book, was dying to come see and explore Cairo. “After I had read the book, I fell in love with it and its characters, I so wanted to be a part of their world, coming to

Cairo was the only way I could fulfil that dream, so in 2009, I visited Cairo, specifically downtown and took a stroll down the very streets that my characters walked across.”

Although tourists should keep in mind that these characters are completely made up, the feeling of Cairo in the book is very much alive and real in downtown. “That’s what I loved when I came here, I really got to see what it feels like to live and be a part of the fast paced place that is downtown Cairo,” Callie said.

Tahrir Calling

The most recent and popular change that Cairo has gone through is it’s 25th of January Revolution which saw mil-lions of people camped out in Tahrir square next to down-town protesting for their rights and freedom. The area certainly went through several transitions at the time, first turning into a home for the determined protestors, then becoming wrecked by the thugs in the riots of Tahrir, and

finally, it witnessed Egyptian unity on the 11th of February, as Egyptians collectively celebrated the end of Mubarak’s reign and the start of a beautiful new future. The area was cleaned and is currently being restored in order to fix all the damage that has been done.

During that time everyone working in the area was terrified, for these buildings had been here for hundreds of years and no one wanted to see them demolished. In one café called Café El Horreya (Freedom Café), bullet holes can be seen all across the windows. “See what they did to our café? This revolution almost meant the end of this place,” said the cashier at the café. This was certainly evident, most of the glass windows were missing, covered by wood planks until they could be fixed.

In Madbouli’s Bookshop, the booksellers speak of their ordeal during the turbulent time. “It was a hard time, we wanted to protect the bookshop, and we figured the best way to do this was to stay open at our usual hours so that no thugs would break in. We only closed for three days when the police forced us to,” Hassan said.

“While I was standing outside and trying to protect it, I got hit in the head,” said Mohammed, uncovering a big bruise under his hair, but then adds proudly, “it was our job to make sure this place was kept safe at all times.”

A Bright Future

Cairo is a fast-paced, ever changing city and in the heart of it all, is downtown Cairo. It has lived through Egypt’s best and worst times; it’s been home to the rich and the poor. It is a place which embodies what Cairo is all about and it is certainly one of Egypt’s most significant places.

With the revolution still in swing, this place is likely to see yet more changes as the situation progresses, but in this small yet lively area, people are looking to the future of the country, hoping that Egypt can keep its original feel and, yet, still move towards a brilliant future.

Mohamed sees that this is the only way forward for the country, and has high aspirations for the coming time, saying, “this revo-lution was built on the idea of change, we need to make Egypt a place that we are proud of, and we need to change ourselves in order to become better people. We want to keep the good things we have like our amazing history, but we want to build ourselves so that they are known for so much more.”

18

20

B ehind El Hussein and a little further away from Khan El Khalili, lies a trea-sure in Egypt so valuable that noth-ing in the world quite compares to it. A street named after the Fatemid Ca-liph, it stretches far and wide to en-compass Egypt’s vast Islamic history. Walking down the path, you will feel

as if you’ve suddenly stepped back centuries ago to a time of kings, wealth and absolute beauty. You will never know that just a few years ago, in the very place you stand, El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street was an unbearable site.

A few years ago, the government decided it was time to take action against the decay that had been happening to some of Egypt’s oldest Islamic sites, and in 2008 they fin-ished the first phase of their plan to revive Islamic Cairo. El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi was on top of the list and went through a complete makeover that turned the area from deteriorating dust to gold.

“I know how the street used to be like before the reno-vations,” said, Dr. Ashraf Sadek, the managing editor of the Egyptian Gazette newspaper and a journalism pro-fessor in Modern Sciences and Arts University (MSA). “In the past, it was chaotic, full of bumpy streets, the monuments were in terrible shape.”

The government is in the process of refurbishing 62 Islamic monuments including Cairo 1,000 year old walls and gates. As well as the mosques, the roads leading to this street and the houses were also reconstructed to make them more efficient.

“First time I went there was like there four years ago, no one knew where it was, it was unknown,” said Sherief Ahmed Hassan, 23 year old Engineering student, who was a fan of the historical street long before most people. “I didn’t really know where it was but I kept on asking people until I reached it. You could see in its original semi slum state, I proceeded from the slum part of it. It was very in-teresting you could see the government working to preserve it back then.”

According to Hazem Hassan, another 23 year old engineering student, if you really want to see what difference these renovations have done, you can walk on the parts of the streets still in construc-tion, saying, “if you take another road there; the one that leads to Al Azhar park, they’re still work-ing on it. You cannot walk there, it is so bad, just horrendous, smelly and not nice, you can definite-ly see the difference. The side that was renovated is completely different.”

Egypt’s Renovated TreasureNouran El KadyPhotography credits: Nouran El Kady

Historical Places

21

Former Secretary-General of the Su-preme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawwas said the renovation project worked on Islamic monuments includ-ing ancient mosques, sabils, which are public water fountains, and seats. This was to give the whole area a brand new feeling of freshness, yet at the same time, maintain all the monuments.

The World’s Largest Open Air Museum

The former minister of culture, Farouk Hosni, stated that he wanted to transform El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street into the world’s largest open air museum. The street certainly has the credentials to be one, it stretches between Al Footuh and Zuweila gates, and goes through Al Naha-sin area, Khan El Khalili, the Gold Market, the Madaq Alley as well as Suqaria Alley (which many readers will remember, are famous streets in the novel palace walk by Naguib Mahfouz).

The street is home to some of Egypt’s oldest buildings that date back to 1040 years ago. Some of its most popular build-ings include Barqouq mosque, Nahassen School, El Aqmar Mosque, the Mosque of el Saleh Talae, the Blue Mosque, the Dome, Hospital and School of Qalawoon.

The beauty of a place like this is breath taking. Those who walk down the street will feel as if they are part of something special; stepping into a forgotten world of ar-chaeological magnificence contrasting with the busy, loud and lively streets full of little antique-like shops selling old goods. “For me, it was an exploration for me, people com-ing from all over the world to see this place; it was an expe-dition,” Sherief added, “what I loved about the place was it looked like it was built by people who enjoyed doing it. It was done to be admired and enjoyed by those who used it, and that’s what the Muslims had back then, we were ahead of our time.”

Dr. Ashraf, who said that he enjoys visiting the street regularly, finds many activities to get on with when he is

there. “You can walk through it with no disturbance as it is a no car zone. There are places you can sit and take photos, and watch at ease. You can stroll through and visit these mosques, it is a place where you can also concentrate about history and know how truly beautiful it is.”

The street has been planned out perfectly with every detail taken care of. You can easily see this all around your way down the path. “They crafted some very fine things, the water system that they had is still there. The rooms are still like how they were. The amazing windows that you can see out of, while other people can’t see you,” Sherief said.

One of the best features about the street is that it is not a onetime expedition. Tourists and Egyptians alike find themselves going to El Moez Li-Din Al-lah El Fatemi street several times with still many parts left undiscovered. Dr. Ashraf agrees, saying, “be sure, you cannot finish El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street in one day, each section will need at least three or four days. You can spend a month and I assure you, you wouldn’t have seen anything yet.”

Those who have seen the changes happen around them certainly agree that the government have managed and succeeded in turning this slum-my, forgotten street into a thing of beauty and pleasure, it is Egypt’s, if not the world, largest open air museum.

Historical Significance The significance of an area like this

in Egypt is hard to measure; its wide stretching history alone makes it central in understanding the coun-try’s past. If El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street could speak, it would certainly talk about the transforma-tions its nation had gone through. Dr. Ashraf spoke about what the street had seen in its time, saying, “Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street

22

has witnessed great events through modern history; es-pecially through the French occupation in 1798. It wit-nessed the first revolt through the uprising known as the revolt of the blind students. The blind students led the uprising and it was the first revolt we had against the French occupation. Hundreds of students were killed. They marched through this famous street and chanted against the French occupation.”

The areas around El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street also become very important within the context of the street. “Walk all the way through El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street to the end and you will pass either through el Nasr gate or el Fotouh gate. At the time of the Mamluks, if they ever had a campaign, they used to pass this street, and they knew, if you pass through el Fotouh gate you will win the war, if you don’t you will lose it.”

The walls and streets hold so many important yet for-gotten stories that would fascinate any tourist coming by. Dr. Ashraf told of how the gates themselves had sig-nificance in Cairo, saying, “the walls have gates, opened at sunrise and closed at sunset. Each morning, the gate would be opened for the people to go out roam the city, but they had to make sure they were back inside a few minutes before sunset; otherwise, no one will be allowed into Cairo through the night.”

A Lack of Appreciation What many find disappointing, is that even after the

renovation, so many people know very little about El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street, and the monu-ments that it holds. Hazem states, “We have a very good history and not a lot of us know about it, not even 5 % actually, I don’t know that much, every time I go in I learn new things. The tourists know more about it than us. I know we have an amazing history, but we are not using it.”

Hazem mentions an embarrassing situation that hap-pened to him which made him realise just how little he, and a lot of Egyptians, know about the history of their own country. “, A couple of tourists came up to me because they knew I was Egyptian and asked me things about the area. This was really sad, but I had no

idea what to tell them and they were really excited to know and be here, so I told them to go Google it. I couldn’t answer.”

The thought of not being able to answer questions about your own country might seem cringe worthy to most people, but many of Egyptians still neglect to visit and find out more about these historical-ly rich places. Even though, if we man-aged to utilize this area and find out more about it, it would dramatically change our tourism industry.

Egypt Is Not Just About the Pyramids

Tourism companies have started recog-nising the importance of El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street, but they still have a long way to go before they can make it another staple for any tourist coming to Egypt. The former Prime Minister, Dr.

Ahmed Nazif, said that the development un-dertaken would have a great return on tourism and would portray the country’s long history. While we have seen a growth in the amount of tourists visiting the area, we have yet to witness the huge surge that this development had previously promised.

“We haven’t seen mass volumes of people come into this area, we still need the right promotion from the ministry of tourism before it can have the kind of income we want for it,” said Omar Osama Wagdy, a tour operator, who’s worked in several tourism companies around Egypt.

It is true that there are people who do come to see the area, but this is usually for religious tourism. Omar said, “People from countries such as Pakistan, Malaysia, and Bangladesh usually come, those with Islamic background, also a lot of She’aa Muslims and Bahara Muslims.”

We still need to step up the area even further and think of ways to attract more people if we want to see a growth in our tourism industry. Dr. Ashraf said, “You have to sell it as a tourist commodity, show them that it has a lot to offer, there are a lot of things that can be done in this street where the tourists will be more than happy to walk through it and find more things to be seen and visited.”

Dr. Ashraf believes that we need to give it a modern twist as well if we’re going to attract people, “provide the area

23

with some modern cafés, or open air painting shops, where the artists can sit and draw nice painting of these magnifi-cent monuments for the tourists to take home.”

Hazem said that we need to show the tourists that there are other sides to Egypt which they have not yet even heard about, so that new tourists could be swayed to come, and old ones will want to come back. “Tourist companies should talk about this area, it’ll be something new instead of the average Egyptian holiday. Egypt is not just about the pyramids you know, or Sharm El Sheikh; the government needs more media attention around these areas.”

Dying Trades El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street is probably one the

most amazing examples of how history can be in harmony with today’s modern world. On the same street that houses some of the oldest Islamic monuments known to man, you will also find a busy street full of sellers and old markets that want an opportunity to show you their produce.

Dr. Ashraf describes the scene saying, “it has a lot of handicraft shops, at the time these little shops were cen-tral to the place. Each area has different specialised sects, you had different sects for those who got oil, flour, wheat, rice. It has the biggest fruit and veg-etable market, and is famous for its onion traders.” But the area is not just famous for it its food, he states that “goldsmiths (al Surganiya) are famous for selling gold items, like jewellery.”

What will disappoint most read-ers to know though is that these old trades are dying at an alarm-ing rate. Lack of care and atten-tion to these old and crafty trades have meant more and more people leaving the jobs they had inherited from their great grand-fathers and moving into the pro-fessional sectors.

Dr. Ashraf says it is a real tragedy that these trades are becoming ex-tinct. “Unfortunately, the govern-ment, and this was even before the Mubarak era, didn’t care about pre-serving these trades. Like the cop-persmith, or the linen workers or cotton smiths. No one built schools or special centres, where young peo-ple who wanted to learn these trades could. At the time, it was an inher-ited profession. The clever workers immigrated or stopped practising their profession.”

The saddest part, Dr. Ashraf la-ments, is that we let our trades that make up our Egyptian identity slip through our hands so that even when the tourists come, they cannot see or appreciate these old arts. “We can make things worth millions of dollars

for the visitors. As a tourist, you want to visit monuments and you want to also buy a souvenir. Every country should preserve its culture, but the past government did not care to help preserve the tradition. It is a calamity.”

Understanding Egypt better There is no question about it; El Moez Li-Din Allah El

Fatemi street is one of the most fascinating and historically significant places in the world; it has been right next to us all this while. It is time to start appreciating what we have in this country and start to promote such magnificent areas not only to the tourists coming into Egypt, but also to other Egyptians who have not yet discovered the wonder, that is, El Moez Li-Din Allah El Fatemi street.

Hazem pleads with the Egyptian youth to go out there and learn their history and discover this area. “Please go to this street, I promise you, you will not regret it, you have no idea how much history and knowledge lie within this areas. If you really care about Egypt, learn about your country, find out more before this area starts to decay com-pletely and we lose part of our heritage.”

26

The ancient library has been a trademark for the development of intellect through cultural diversity and sharing of ideas; is the recent Bibliotheca Alexandrina just a standing icon or a carrier of Alexander the Great’s vision?

Alexandria was founded and named by Alexander the Great as the capital of his empire in 332 BC, he was an-nounced the son of the diety of Amun at the Oracle of Siwa Oasis to gain acceptance with the locals. He was a pupil to the famous philosopher Aristotle. Alexander’s dream in entering Alexandria was culture and conquest, in uniting the world with a new era of knowledge and tolerance in providing a city known and named till this day as the intellectual capital of the ancient world.

The city’s greatest center point for intellect is the ancient library of Alexandria launched in 288 BC by Ptolemy I under the guidance of Demetrius of Phale-

ron. It wasn’t only a library, their was an education-al academy and a research center which embarked great thinkers from all cultures of that age who es-tablished foundations of today’s knowledge in litera-ture, science and mathematics; all in an environment that depends on sharing ideas that were displayed in the library, which held 700,000 scrolls equivalent to 100,000 printed books. It was said that any travelers crossing or arriving to Alexandria had all scrolls tak-en from them to be copied and brought back, showing the importance given to knowledge. It is rumored that the originals were kept in the library and the copies were given to the owners.

The library was open to scholars from all over the world, girls and boys studied at the ancient library showing equality. Many of the solidifying accom-plishments were found by scholars who were part of the library’s community; Aristarchus of Samos who

Site Seeing or VisionaryMai El SayedPhoto credits: Mai El Sayed

Historical Places

27

stated that the earth revolves around the sun, Era-tosthenes of Cyrene, first person to calculate the cir-cumference of the earth with amazing accuracy 1700 years before Columbus. Euclid wrote his elements of geometry that are still studied in schools all over the world till now; Herophylus identified the brain as the controlling organ of the body having immense input to medicine, Manetho chronicled and organized the Egyptian history according to dynasties that are used till this day and Callimachus the poet, organized the scrolls by subject and author, becoming the father of library science.

The ancient library’s timeline was six centuries. It is identified that many occasions played a role in the absolute destruction of the library. The first disas-ter was in 48 BC, when it was accidently set on fire during Julius Caesar’s conquest. Marc Antony gave Cleopatra over 200,000 scrolls from the Library of Pergamum (Turkey) to make up for the losses. Fol-lowing the attack of Aurelian in the 3rd century AD and the decree of Coptic Pope Theophilus in 391 AD. All of the libraries material was abolished except for one scroll that could now be found in a museum in Vienna, Austria.

The library was abolished, but its memory has lived on. In 1974 strong suggestions and plans were res-urrected to revive the ancient library campaigned by a committee set up by University of Alexandria. The project was highly supported by UNESCO and former president Hosni Mubarak.

The project was highly applauded on an international scale and the location of the library was donated from Alexandria University, and it is estimated that the origi-nal location of the library is meters away.

In 1988, an international architectural design com-petition was held to choose a design honoring the site

and its heritage. This competition was organized by UNESCO, and won by Snøhetta, a Norwegian architec-tural office out of 1400 competitors.

On Feb 12th 1990, at a conference in Aswan, Egypt, hosted by former President Hosni Mubarak and his wife Susan Mubarak, world leaders joined together in signing what was called “The International Commis-sion for the Revival of the ancient library of Alexan-dria” to reawaken Alexander’s dream in the modern world. With very generous donations reaching up to US $65,000,000. The attendees included politicians and academicians from all over the world. Including famous figures such as Queen Sofia of Spain, Queen Noor Al Hussein of Jordan.

The money from the conference in Aswan was used to fund the project that costs US $220 million. The construction work began in 1995 with a joint venture of Italian, English and Egyptian contrac-tors and the complex was inaugurated on October 16, 2002.

“ I sang with a huge musical group in the inau-guration of the library, I was really young about 11 years old. I didn’t really understand the honor I feel right now,” said Malak El Daly, senior stu-dent at Arab Academy for Science Technology and Maritime Transport University, Alexandria.

The library is now under the name of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, with metaphorical and poetic mean-ings behind the design, entitling the collaboration of heritage and modernity. The architects describes the reason behind the choice of a circular building which is the main building that covers 70,000 m sq., is “to express the passage of time, the building appears as a gently rotated disc passing into the earth and simul-taneously above it. As it passes into the earth it enters the world we understood as the past. When it passes above the ground it enters the future,” concluding

Mai El SayedPhoto credits: Mai El Sayed

28

it as a “frozen moment in time.” The building is sur-rounded with a granite wall that has all the letters of every language in the world at random division to symbolize cultural tolerance and diversity.

Inside the main building, there are 11 floors, which can accommodate 2,000 readers, with 200 study rooms for scholars and researchers. The millions of books pro-vided are very diverse in language and orientation from audiovisual material, rare books, and book for the young. Also, there is a specialized section under the name of Taha Hussein library for the blind and visually impaired and the Nobel Section, which contains book collections of Nobel Prize Laureates in literature from 1901 till this day. Last year, the library received the 2nd biggest dona-tion of books in the world, with approximately 500,000 books from Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

“Now I go to the library in order to support my projects with sources that are hard to find merely with Internet, as the library offers information worth 45 databases,” said Malak El Daly.

The planetarium takes a circular form as a metaphor for the earth, which contains state of the art pro-jection technology, aiming to establish a scientific culture in Egypt, partnering with the Internation-al Planetarium Society (IPS). It offers the public scientific shows covering different fields. In ad-dition, to offering an IMAX projection system and live shows presented by resident astronomers.

The planetarium also includes the ALEXplorato-rium, which targets to children and youth aiming to engage them in science oriented exhibitions, workshops and other programs and activities, under the supervision of staff members. Finally, the planetarium includes the history of science museum which has permanent exhibitions show-ing the history of science throughout Egypt’s eras e.g. Egypt of the Pharaohs, Hellenistic Alexandria and the Arab-Muslim World.

“We have relations with all public schools and most private schools for trips to visit the library and its facilities, aimed to attract children in an entertaining and inspiring manor for a new gen-eration with high educational values,” said Am-bassador Hagar Islambouly, Head of External Re-lations Sector, Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

The library also includes museums of antiquities that include manuscripts that changed the world’s history and increase knowledge, a museum com-memorating former President Anwar Sadat, there are also six art galleries for temporary exhibitions and two permanent ones which include Hamed Saeed (1908-2006) art pieces who was not only an artist but a great intellect who established the Art and Life Center where he became the first di-rector of art research and sabbaticals and a fa-mous Egyptian film director, screenwriter and costumer and set designer, commonly known for

directing Al-Momiaa (1968-1969), Shadi Abdel Salam (1930-1986) sketches, storyboards, personal items and artwork fill the exhibition.

“The majority of the visitors that come for touristic purposes are usually very impressed and do not expect to see so many facilities,” said Sara, tour guide in Bib-liotheca Alexandrina.

There is a also a conference building that with-holds up to 3,000 persons, used for important meetings such as the annual Bio Vision Alexan-dria which is an international event that covers concerns over science in the health and the me-dicinal fields as well as the scientific concerns of agriculture, environmental conservation and green biotechnology, this conference includes Nobel laureates, ministers and scientists from different specializations.

“The most people that benefit from the library are the researchers and scholars. They are pro-vided with a lot of information and support. Also,

29

people that are involved in our conferences that is place for free interaction and exchange of ideas,” said Islambouly.

This is one of the many events that research cen-ters in Bibliotheca Alexandrina host. Over all there are seven research centers: Alexandria and Medi-terranean Research Center (Alex Med) promot-ing dialogue and exchange in the region by com-memorating the joint past and embracing the future; The Arts Center which includes the celebration of cultures through art through world class interna-tional institutions, the Calligraphy Center is subject to study, research, explore and conduct studies on the origins of writing, the Center for Special Stud-ies and Programs (CSSP) which is dedicated to Create a network of international collabo-ration, Support activities that improve careers, Sponsor scientific research and Promote science and technol-ogy through public awareness.

“Europeans and Americans highly appreciate the renew-al of the library. We have a system called Friends of the Library, as a community sharing ideas and crossing cultural borders, annually there is a conference made to commend them and dis-cuss various issues. Our friends of the library in-clude people from all over the world such as Sweden, UK, France and South Africa. Also, Russia is in the process of being our newest member. Members could be of any back-ground, but mostly people with high interest in educational elements such as historians and academician,” said Islambouly.

In addition to the International School of Informa-tion Science (ISIS); a research institute specialized in promoting the digital use of information by building a universal digital library with a goal of “Universal Access to Human Knowledge” which is in collaboration with CNRS (the French national center for scientific research) the Library of Congress, Yale University, Digital Library Federation (DLF) and others. The Manuscript Center is dedicated to digitalizing precious manuscripts for the public to read and explore, also to protect and keep res-toration of valuable writings. These digitalized manu-scripts are available in the museums themselves in six different languages and are easy to handle.

The Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natu-ral Heritage (CULTNAT) is located in Cairo; however,

its products are used in the library, it aims to apply the latest technology to document Egypt’s cultural heritage even natural heritage that involves biological elements. This is presented in the form of the CULTURAMA giv-ing a 180-degree panoramic viewing experience that is free of charge. Finally, the Alexandria Center for Hel-lenistic Studies, which is a collaborative research center, between Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Onassis Founda-tion, the Vardinoyannis Foundation and the University of Alexandria, which gives scholarships for students to study the Hellenistic studies.

Part of the library’s efforts is to become a platform for universality in dialogue, the Dialogue Forum, where the sharing of cultures and ideas, on current issues

that affect one another, such as political, envi-ronmental, economical or scientific. Here

there is a place for freedom of expres-sion highlighting the harmony of

human civilization.In June, there is a scheduled conference dedicated to-

wards the Egyptian Foreign Policy, discussing current issues such as the appar-ent Egyptian Revolution’s processes and aftermaths. The conference will be open to the public which will include ambassadors, intellects, army officials and representatives from research institutes. “What I’d like to see

is a change in the way of thinking, to critically think,

compare and be open to ideas of any background with toler-

ance. It is very important to in-volve the youth, as they are the ele-

ments for the progression of change in society. It is our responsibility to illuminate

such values,” said Islambouly.Bibliotheca Alexandrina attracts 1.4 million visitors

annually, making it an Egyptian must see from its fas-cinating heritage and background that fused empires together for the sake of education and progression of the human civilization as a whole, which was Aristo-tle’s dream through Alexander where unity is through knowledge. Out of the 1.4 million visitors, 700,000 of them are Egyptians making the library a part of civil society, offering knowledge and open conferences with the modernity of the digital age used to enhance and de-velop the society. Also, being an open book for scholars, researchers, intellects, people with interest to engage in sharing, exchanging and developing by surpassing bor-ders in a cosmopolitan manner.

32

UNDERGROUND! Does it make sense to you that you can find another world underground?

Yes, indeed there is.

Beneath the Giza Pyramids, there is a whole Pharaonic city lying there to be ventured. This city contains more and more about human history, not just a bunch of dead bodies.

While working on the discovery projects at Giza Pyramids, scientists found statues as well. These findings have begun many years ago, but the true and tangible finding was discov-ered on August, 14, 2009. A discov-ery that Egyptian scientists take pride in for being the Pharaohs grandsons, whose mission is to serve the world’s future generations.

Tunnels lie hidden beneath the Pyr-amids of Giza, according to Andrew Collins, a British explorer, who claims to have found the lost underworld of the pharaohs. Populated by bats and venomous spiders, the underground complex was found in the limestone bedrock beneath the Pyramid plateua at Giza. “There is untouched archae-ology down there, as well as a delicate ecosystem that includes colonies of bats and a species of spider which we have tentatively identified as the white widow.”

In his announcement, Collins told Discovery News, “We explored the caves before the air became too thin to continue. They are highly dangerous, with unseen pits and hollows, colo-nies of bats and venomous spider.”

The caves - which are tens of thou-sands, if not hundreds of thousands of years old - may have both inspired the development of the Pyramid pla-teau and the ancient Egyptian’s belief in an underworld. “Ancient funerary texts clearly allude to the existence of a subterranean world in the vicinity of the Giza Pyramids.”

An enormous system of caves, chambers and tunnels lies hidden beneath the Pyramids of Giza. To the southward of the Chephren (Khafre) pyramid, some caves were met with, cut in the rock bounding the platform on which it stands, that appear wor-thy of notice. In several of them are traces of the painted-sculpture which once adorned the walls, and in most of them are mummy-pits all emptied of their contents by the Arabs.

The entrance to Egypt’s cave un-derworld has been sealed shut just two years after its modern day dis-covery. Access to the tomb leading to these natural caverns, located be-neath the famous Pyramids of Giza, is now blocked by a metal gate set in concrete. The move follows recent work to clear the interior of the tomb known as NC2 or the “Tomb of the Birds”, and located in the plateau’s north cliff.

The excavations inside the tomb - coordinated by Dr Zahi Hawass, Sec-retary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities - uncovered a series of subterranean rooms and galleries thought to have been used in the past as a necropolis for the in-terment of bird mummies. Despite these recent discoveries, Dr Hawass

has publicly denied that any natural cave system extends from the tomb, stating that what exists beneath the ground are catacombs carved by hu-man hands, something that Mr Col-lins disagrees with strongly.

This disagreement came after find-ing some handmade passages, which lead to these caves. That might make the two explorers confused about the nature of what they found under the Pyramids. Tourists now go to Giza Pyramids not to take photos with Sphinx and next to the Pyramids as before, but they are coming now to confirm what they read on the inter-net of having an underworld beneath the Great Pyramids.

“It’s not strange for me to know about an underworld in that place, pharos still have a lot to show us,” said Ms Kay, an American tourist while exploring the site. She added that “ the Egyptian authorities must make us go and see that by our own eyes.”

In what appears to be a back flip on his earlier position, Dr Hawass has now confirmed that there is indeed an extensive natural cave system un-der the Giza plateau. Dr. Sohier Ali professor of Egyptology in faculty of Archeology, said that Dr Hawas took a lot of time to confirm the news of exploring natural caves under the Giza Pyramids. It took him about four months to state that in his press release: Pyramids’ Cave World Dis-covered at Giza.

“These explorations need a lot of money and a long time,” Dr. Ali said. Explaining why it took Dr. Hawas that much time to confirm the news,

Beneath the PyramidsRadwa Emad

Historical Places

32

33

and shoot the caves at his reality show on TV. Adding to that, not all researchers like working on that specialized field, because it is so hard. “Working with old DNAs is really hard, you don’t how it is hard to obtain a DNA dating back thou-sands of years and all what you can find, if it is possible, how long that person lived and during which era or dynasty,” Dr. Ali added.

Financially speaking, these proj-ects are done with the help of Brit-ish explorers, who can find their funds from their universities and institutions. But Dr. Hawas wants to take the whole responsibility of these projects, and wants Egypt Supreme Council of Antiquities to fund the projects. But after the late Egyptian’s economic plight, would Dr Hawas still insist for the idea of the Council funding the projects?

After the announcement of the caves system, Dr. Hawas’s team had to start working on the project, with the help of British scholars. Here’s what happened: Egyptian research-ers were just bringing what they found beneath the Pyramids up to the ground, and taking notes under the supervision of Egypt Supreme Council of Antiquities. While Brit-ish explorers were doing the whole work, only one Egyptian researcher took part in the discovery team.

Before the financial debacle that Egypt is facing now, Egyptian re-searchers were working on the project with unorganized funding study. In other word, researchers put a schedule on what work to be done at which time, so they took the fund from the Council for each and every process they do in the project. While the British explorers put a time line along with the ex-penses the project will need.

During the January 25th Revolu-tion, working on that project was stopped because British explor-

ers went back to England and the Egyptian authorities closed the gates so nothing could be stolen. “What was stolen from the Egyp-tian museum was enough, that what we were told from our com-mander,” said one of the guards at the blocked caves system.

Some of the new-discovered Queens’ statues were said to be found broken before getting them up to the surface, but the question is: To what extent can we believe that the Great Pharaohs who built the Great Pyramids can construct statues that would easily be broken just because they were buried underground?

Who said that there are many un-discovered secrets beneath the Giza Pyramids was right, because simply there are a lot of kings’ and queens’ mummies - who lived during differ-ent eras – whose statues were found in the same place. One of the re-ports about the findings of the trea-sure hidden beneath the Giza Pyra-mids said that there was a broken statue for the neck of Queen Cleo-patra VII. However, it was said that Queen Cleopatra VII rarely went to Cairo, because she preferred to stay in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt at that time, and every time the Nile flooded, it distorted the agricultural crops. So, it was said that Cleopatra was preventing her people from living in Cairo, so they don’t suffer from hunger.

Another example relates to a painting on the wall of a new found Egyptian tomb shows the occu-pant, Rudj-Ka (right), and his wife. Rudj-Ka who probably lived during the end of ancient Egypt’s 5th dy-nasty, roughly 4,350 years ago, and archaeologists say (ancient Egypt time line). Artwork and artifacts found in his elaborate tomb, found in and along a cliff near the Great Pyramids at Giza, indicate Rudj-Ka was a priest in the mortuary cult of the 4th dynasty pharaoh Khafra,

who ruled from 2558 to 2532 B.C. Khafra is best known as the force behind the second of the three Great Pyramids and of the Great Sphinx. Rudj-Ka appears to have been a priest charged with oversee-ing purification rituals performed in honor of the dead pharaoh. That was stated in another report.

Cleopatra VII Philopator who re-sided to power in the late 69 B.C. till 30 B.C. and Khafra from 2558 to 2532 B.C.; all that time gap makes us question: how could a powerful queen like Cleopatra, who ruled after king Khafra, finds all that ar-tifacts and neither tries to repair the damages nor destroy them al-together? It was said that Queen Cleopatra was known throughout history as a person who loved to leave her marks wherever she went. There must be a lot of more secrets that lie under the Giza Pyramids; let alone the Egyptian scientists who suddenly stalled the project fearing that something might be stolen.

Is it really an undiscovered caves system from the Pharaonic age as claimed by the British explorers? Or are they a bunch of handmade caves as Dr. Hawas claims? The answer to that question is yet un-known. Nevertheless, may be the Egyptian researchers would exert all their efforts to show the whole world that Egyptian Pharaohs have a lot more to give to humanity.

So, finally, how about taking advantage of these undiscovered secrets and have a new tour-ist site. Worldwide it is known that tourism is one of the most important lucrative businesses that bring in profitable income to any country and Egypt has a lot of tourist venues that it does not benefit from. In fact, most tourists prefer the Pharaonic his-tory rather than modern history, which the government ought to work on extensively.

33

34

The ancient Egyptians have blessed

us with more than two thirds the

world monuments, and perhaps

the Southern Valley of the mighty

River Nile is a Mecca for Phara-

onic artifacts. It was also the location chosen by the

Abdul Nasser administration to put up the Aswan

High Dam, and the reservoir that was to be created

by it would drown over 20 temples.

In March 1960 Egypt pleaded the UNESCO to in-

tervene to help rescue the history that stretches along

the 500 km that will be created by the High Dam.

The UNESCO amassed an enormous taskforce from

51 countries on a mission to rescue history from the

flooding of the Nile, the same river that flourished the

Ancient Egyptians themselves.

One of the historical buildings that

were threatened is the temple of Abu

Simbel 230 km south from Aswan,

which was carved in the mountains by

Ramses II during his 67 years reign of

Egypt. The façade of the temple include

4 huge statues for Ramses II and a door

leading through a tunnel loaded with

beautiful paintings to a small chamber

containing a sculpture of the Pharaoh

seated between 3 powerful gods.

An extraordinary engineering feat

that attracts hundreds from around the world occurs

twice a year on the 22nd of February and October; a

shaft allow in the sun light through the long narrow

hallway to illuminate 3 of the statues leaving the god

of the underworld in total darkness.

By April 1960 the ideas were storming in; one sug-

gested submerging the temple then encasing it with

a glass dome that will allow visitors a view, but the

sandstone structure would eventually erode. Another

inspirational idea was to make use of the flood and

ship the temple to land, however the 6 years wait

would make the move vulnerable to storms or leakage

and the outcome maybe disastrous.

Another one put forward a challenging scheme of

moving the whole temple as one block, but moving

a 250,000 ton structure is unprecedented and any

mistake will be catastrophic. “The difficulty removing

Abu Simbel is that you have huge cliff above the

temple itself extending more 60 m back into the

rock, to attempt to move all that is a huge exercise,”

Richard Swift said, he’s a British engineer specialized

in preserving history. “You are moving something

about 250,000 tons, in 1964 that would have been a

groundbreaker,” he added

It took 4 years to come up with an ingenious idea.

The monumental task was handed to an interna-

tional team of 2,000 contractors and engineers from

Germany, Egypt, Sweden Italy and France that sought

the dismantle of the entire monument and moving it

block by block to a newer location.

A lot of questions were raised; will the cuttings

affect the 3,000 year old stone structure? How will

they move the external statues with the head alone

weighing 30 tons? Will the sunlight phenomenon

be affected? How will they manage to deal with the

majority of the temple that lies inside the mountain?

But these questions were decided to be answered on

carrying out the project out rather than theoretically

due to the shortage of time.

“Cutting the monuments is a very very tough thing

to accept, but it’s the safest solution, you are absolutely

sure nothing will be lost and you are getting them away

from water,” Egyptologist Dr G. A. Gaballa said.

The engineers were wary of the danger of cutting

Abu Simbel in equal blocks could damage, as a cut on

the eye or an ear could cause irreparable scars, so they

fashioned each cut to minimize the damage. And it was

not only the façade that needed cutting, also the rooms

inside, along with pillars, columns and the Hieroglyphic

walls, “It was essential to find a suitable line to cut

through the walls as not to disturb the beauty of the

paintings,” Gösta Persson a Swedish supervising engi-

neer shared his fears.

When they started the sawing process, the team re-

ceived news that the flooding water will

touch Ramses’ feet within 6 months

putting them under more pressure.

Nevertheless they secured themselves

by building a huge barrier to stop the

water from getting in their way giving

themselves an extra 13 months.

“They were working and some kind

of tsunami coming at them, how ling

would the cofferdam last and tolerate

the pressure,” Dr Gablla explained, “All

that pressure meant that it’s the restora-

tion or deluge.”

To avoid a massacre, the cutting lines received special

treatment before starting cutting to stop the sandstone

from crumbling when sliced, “The bandages are soaked

in a special agent, and when it dries, it will stop the stone

from damaging,” Johnny Anderson an English stonema-

son explained. So they went on cutting with handsaws

to ensure that each visible scar is no wider than 8 mm,

“these handsaws were to be sharpened continuously, and

would cut deep 25 m every hour,” Anderson added. The

challenge was the first touch where cutting must begin

in precisely the correct angle; any miscalculation could

reduce the structure into rubble.

Before reaching the rooms inside the engineers had

to remove the mountain on top of the temple, they

The Restoration of Abu SimbelBy: Youcef Badawi

Historical Places

35

did not want to use explosives fearing damages result-

ing from the shockwave. Instead they used chainsaws

slicing through the rubble like a knife cutting through

steak meat.

By the end of the slicing process, the total length of

cuts was 10 km; bearing in mind the harsh weather

conditions it took 9 months of backbreaking sawing

to achieve this remarkable accomplishment.

The small city of Abu Simbel suddenly became one

of the most congested areas in the country; especially

built towns were built to accommodate the expanding

workforce. The 2,000 expert that flocked from around

the globe made Abu Simbel an accidental melting pot

with all the cultures and nationalities unite in one

mission; rescuing the temple.

The proposed way to move each block was by

straps, but harnessing the monuments can easily dam-

age them especially at the stress points. To solve the

problem they plunged two metal rods through the

monuments like a fork carrying the small pieces of

meat. The mathematical dilemma here was how long

should these rods penetrate. On the 19th of April

1966, last piece of the structure was lifted away.

Like the previous monuments, it was then rested on

a cushioned truck, and slowly driven through the 800

m to their storage location; there each piece was given

an identification code and catalogued like books in a

library to know each part’s location and in what order

to reassemble it.

Each piece was to be reassembled in the new loca-

tion on the highlands. However the difficult task in

the reassemble was to replicate the mountain on top

of the temple. They built a humongous dome around

the temple to stand the huge weight of the sandstones

thrown on it. The façade was reassembled by hand

and the cracks were treated using gypsum so that the

temple and its surroundings looked as if they’ve never

been moved. “When I came back 40 years after the

excavation, I tried looking for cuts but I didn’t find,”

said Persson.

This incredible feat was finished on the 31st of Oc-

tober 1968, four and a half year after they began the

mission and 13 months ahead of schedule. “Ramses

II must have been absolutely happy with this project,

seeing the whole world coming to save one of his

monuments,” Dr Gaballa added.

And as calculated, the sunlight that used to il-

luminate Ramses II and the other two gods, lit the

monuments on the 22nd of February 1987, and will

do that forever as long as the sun rise.

38

Will the day of turning rubbish in Egypt into an important source of investment come? Will it be a means to solve the problem of unemployment? Let’s hope so, as Cairo only produces 15 thousand tons of rubbish daily at an average of L.E 6000 per one ton.

Domestic rubbish is considered a huge wealth to Egypt if we used it well and safely.

“A ton of rubbish differs according to the nature of the region which produc-es rubbish. If the social standard is higher, rubbish will contain good amounts of plastic and wood and if the social standard is low, the rubbish will be less likely to contain the two,” Said Dr.Tarek Hussein, the international ex-pert of environment.

Rubbish in Cairo is consid-ered one of the richest sorts in the world as a ton of rubbish contains 65% organic substances, it includes remains of vegetables, fruits, bread and the kitchen wastes, it includes 15% paper and 3% glass , plastic and cloth,1%bones and 1% minerals and 9% other substances..

Rubbish takes several stages to be used in a proper way through recycling it. These steps take place in Haya El Zabaleen, extending hundreds of meters and housing nearly 1500 workshops for recycling plastic. The smell of rubbish shows you to one of the poorest suburbs in Cairo. It is a garbage district, about 37,000 inhab-itants who live on collecting rubbish. In this district life is completely disciplined as work starts in the early morning, where men, women and children engage in assigned tasks.

The first stage of work in Haya El Zabaleen is the stage of collecting rubbish.

“I get up at 5 a.m., I drive my truck, collect rubbish from Bou-lak, by passing from house to another day ends after collecting rubbish and distributing it at a fee to the warehouses in Haya El zabaleen.” said Girgis Eissa, one of the workers .

“After collecting rubbish, workers sort it out in ware houses , then sell it to rubbish recycling companies and certain workshops existing in the area ,” said Marzoka Mosaad, one of the workers.

Garbage is not only sold to warehouses in Hay el zabaleen, but also recycled, such as papers and shampoo bottles. The spe-cialized companies in recycling rubbish get the bigger ratio of plastic, wood and valuable wastes.

Hay El Zabaleen is not the only region which collects rubbish and sorts it out, but there is another competitor to this district. This competitor is the Spanish company which also collects rubbish and adds its values to the elec-tricity bill and this causes a lot of annoyance to the gar-

bage collectors in Hay El Zabaleen.

“Before the interference of the Spanish company, work in the rubbish was re-

stricted to the Garbage collectors in Hay el zabaleen, but now the company is a real competitor, after gathering rubbish and sorting it out either by garbage collector in Hay el zabaleen or by the Spanish company, rubbish is sold to specialized companies in recycling where it can reused,” said Hanaa Samaan, one of the owners of

storerooms in Hay el zabaleen .

The idea of recycling rubbish started during WWI and WWII as countries

suffered from severe lack in some essential substances such as rubbers, so these countries

thought of collecting these substances from rubbish by recycling them. They used domestic, industrial and agricul-tural substances to reuse it. This process occurred after sort-ing the rubbish then recycling each substance apart.

Dr. Sayed El Kamny, professor of professional diseases at Ain Sham University, said that, no doubt the process of recycling has a lot of environment and economic advantages as it reduc-es environment pollution instead of get rid of wastes through burying or burning it. Thus, reduce we importing some essen-tial substances offer new work opportunities and save energy.

The Golden rule:

Dr. Hussein proposes, going back to the basics. What he was actually referring to was a method that was suggested in the early 70s .such method may be referred to as the golden rule that con-sists of four golden steps.

The first rule is the step of reducing. It relies on reducing the raw materials used in making a product and, thus, reducing wastes, or reducing the used materials in packaging, such as plas-tic, paper and minerals. This step requires environment awareness from every investor. In the U.S.A, a lot of liquefying soap produc-ers concentrated the substance in order to be packaged in smaller sizes and they did the same thing with the tooth paste.

Greener Egypt: How to Recycle Wastes

Noha OudaEcology: Environment

38

39

The second rule which is called reusing the wastes, such as reusing plastic bottles after filtering them and refilling bottles and jars after using them, this can also lead to reducing the amount of wastes.

“This step requires environmental awareness from people on how to get rid of wastes and doing simple sort-ing out of plastic, papers, glasses and mineral before getting rid of them. In Japan and America, there are colored bins in each region and street where people can throw paper wastes in the green bins, plastic and glass in the blue bins and food wastes in the black bins.” Dr. Tarek said.

The third rule is the process of recy-cling; it is reusing the wastes to produce other products less in quality than the original product.

The fourth rule is the process of heat drawback. This process occurs in some countries such as Japan to get rid of solid and dangerous wastes in a safe way. These wastes can be found in hospitals by burn-ing it, getting rid of9% of solid substances, and turning them into heat energy which can used in generat-ing steam and electrical energy.

Dr. Hisham Mohamed, an expert in environment science said that plastic is divided into two types; hard plastic and bags of plastic. Before recycling plastic, it is washed by burn-ing soda (added to it hot water), then breaking dry plastic and using it in making hangers and plastic electrical hoses. Ac-cording to him recycling paper is an economic process from the first degree as we can use recycled paper in making news-

papers. There are a lot of useful; wastes which can be used completely. We as environment experts thought of produc-ing soap out of oil used in frying food. This oil is an impor-tant source of preparing some food such as potatoes, fish and taamia. The waste extracted from oil can be recycled instead of throwing it. So, we thought of recycling it in making soap instead of polluting the sewage water . We cultivated about 200 feddans in Eastern Ismailia depending on sewage water after treating it. We also used the wastes of hotels such as plastic and cans of cola, “said Dr. Mohamed

There are also some negative effects of the process of re-cycling. As some factories use wastes in inhuman ways. These factories use polluted wastes in the manufacturing of toys. They also use wastes of hos-pitals in making pampers. These prod-ucts are sold at cheap prices on plat-forms away from pharmacies.

Besides, there are some bad habits which are used to get rid of rubbish such as burning which further an envi-ronmental disaster as well as burning rice straw which is responsible for the black cloud.

Recycling rubbish is the best solu-tion to get rid of rubbish as it has an economic benefit to the country if this process takes place through utilizing modern technology and building peo-ple’s capacity. One of the best things you can do is to learn more about re-cycling, and especially to spread the word and encourage others to recycle as much as possible. Does your family recycle? It is never too late to start

conserving our precious resources.Photo credit: Noha Ouda

39

40

“The Egyptian Revolution has given me the power and awareness of expression and the urge to innovate,” said Reham Rasheed, student at Modern Sciences and Arts University (MSA). Egypt is

at another historical moment filled with change and solution. Resolving its sources of energy is an apparent issue.

Egypt’s population has been booming with an increase of 20 million people since 2000, making the population approximately 80 million people today. This has resulted in a vast increase in energy consumption that is up to 7-8 percent every year, according to the World Bank. This is translated to about 2,000 megawatts of electricity annually. With that in mind the energy accessibility should coordinate with such high demands.

According to the ministry of electricity and energy, powering the nation with air conditioners consumes up to 12 percent of the nation’s total daily production. The total number of air conditioners rose from 700,000 in 2005 to approximately 3 million in 2009 and rising. These results are noticeable in the summer heat.

In 2010, independent daily Al Masry Al Youm reported record levels of en-ergy usage across the country, hitting a new height of 22,700 megawatts in June that year. Bearing in mind that the national grid’s maximum daily capacity is 25,000 megawatts.

These statistics have consequently been apparent with cuts across the country, done to restrict and preserve power usage. As for factories, of-ficials ask for voluntary confinement of power usage. However, many fac-

tories complained due to power cuts during working hours that evidently affects productivity.

At the Euromoney Conference in late September 2010, standing in for the electricity and energy minister, Engineer Mohamed MoussaOmran, the ministry’s first undersecretary, told the audience that Egypt is at a critical point, due to various “challenging factors that face us when enhancing the energy sector. Climate change has become a main challenge. The world has witnessed change in industry, consumption and demand for energy”. Also linking “challenges come hand in hand with the type of economic develop-ment which Egypt is currently facing”. He concluded that change is not avail-able over night.

The nation’s energy consumption projection is taking a highly increasing route. Analysts predict Egypt’s daily power needs will escalate to 57,000 megawatts by 2027, making it more than double of today’s daily consump-tion.

On the other hand, there is a lot of short-term and long-term projects proposed and are being put to work for the equality between energy and demand for the sake of citizens and the industrial sector. Projects such as El Tebbin Steam Turbine Plant, located in Giza, funded by the World Bank and operating as the country’s first combined cycle power plant.

Also, a steady plan is proposed to upgrade existing natural gas power plants, a new power sharing program between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in addition to the World Bank and the Clean Technology Fund publicizing plans

to put $200 million towards 280 kilometers of high-capacity transmission lines to con-nect wind farms in the Gulf of Suez and Ga-bel El-Zait to the national grid.

As for wind power, $300 million has been spent in funding for the development of wind power projects and to introduce clean transport options, which are still in prog-ress. Considering wind energy, currently provides 1.5 percent of the total amount of energy generated, there is a hopeful aim for 12 percent by 2020.

One of the greatest and longest ongo-ingprojects, yet is the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). The Egyptian nuclear program was launched in 1954. Egypt ac-quired its first nuclear reactor from the Soviet Untion in 1961. The two-megawatt re-actor was founded under President Gamal Abdel-Nasser at Inchass, in the Nile Delta. The Soviets controlled the disposal of this small nuclear research reactor’s spent fuel, which in any event was not capable of

Energizing the Egyptian People Mai El Sayed

Ecology: Environment

40

41

2009 as Egypt’s politicians including the former prime minister Ahmed Na-zif, claiming the untouched coast line 150 km west of Alexandria would be better used for tourism development despite the former minister of tourism Zoheir Gararanah’s support of the nuclear plant. This debate was put to rest late 2010 when former president Hosni Mubarak approved the El-Dabaa location. Considering El Dabaa is within the Matrouh governorate, being part of Egypt’s North Coast that extends over 525 km on the Mediterranean Sea making it a highly visited area in the summer with endless resorts and beach houses.

“It has been scientifically proven that the average radiation people are exposed to due to the activation of nuclear plants is ten times lower than what they are vulnerable to in ordinary environments, where the potential for accidents is nearly zero. But the question is, what to do when they take place,”El-Eseiry.

Studies were also done before, such as N.Nasser, National Center for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control, Division of Radiation Control, Cairo, and M.Metwally, Nuclear Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, who both conducted a research paper that provided eight dispersion models to describe and evaluate the suitability of the Dabaa site. The examination of many sites against relevant site attributes revealed that Dabaa is an appropriate site for constructing the first NPP in Egypt. The report includes data on air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, hail/snow, thunderstorms, sandstorms, hydrology, geology/tectonic and seis-mology. The complete analysis of the reported data enhanced and supported the selection of the NPP construction site.

The plant itself is expected to cost around $1.6 billion and is handled by the Supreme Council for the Peaceful Purposes of Nuclear Power. In February 2011, the project was officially postponed. However, still sticking to the plan Egypt has signed an agreement with Russia on offering Egypt trainings and developmental cooperation on nuclear stations technology, the assessment and development of crude uranium sources, developing infrastructure and legislative framework to put Egypt’s nuclear program to effect. The continu-ation of the project is not clear due to political instability, but with all the efforts of innovative thinking; supplying the Egyptian people with necessities to increase productivity and stability is definite.

producing a significant amount of weapons-grade material. Egyptian nuclear ambitions were discarded following the 1967 defeat at the hands of Israel. Egypt signed the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1968 and was subsequently, disregarded due to the lack of expertise.

On the other hand, there were serious plans on developing nuclear poten-tial designated for use in power engineering, agriculture, medicine, biotech-nology, and genetics.

In 1975, an agreement was signed by the United States, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Egypt for the approval of the implementa-tion of a nuclear power program. Financial problems stalled construction of power reactors. However, in 1981 before the assassination of President Anwar El Sadat, he announced the plans to build two nuclear power stations along the Mediterranean coast. These plans though were shelved.

Since 1990, Egypt has been a member of the Arab Power Engineering Organization (APEO) uniting 11 countries. A number of Egyptian scientific projects are being carried out under the support of the IAEA. There are bilateral agreements in the area of the peaceful use of atomic energy with Germany, the United States, Russia, India, China, and Argentina. There are also agreements with Great Britain and India to provide assistance in training national cadres for scientific research and work on the country’s atomic enterprises.

Since 1974, Egypt has supported nuclear-weapons free zone in the Middle East, calling all countries in the region to join the NPT.

A talk about reviving the idea of having nuclear power was brought up during a September 2006 National Democratic Party (NDP) conference, soon to be followed by similar statements by Former President Hosni Mubarak.

Finally, on March 2007, Egypt announced its plans for the nuclear pro-gram serving peaceful energy purposes. In 2008, a consultancy contract was issued and preliminary studies were executed and completed by the Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA) in cooperation with the IAEA. In addition, in 2009, the Egyptian NPPA and WorleyParsons Limited con-cluded a $160 million consultancy services contract that included site and technology selection studies and carries through to design, construction management, com-missioning and start-up.

“The whole world is interested in nuclear power as an eco-friendly energy that doesn’t pro-duce harmful carbon emissions. The cost of electricity generated by nuclear power is cheap when compared to that produced by traditional stations,” said Ibrahim El-Eseiry, former IAEA inspector, speaking to Al-Masry Al Youm.

According to Egypt Today, the debate over the location selected for the plant, El-Dabaa was char-acterized by ongoing spats with the media starting in the fall of

41

43

The purpose of a civilization is to seek ways to improve cultural, materialistic, along with, intellectual and organiza-tional developments. Yet to reach the state of a proper civilization is not an easy process; it needs years of gathering information, studying that information

then adopting it. But what if creating a civilization with good intentions is being disrupted by bitter confrontations, confrontations that could harm eco-nomical and environmental matters?

Back in 1997, Egypt was part of a controversial mat-ter that revolved around the discovery of a ‘new’ val-ley, eight kilometers north of Toshka Bay, west of As-

wan Dam and Lake Nasser, where agricultural and industrial communities could be developed. “This is a rather developmental and progressive project that reminds me a lot of the High Dam of Aswan project; it’s affect on the development of this country should be a positive one.” Civil engineer, Mamdouh Hamza, told the Egyptian program, ‘Al Qahera Al Youm’. This scheme the Egyptian government insisted on carrying out was soon called the Toshka Project; also known as The New Valley project. It struck many arguments amongst environmentalists and economists, yet, the project seeped positive purposes, especially amongst a rapidly growing population. The main dilemma is if the project fails then it’ll aggravate problems of dis-tributing the sparse waters of the Nile.

The Toshka Project: Reality or Illusion?

Hana Mashhour, Ibrahim El Shakankiry


44

Historically, according to the U.S-Egyptian exca-vation committee, ancient Egyptians had lived in Toshka around eight thousand years ago. The for-mer culture minister, Farouk Hosni, mentioned that the committee discovered archaeological monu-ments, including painting, animal skeleton and ce-real warehouses that proved their existence.

The purpose of the project, which originated in January 1997, is to divert the Nile waters, from Tosh-ka’s excessive water basin, through series of canals and a pumping station, into the western desert of Egypt, creating the base for thousands of hectares (a surface area that’s equal to 100 acres) of new ag-ricultural land, a land of new towns for thousands of people. Hamza mentioned, “Since each Egyptian citizen’s share has decreased 1/10 compared to their shares a hundred years ago, the land used for agri-cultural purposes has diminished, gaining the advantage to continue the project.” If the project is achieved successfully then by the year 2020 there will be a new im-proved land for over three million inhab-itants, hence, extending the native land by ten percent.

The Nile is not owned by Egypt alone, as a matter of fact, there are ten countries that share the Nile Ba-sin which, unfortunately, hold less than two percent of Earth’s renew-able fresh water, making it more difficult for the other countries to accept the Toshka project. Still, it rains an estimate of one billion cu-bic meters annually, along with an extra seventy-five billion cubic me-ters of ground water and five billion

cubic meters of second hand agricultural drainage water, which help supports that the project could be achieved.

Although the Toshka Project is seen as a hope for a more organized civilization in Egypt, estab-lishing modern irrigation systems on such a scale is expensive and time consuming. It was reported that it certainly had an effect with the country’s funding restrictions; yet, by June 2005 ninety per-cent of the project’s infrastructure was depicted as being complete.

Mubarak’s pumping station that was built to help divert the water is located at the center of the lake. It includes twenty-four vertical pumps that are installed in two parallel lines along both sides of the station. Eighteen channels are con-trolled by adjustable speed units that run continu-ously; three channels spared offline just in case of maintenance and another three held in reserve. The deepest inland canal, that opens 50 meters

deep, pumps 1.2 million cubic meter of water per hour. But, although it’s an impressive scheme, civil and mechanical engineers, along with the Ameri-can Society of Civil Engineers (who recognized its completion in 2005), admire the Mubarak Pumping Station for two unapparent reasons. The first rea-son revolves the structural system (steel mini-piles) that is installed at the base of the station and is con-nected to a foundation raft. The steel mini-piles are less expensive and, more importantly, earthquake resistant. The second reason focuses on the temper-ature since that area, Toshka, experiences change of weather, ranging from zero degrees Celsius to fifty degrees Celsius. Using regular expansion and contraction joints to reach a watertight struc-ture could have caused serious problems; instead, the contraction design contains joints above the

45

normal high water level, hence avoiding potentially complicated thermal effects. The station has pumped over fourteen million cu-bic meters of water out of the lake Nasser, allowing 500,000 acres of land to be irrigated.

The Abu Dhabi development do-nated $100 million to the Toshka Project by Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan El Nahayan, president of the Unit-ed Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), hence, the canal was named in its recog-nition, Sheikh Zayed canal. Rather than using pipelines, canals are more driven by volumes of water which could lead to certain conse-quences like loss of water evapo-ration; especially in the summer, but it decreases the leakage loss by coating the canal with layers of ce-ment, sand, concrete and polymer sheeting which is then layered with a protective paint.

Most of the Toshka’s construc-tion work has been finished and the final system includes a canal running fifty kilometers west from Mubarak Pumping Station, along with four twenty-two kilometer side branches running through a north-south direction, irrigating water supply for four designated areas of cultivation.

“Toshka is a project that is used to increase the agricul-tural lands here in Egypt, but unfortunately, the project lost its way.” Hamza told Al Qahera Al Youm. The Toshka Project attracted the atten-tion of many individuals and groups in Egypt as well as worldwide. It created much controversy on whether it is a mirage or marvel. Some are very enthusiastic and optimistic about it, to the extent of calling it “The New Delta Project” or “The Inverted Pyramid Project.” On the other hand, the Toshka Project also has fierce critics, ranging from environmentalists worried about its demands on Nile water to economists who question its profitability.

Egypt is pouring millions of dollars in the build-ing, into desert reclamation. Some might argue that this money is wasted finance that could have been used more productively in other urgent needs such as health care, housing, and education. This project is causing liquidity and cash flow crises by sucking the lifeblood out of the economy and it is yet to be

completed. Poor cost-benefit analysis caused the Egyptian society to doubt the possibility of a near profit gain.

Critics also say most of the income from the project will return to the international inves-tors instead of being reinvested in the Egyptian economy. Dr. Mohamed Nasr Allam, a professor of irrigation engineering at Cairo University, said, “Economically this project is not wise. We are giving the income from our water and land to foreigners who are developing large, mecha-nized farms that require limited labor force.”

Worse still, less than 3.6 per cent of the specified land 243,000 acres have been cul-tivated. For example, the Kingdom Agricul-tural Development Company, owned by the Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, has culti-vated only one per cent of the 100,000 acres it had claimed in the project.

46

Prince al-Waleed bin Talal had bought these acres from former agriculture minister, Amin Abaza, for a very cheap price. The prince said he invested in Toshka upon former president Mubarak’s sugges-tion ten years ago. While the acres costs LE16000 the investors have bought it in return for only LE50 per acre. Moreover, the government sustained the in-frastructure’s expenses, including the main canals, the industrial and engineering works. The establish-ment of the infrastructure cost LE16000 per acre. The nation has lost around LE5.7 billion in the Tosh-ka Project, whose implementation started in 1997 in the southern desert.

Both internationally and within Egypt, Toshka is looked upon with much uncertainty. Egyptians are generally suspicious of the project and many see it merely as an expression of the former president’s power, just as the High Aswan Dam was seen as a monument to Nasser’s power in the ‘60s. “Toshka is bad. It is bad for Egypt, it’s bad for the Egyptians. The only person it is good for is Mubarak. It is his pyramid,” said a shopkeeper in Aswan.

Others question the project’s economic and stra-tegic capability. With a population of 80 million, Egyptians have about 700 cubic meters of water per person per year, making Egypt below the in-ternationally acknowledged water poverty line of 1,000 cubic meters. Given Egypt’s high birth rates this situation is only getting worse. In addition, the water traveling through the project’s canals goes through a vast terrain of nothing but rocks until it reaches the first cultivatable land. Thus, much of the precious water evaporates from the canals because of the overpowering heat of the desert.

But put aside this issue, Egypt could even run short of water if oth-er Nile Basin countries to the south should build dams and divert some of the flow. And while local water management agents are struggling to meet domestic challenges, fear of regional and global water short-ages continues to grow. Future con-flict within the region will erupt as a result of water shortages rather than politics. According to the Pop-ulation Reference Bureau based in Washington DC, “the Middle East and North Africa is the most water-scarce region of the world. Home to 6.3 per cent of the world’s popula-tion, the region contains only 1.4 per cent of the world’s renewable fresh water.”

The ten countries that share the Nile Basin have been mixed up

in political conflict on and off for decades. Each of the largest three countries in the basin; Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, can only increase their share at the expense of the other two. Both Sudan and Ethiopia expressed their anger at the be-ginning of the project, and Ethiopia went as far as to request an amendment to the 1959 Nile Treaty. Since then, Egypt has been loath to acknowledge any distress its water and land reclamation projects may be creating up-stream. Emphasis has instead been placed on the leading role played by the Egyptian government in coordinating and initiating advanced water management and conservation efforts among riparian states. “The war over water, in this case, is something that fears us [we are afraid from]. This could happen. But, we need to prevent any situation which will bring this conflict into reality,” said Mo-hamed Hassan Abdel Aal with concern in his eyes.

47

The Toshka Project’s main ob-jective was to primarily be an agricul-tural and horticultural delta to lure the Egyptian away from the centuries- old Nile Valley. However, Egyptians resist moving from their homes to new set-tlements in the desert, and the Toshka Project is no exception. Who would want to move two hundred kilometers south of Aswan and in the middle of the desert where the weather could range from zero to fifty degrees?

Unrealistic water resources management by diverting water badly needed in the traditionally most fertile land of the Nile Valley is another huge disadvantage for this project. The idea behind the Toshka Project is for Egypt’s growing population to break out of the narrow borders of the Nile Valley. The irony here is that while the government spends $3.7 billion on all three projects annually, urban sprawl within the fertile valley itself is allowed to continue unchecked, thus, eating up highly fertile agricultural land on a daily basis.

As an engineer, Jan Bron, the head of the Dutch team that co-ordinates the Water Boards Project in Egypt, recognizes the Toshka Project as a great en-gineering feat, but he predicts the project will fail from a social point of view. “From an engineering point of view it is a great project: the largest pump-ing station in the world, the irrigation of millions of hectares of land… basically it is a playground for engineers. For now it is still justifiable and when it does finally go wrong, others will be in power. But the idea of sending the overflow of people from the Delta and the Valley to Toshka is delusional. I think the project will fail disastrously.”

Bron and many other observers say the real problem lies not in specific projects like Toshka but in overall government policy that still encourages the develop-ment of agriculture. Nasr Allam, former minister of Water Resources and Irrigation agrees. “In my view it would be better to develop industry, and shift away from agriculture that consumes so much water. We have to expand into other sectors. We still export agri-cultural produce, even though we know we must con-serve water; we grow rice, even though it consumes great quantities of water. The government still resists developing other sectors because many are stuck in a traditional view of Egypt as an agricultural producer. We have to get past this image and evolve into the reality of [the] 21st century.”

Dr Mahmoud Abu Zeid, the Egyptian former minister of water resources and irrigation explains the challenge facing Egypt in the coming century.

“There are too many priorities. You look at the situa-tion and you see only priorities. It is a big challenge: we have to maximize the benefit from the water we have, use it more efficiently. Then we have to pre-vent pollution and also work with our neighbors. In parallel we have to look to modernize the irrigation system, encourage drainage water reuse and limit the birth rate. It is a great challenge; it is hard to know where to begin.”

Meanwhile, down at Toshka, engineers working at the site admit life there is tough. Mohamed Abdel Fattah, the general site manager, and Abdel Baseet Hafiz, a design engineer, say heat, long hours and homesickness take their toll off the men. “The diffi-culties of the life here are many: there are no women, no children, there is no entertainment, work is our only entertainment,” explains Abdel Fattah. “When we go back to Aswan we are so happy to see people that we want to shake hands with everyone in the street. Life here is hard.”

One has to hope that the women, the children and the entertainment will all come to Toshka in good time, bringing with them the community life that is now sorely lacking. The question is whether high salaries and high-standard facilities can make the heat and the homesickness bearable and whether the Egyptians will abandon the banks of their beloved Nile for this brave new world in the desert.

“Nobody in Egypt realises what we are doing here,” lamented Ahmed Fouad, an engineer at Al-Mamlakah, the Toshka farm owned by Bin Talal. “A couple of days ago we gave the pumps a trial run and people were literally weeping with joy when water gushed through the gates,” he said. For the men who have withstood the unbearable

48

heat, scorpions and snakes, the sand of the dry as a bone desert and the longing for their families, Toshka is taken very seriously.

“After graduation I worked in the Gulf and then the job market crashed. I came back to Egypt and looked desperately for a job but to no avail. Then I was offered this job and the pay is good so I came out two and a half years ago. The worst thing is be-ing so far away from my family. And then there is the heat, of course. When I came here it was all sand and rocks, but now look at it,” said Fouad.

Some may argue that the Toshka Project is a com-plete failure. However it is still long due until one understands the benefits of this project’s fruits. The first fruits of the promising success of the project can be witnessed in many where the volume and density of the green color of vegetables, fruits, and flowers extend for almost 60 acres wholly cultivated in an area previously thought of only as barren, un-cultivable desert. The project will eventually double the amount of cultivated land in Egypt ending once and for all the food scarcity in the country.

Financed by the government and large interna-tional investors, including the Saudi Prince Talal and several international agro-industrial compa-nies, this hi-tech agricultural project plans to ex-ploit the local conditions by growing seasonal crops like strawberries, asparagus and grapes during the winter months and exporting them to cold North-ern climates with large profit margins.

Dr. Dia El Din El Quosy, a former senior advisor to the minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, said the project will bring new life and livelihood to an area that was until now infertile and uninhabited. “The Toshka Project is motivated by social reasons.

We want to relieve Egypt’s overcrowd-ed and overpopulated towns, cities and urban centers by creating this new space, and by creating new employ-ment opportunities.

This part of the country has been ne-glected both from a social and a politi-cal point of view. We now want to bring development to the region,” he said. El Quosy explains that this development will take place in several stages. “First, we will focus on agriculture, then on the agro-industry, then on industry, tourism, and so on, until we create a vibrant, full community.” Construction of the new Toshka City would serve a population of five million to relieve the overcrowded old valley.

Hussein El Gebaly from the Ministry of Housing saw many factors that will draw people from the overcrowded Nile

Valley to this new Egypt, cheaper housing and land, higher salaries and, most importantly, thousands of new jobs. “And then of course there is an airport near Abu Simbel,” he said. “This is very important. It will make people feel connected to the rest of the country; they will feel they are not totally isolated in a remote area, knowing that there are direct con-nections to Cairo and Aswan every day.” El Gebaly thinks that the psychological reassurance that one can get away from the place, the feeling that one is not completely cut off in the desert, will form an incentive to move there.

“The worst thing is that when I go back home no-body understands the importance of my work. When the High Dam was being built the people working on the project were considered national heroes. To-day, because the private sector has taken over every-thing, this is considered just another job -- all that counts is how much money you can make out of it. But I cannot believe that. Our lives are being spent on a great national project,” said Ahmed Fouad.

The Toshka Project is truly an engineering wonder that will better the lives of millions of people. On the long run, the project is planned to allow Egypt to meet all of its own food re-quirements in addition to providing agricultural exports. However, fears of water scarcity in the region are part of a global problem. The project is here to stay; even its critics have accepted that. Billions of dollars have been invested, there’s no turning back. But, will millions of Egyptians leave the green Nile Valley and move to the desert? The homes for the workers’ families are standing, but Toshka City, looks set to remain a ghost town for years to come.

50

Just when did Egyptian Pharaohs such as King Tut-ankhamun or Djoser rule? Is there an exact date to when the Pharaohs lived? And is

there a scientific method that could provide us with the exact timeline of our ancestors? Historians have heat-edly debated the exact dates coming up with various ones.

An international research team has fi-nally mapped out an accurate chronol-ogy for the Pharaohs Old, Middle and New Kingdoms using a radiocarbon analysis of short-lived plant remains

from the region. The research sheds light on one of the most important periods of Egyptian history document-ing the various rulers of Ancient Egypt's Kingdoms. Despite Egypt's historical significance, in the past the dating of events has been a contentious under-taking with Egyptologists relying on various different chronologies.

Radiocarbon dating uses a number of Carbon 14 (C14) available in living creatures as a measuring stick. Radio-carbon dates reached their outer limits around 40,000 years ago. Anything that dates beyond that could only be mea-

sured using Potassium-Argon Dating. All living creatures maintain a content of carbon 14 in equilibrium with that available in the atmosphere, until the moment of death. When an organ-ism dies, the amount of C14 available within it begins to decay at a half-life rate of 5730 years; it takes 5730 years for 1/2 of the C14 available in the organism to decay.

"The very first dating done with radiocarbon was dating Egyptian mate-rial of known dates, to check that [the method] worked," said Andrew Short-land from Cranfield University in the

Mapping out AncientEgyptian History

Historical Records VS Radiocarbon Dating

By: Ibrahim El-ShakankiryPharaoh Djoser


51

UK. "Now, for the very first time, [we] managed to get radiocarbon techniques so good, that we can do it completely the opposite way around. We can say, from using radiocarbon, whether the Egyptian history is correct or not.”

Andrew also added that previously radiocarbon hasn't had a voice on this because the errors had been so great. Now radiocarbon is able to distinguish between different ideas of reconstruct-ing the history. The radiocarbon dat-ing, led by Professor Dr Christopher Ramsey from Oxford University, pro-vides some resolution on the dates and nails down a chronology that is broadly in line with previous estimates.

"The museums were all very helpful in providing material we were interest-ed in, especially important since export of samples from Egypt is currently pro-hibited," said Dr Ramsey. "Fortunately,

we only needed samples that were about the same size as a grain of wheat," he added.

Dr Ramsey and his crew used seeds and plant material from Tutankha-mun's tomb, which is very precisely dated. They also used seeds from a room underneath the Saqqara Step Pyramid dated to a specific year of the reign of King Djoser. Djoser was the third king of the third dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

The Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara is believed to be the oldest stone pyramid in Egypt. Dr Ramsey's

team was able to determine the precise period when this king ruled Egypt; from about 2691 BC to roughly 2625 BC, said the scientist. King Djoser was believed to have lived from 2667 BC to 2648 BC. The team found that this particular event took place earlier than some scholars previously thought.

Previously historians and arche-ologists compare the outcome of their research with the Herodotus and Manetho timelines and work to make sure their dates are correct. Herodotus was an Ancient Greek historian who lived in the fifth cen-tury BC. He has been called “The Father of History” as he was the first historian to collect his material, test their accuracy and then arrange them in a clear and well-constructed narrative. “Man fears time, time fears the Pyramids,” said Herodotus.

Manetho was an Egyptian historian and priest who lived during the third century BC. His work is often used as evidence for the chronology of the reign of Pharaohs and is of great inter-est to Egyptologists and Historians. Although he was Egyptian and his work dealt with Egyptian matters, he wrote solely in Greek.

Both historians’ accounts of Ancient Egypt are considered cred-ible sources to scientists all over the world. Both talked to priests all around Ancient Egypt to record their work. Their work was always referred to when dealing with old timelines and chronologies. Howev-er, the Ancient Egyptian Kingdoms were known for glorifying them-selves. As a matter of fact they were prepared to modify or change their historical records in order not to diminish their authority figure.

For example King Ramses II used to chip out the names of former kings off their statues and engrave his own deeper. That way if anyone else tries to do the same, they would have to destroy the statue. King Ramses led his troops against the Hittite Empire in one of the largest chariot battle ever fought; the battle of Kadesh. The dating of this battle is 1274 BC; however, this date is not accurate. Knowledge of the battle was not vivid on both empires’ records, which disagree with each other as each side claimed victory.

Thus, relying on Herodotus and Manetho, whom also have their dif-ferences in their records, puts the timeline into question. On the other hand, Radiocarbon dating is capable of measuring time accurately up to 40,000 years in the past and is able to come up with a complete and precise chronology for Ancient Egypt.

"For the first time, radiocarbon dating has become precise enough to constrain the history of ancient Egypt to very specific dates," said Dr Ram-sey. "I think scholars and scientists will be glad to hear that our small team of researchers has independently cor-roborated a century of scholarship in just three years."

Herodotus, Ancient Greek historian

King Djoser’s Step Pyramid

Plant remains in king Djoser’s pyramid

Ancient Egyptian mummy

54

T ens years ago, parents would reward children by visiting the zoo, where the family could spend the day watching animals while enjoying a delicious lunch. But now the situation is different the zoo has become very dirty after being excluded from membership of the

International Federation of Zoos in 2004.

History of the Zoo: The Giza Zoo is considered one of the oldest zoos

in Africa as it was called the crown jewel of the zoos. The first person to think of founding a zoo was Khe-dive Ismail as his original plan was opening it for the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869 but, there was not enough time to carry on the plan, thus, the Zoo off icially opened its doors to visitors on March 1st, 1891. It was f irst intended as a botani-cal garden housing a number of rare species of plants and cacti.

The Giza Zoo overlooks Cairo University; it has five gates on all sides, and was built on 80 acres of land. Inside the Zoo there is over 130 species of mammals, birds and reptiles. Not to mention that most of the greenery in the Zoo are rare plants, and the gorgeous grottoes. Other than hosting to a number of animals,

The Crown Jewel of Zoos …in Africa Giza zoo

Noha Ouda


Ecology: Kingdom of Animals

54

55

the Zoo also has an animal museum, an animal experimental center and an ani-mal behavioral study institute. The Zoo works on saving endangered animals through breeding then relocating the an-imals to their original habitat.

Some of the animals you can find there are baboons, chimpanzees, lions, leopards, jackals, kangaroos, sea lions, and bears. Also many breeds of birds can be found like vul-tures, pelicans, cockatoos, emus, flamingos, and sacred ibises. You can also find reptiles such as crocodiles, alligators, and cobras.

Giza Zoo now: Now, Giza Zoo suffers from neglect and

deterioration due to poor financial resourc-es, lack of sufficient resources to develop it and to buy new animals. This led to exclud-ing the zoo from membership of the Inter-national Federation of Zoos. Consequently, zoo officials are currently taking some steps to improve it.

The zoo did not develop completely during the past 30 years. In 2003, The International Federation of zoos received information regarding animal’s abuses (as they live in very poor conditions) in addition to offi-cial’s negligence and non- application of international conventions to protect animals against mistreatment and poor environmental conditions.

The committee emphasized that the zoo suffers from many problems; hence, it doesn’t deserve to be a mem-

ber of the International Federation as the first Zoo in the Arab world.

In 2004, the International Federation of zoos sent its recommendations to Egypt and requested its ratifica-tion, but the officials ignored these demands. It was then that the International Federation of Zoos decided to exclude Egypt from its membership.

Steps To improve the Zoo:Dr. Hamed Samaha, director of the General Authority for

Veterinary Services, confirms that he has already decided to

increase the entrance fees to the zoo from only L.E.1 to L.E.2 because it has been a long time the Zoo since raised the price of its ticket, leading more deterioration . At the same time we need to develop the Zoo to regain a mem-bership of the international federation of zoos. This re-quires developing human resources, research centers, and purchasing new animals, as we are in urgent need to buy a new giraffe after we’ve lost one.

Dr. Mona Sadek, head of Information Technology, Ministry of Agriculture, said that after excluding Egypt from the International Federation of zoos. Officials

began serious study of the current situation.” We have es-tablished the first unit of information that records animal’s data, its history, nature and illnesses and their breeding,” said Dr. Mona.” This is the first time since the establishment of the Giza Zoo that we work with this huge effort.”

The officials in the Giza Zoo exert great efforts to improve the zoo after they received a lot of criticism from inside and outside. Let’s hope the day comes and the Giza Zoo returns to be the most wonderful zoo in the world as it was in the past.

Noha Ouda


55

56

In the arid deserts of the Sahara Des-

ert with its scarce water sources, un-

der its merciless sun, and through its

unforgiving chilly nights; unlikely lies

a dwelling ecology of both animals,

and plants. Through this vast emptiness, lies

a predator that is –like no other- depending

not on its power, but on its agility, not on its

speed, but on its stealth, not on its weight, but

on its cunningness.

In these harsh conditions evolution has

taught all beings to mutate suiting the sur-

rounding environment, and like all other

creatures, the North African residents

responded to the call. There lies a small

Fennec Fox licking moist from a rare tree

in the middle of the desert; the fox can go

for days without a sip of water.

Along with the Fennec Fox, you can find

animals such as the gerbil, jerboa, cape hare, the

desert hedgehog, dorcas gazelle, barbary sheep, oryx,

dama deer, Nubian wild, anubis baboon, spotted hy-

ena, common jackal, sand fox, Libyan striped wea-

sel, the slender mongoose, frogs, toads, crocodiles,

lizards, chameleons, skinks, cobras, snails, brine and

algae shrimps, and in the air you can see the lurk-

ing vultures, eagles, hawks, raens, bustards and owls.

This huge diversity makes the Sahara one of the most

populated deserts of the world.

Also known as the Desert fox and the Sahara

Fox, the Fennec can be found as west as Mo-

rocco and the Western Desert, and stretches all

the way to Sinai and beyond. They also range as

south as Chad and can be cited in The Sudan.

The canid animal prefer living in dens that

dig under the hot stable sands of the desert,

sometimes these dens can be interconnected

between families, and can extend to more

than 120 square meters bearing more than 50

individuals. However, in the soft sands of the

Egyptian Western Desert, it is rare to find such

formations, and the animal is content with dig-

ging a one chamber hole.

Fennec Foxes are prehistoric residents of the

Egyptian land; it has inspired the early Egyp-

tians where the first records of the animal’s ex-

istence in Egypt are found. Scholars argue that

the Pharaohs thought this creature would liter-

ally guard their tombs from the dangers of the

unknown. Pharaohs believed that the God Set

(body of a man, head of a fox) was the god of

the desert; and above all he was the sole ruler of

Upper Egypt in the early Egyptian mythology.

The physical build of the Fennec Fox (scien-

tifically known as: Fennecus Zerda) distinguish-

es it from all its canid relatives, it has the small-

est of bodies, and the biggest of ears in relation

to its size, its ears could grow reaching

20 cm in their adultery. Its coat can

vary from reddish cream to white beige

according to its location; such light col-

ors are very efficient when it comes to

reflecting the dense heat coming from

the sun and serves absolutely as a per-

fect camouflage hiding in the dunes. Its

feet which work as perfect shovels for

digging are padded with fur to shield it

from the hot sands of its native habitat

and chilly nights as well, its ears also

work as radiators fending off heat and cooling

down its bodies.

My passion to this particular species has taken me

to Abou Rawash, a small town 20 minutes west to

Giza, where the Tolba family lives. The Tolba family

has been known for ages for their passion to exotic

animals; they nurture and nurse a lot of harmed and

captivated animals. With another headquarters in

Sinai, I was sure that they were the perfect people

to help. I was joined by Sayed Tolba who told me

that his great grandfather was “the one who started

By: Youcef Badawi

Looking Deep In...Ecology: Kingdom of Animals

56

57

the game,” meaning that Sayed is of the family’s 5th

generation in working with animals.

Tolba then invited me to his car and offered

me a trip to what he called “the nearest den

to settlements.” We drove about an hour and a

half in the Oasis Road going even more west.

He took a right turn leaving the paved road but

there were no problems for his Range Rover.

We camped beside a nearby hill, just like

our new neighbors, seeking the shades. Long

before sunset, I had my first encounter with

the canid animal; a full grown male seem-

ingly investigating the newcomers, we called

him “Tyson”, where I don’t think he knew

that we were there to further study them.

We followed Tyson to his den and found the

rest of his family.

The den was occupied by seven foxes (4

females and 3 males) all over the age of sex-

ual maturity; to my discontent no puppies

whatsoever. It didn’t take much time to dis-

cover that Tyson was the dominant male of

its tribe. Just after our supper the foxes went

out in search for theirs. They hunted in a

group, albeit each hunting for itself. The fox

is nocturnal (hunts at night) thanks to its

binocular vision that helps in so, and again

the padded feet will work on minimizing the

sound when they are stalking a prey, while

their big ears can hear the smallest insect

walking on the sand. They would feed on ro-

dents, insects, lizards, eggs, and sometimes

plants such as wild berries; this is why they

are considered to be omnivores.

Like other social animals, each individual

have a role in the family, from hunting for the

young, to staying in the look out for predators,

to scavenging the nearby floors for left outs

from other predators. However, it is common

for a one year fox to leave his family in the

search of a mate and building a colony for its

own. Strangely, while enjoying watching them

play, I was surprised by the purring sound a fe-

male made, as such sound could only be heard

from the cat family.

These animals mate in January and Febru-

ary. Love handles (removed hair) may be de-

veloped by vixens when mating, a feat done by

the males to mark their spouses. The Fennec

Fox is polyestrous (females can ovulate more

than once a year). With a gestation period of

50 days, one would expect to see the puppies

in early spring and possibly again on one or

two occasions yearly. These pups will open

their eyes when two weeks old and their moth-

er would stop nursing them after one month,

and, therefore, they are ready to hunt by the

age of 3 months.

The Fennec Fox is on the top of the food

pyramid in the Saharan ecology, but some

times you may find that the hunter becomes

the hunted. Although it happens only on rare

occasions, but it is proven that owls and vul-

tures when starving may attempt an attack

on foxes especially the young. But the special

abilities that allow the canine to dig up to 20

feet daily and the odor gland in their tail that

produces a disgusting smell have made it dif-

ficult for such predatory creatures to put foxes

on their dinner list.

Nonetheless, the huge threat that made CITES

(Convention on the International Trade of Endan-

gered Species) list the Fennec Fox as an endangered

species come from the human side, as people hunt

these small animals for their fur, others take them to

captivity and introduce them to the market illegally.

The Egyptian authorities –after the Revolu-

tion- have made it clear that all wildlife will be

...Fennec Fox

57

58

Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals

AboutIt was founded in 2007.It is a charitable organization that is reg-

istered in Egypt (No.3059/2007). ESMA is dedicated to improve animal welfare all throughout Egypt, which includes: dogs, cats; donkeys, horses; animals in the Giza zoo; and pet stores.

Company OverviewThe company was formed in late 2007, in response to an inhu-

mane genocide order from the government, to kill all street dogs. A small group of Egyptians and expats came together, in demand for change by fighting this notion of population control by pro-tecting and rescuing the animals in immediate danger.

MissionESMA’s mission is to increase public awareness to benefit ani-

mal’s welfare in Egypt as well as how that would impact the living environment for the people in Egypt and with joint efforts to help abandoned and stray animals.

EffortsThe she l ter has approximate ly 300 dogs and 300 cats,

suppor ted wi th a hea l thy, safe and spac ious environment (0 .5 acre) , keen to suppor t the animal ’s process of hea l -ing phys ica l ly and menta l ly, to repa i r them to be adopt-able.

Also, ESMA suppor ted horses that were inhumanely ne-g lected by the i r owners who are working in the tour ism industr y a t the t ime of the Eg ypt ian Revolut ion to dem-onstrate or s tay a t home, due to the lack of tour is ts.

The shelter is suppor ted with an around the clock staff ; a c l inic r un by two vets, 10 employees providing food for the animals and cleaning the shelter and a dr iver of a do-nated car dedicated for rescuing or transpor t ing animals. Al l staff members are professional ly tra ined to handle res-cue s i tuat ions.

Mai El Sayed

Ecology: Kingdom of Animals

59

How you can make a differenceThe company highly depends on volunteers

ready to dedicate their time and effort to the continuation of the fight against animal cruelty caused by abandonment and mistreatment.

Therefore becoming a member, can make you an essential part in Egypt’s animal welfare, and guarantees you the ability to receive the com-pany’s newsletters, participate in special meetings and events and vote in board elections or run for office (voting or election to the board entails a minimum of six months membership).

Membership fees are LE 120 per year, which re-sults in LE 10 per month to support ESMA.

Therefore ESMA depends more on animal lovers that are willing to make time as a vol-unteer (unpaid) work for the daily functions of the shelter. The tasks for helping in the shelter are categorized into four segments.

1.Shelter and Animal care

In this segment, volunteers are asked to socialize the animals to im-prove social skills for future adoption, dog walking for the wellbeing of the animal’s health, grooming, foster parent volunteering, which is the accommodation of the animal in your home due to critical condi-tions such as being too young or severely injured where intense care is needed, shelter cleaning and organization, although there is a staff dedi-cated to do so, the increase of animals in the shelter bids and welcomes helping hands. Also, you could be part of the rescue team, trained to handle animals in emergencies. In transportation cases, a process that is called flight parent arrangement is applicable, which is the process of taking responsibility to travel abroad to safely hand in the animal to its next shelter or home. ESMA is in contact with animal shelters aboard such as in Germany.

2.Public Relations

If you are a journalist or a writer, this is a chance for you to embrace the art and power of mass communication to spread the word of awareness to the disgraceful actions against animals re-sulting in a hopeful positive and productive action, to speak in the name of these animals.

There is also the photography team, with the same objective as a journalist but with a to have a photojournalistic sense, by us-ing visuals to make people aware of the situation. These pictures accompany the website update team are used to update their website (www.esmaegypt.org) and their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/esma.egypt), with 7250 friends and counting. The page provides all the up-dates of ESMA, helping people to be more informed and gives them a chance to interact with the organization and opportunities for ways on helping current projects such as adoptions, help needed or reporting on any case.

Lastly, there are graphic design volunteers that design and produce posters and flyers, to increase publicity and familiarity of the organization.

3.Adoption campaign

There is another Facebook page that is dedicated for this campaign, under the name of ESMA Adoption Campaign. This is where you sug-gest animals for adoption or instead of going to a pet store, you could adopt an animal from the shelter. For the reassurance that the adoptee

is going to provide safety and care, a questionnaire is conducted asking questions on financial capability and psychological health. Also, there is a condition management team, that monitors pet shops and breeders, making sure that the animals aren’t ethically treated and taken care of. Also, there could be legal aid and consultation, where if anyone special-ized in the field of law could help in the foundations of agreements and project work. Government contact volunteer is around the same idea, where people with governmental contacts to represent the organiza-tion. Finally there is the fund raising campaign, which includes organiz-ing fund raising events such as bake sales and garage sales.

4.Others

This includes the management of the donation drop off point, which is the channel to where people can donate their money, a process of either receiving the sum of money donated, or a representative from ESMA volunteers to take the responsibility to personally receive the money from the donators home. Secondly, events such as bazaars and activities such as handicraft, which profit in funding purposes. Also, sponsors could be great catalyst to major projects. Finally, there are volunteers that acquire awareness.

ESMA is a booming organization that has worked in helping horses in need after their neglect during the Egyptian Revolution. They of-fer a home for approximately 600 animals. They have been supported

on an international scale; In Harods, a famous toyshop in the UK, dedicated donation boxes located in a de-

partment specialized for pets, this took place on the 12th to 15th of February this year. ESMA’s

mission is not only to mend the inhumane ac-tions but also to make a difference by trying to reach out to people through education of all layers of society, from flyers being given out to people who use donkeys for labor to awareness using the power of the

Internet. However, its continuing success is only possible and attainable through involve-

ment and participation in the development of morals and ethics towards animals.

Location and ContactThe main office is located in 9/1 Maadi construction and develop-

ment building, which holds monthly meetings for staff members and volunteers.

The shelter is located in Shabramant Sakkara, five minutes after Sak-kara Country Club.

For more information on location and contacts, log on to www.es-maegypt.org, or follow ESMA’s achievements, cases and what you can do to help, on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/esma.egypt) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/EgyptESMA ).

62

A rmed with books, chalk and blackboards, a group of Nubian who live in Cairo has proposed to rescue their language, one of the oldest in the world, from oblivion. The small number of its speakers is put on the edge of extinction.

In the Nubian club, located near Tahrir Square in the center of the Egyptian capital, two teachers, Mohsen Al Kashif and Omar Al Dabudy, teach the language of the Pharaonic era to 55 stu-dents. This club is one of the first organizations in Egypt that offer formal classes of Nubian in a course of 36 hours in which students can study the two main dialects: Kenzi and Fadiki.

A remainder of a lost civilization, the Nubian language has all but died out in modern-day Egypt. Aside from the Nubian singer Mohammed Mounir’s couple of songs, children of Nubia have practically no use for their native tongue making it almost impossible to be passed down through generations.

Al Dabudy vindicates the importance of recover-ing the Nubian language, from the eponymous region that is located in southern Egypt and northern Sudan, because it defines the iden-tity of these people. “How can you distin-guish between a person of English origin and a Nubian origin or any other,” asks Al Dabudy, and furthur proceeds “because of the language.”

During the Christian Nu-bian era the Old Nubian al-phabets had resemblance to Old Greek and Coptic alphabets. Both Coptic (32 letters) and Old Nu-bian (26) had more let-ters than old Greek (24), either to add special let-ters with no equivalent in old Greek (the Old Coptic) or to represent special sounds (the Old Nubian).

The Nubians Saving Their Lost Language

Ibrahim El Shakankiry

Culture

62

63

The structure and formation of the Old Nubian language is characterized by its dependence on produced tones that is known as intonation or chanting. Thus, the general structure of this language is not a group of words linked by a com-mon syntax to form a sentence. The speaker tackles this formation by putting parts to-gether with intonation and chanting. This takes place without interruption to conform to grammar. Hence, most parts of a sentence are composed by adding a suffix or prefix to the word stem.

After the Arabs came to Egypt in the sev-enth century, Nubians adopted the Arabic script. As for today no standard method of writing Old Nubian has been adopted. How-ever, recently some scholars are active on establishing such a standard.

According to UNESCO, the Nubian lan-guage could be entirely forgotten within the next 100 years. There is no official es-timate for the number of Nubian speakers left in Egypt.

Building of the Aswan High Dam flooded in villages where Nubians have lived for thou-sands of years forcing approximately a million Nubians to relocate. During the 1960’s the ma-jority of them moved down the Nile to Aswan and Kom Ombo. However, due to overpopula-tion in these areas, Nubians head farther downstream to Cairo and Alexandria find-ing better job opportunities.

Successors of one of the most impor-tant cultures of the world, whose pha-raohs ruled ancient Egypt from the year 770 BC, 130 years before the Arabs con-quered, the Nubians have had various migrations. The most recent was a result of flooding caused by the construction of the huge Aswan Dam in the 60’s, de-stroying thousands of settlements. Nubi-ans and their people were forced to leave their lands and seek refuge in other areas

of Egypt and Sudan. These sudden move-ments were the key start to the extinc-tion of the language.

Many who came to Cairo ended up adopting the Arabic, which resulted, ac-cording to the masters of the club, in a significant reduction in the number of Nubians who speak their native language. To this we must also add the difficulty of learning the language even for those who have Nubian relatives.

“Language is the identity of the peo-ple,” says the teacher Omar Al Dabudy, who added, “the progress of nations is through language and they [his stu-dents] have started their classes in the history of the language to protect their heritage.”

Mohamed Mahgoub, a 24-year old technology assistant at the American University in Cairo and one of Al Ka-shif ’s students, shares his teacher’s pas-sion in his desire to learn the language. However, many of his friends in Cairo are too preoccupied to study a language that they see as useless in their every-day life. “They ask, ‘Why should we need this language?’” says Mahgoub. “They just want to work to get money. Learn-ing Nubian isn’t in their thoughts.”

The key to keeping this language alive would be finding a way to teach the next genera-tion while they are young. The Nubian Club has recently approached the government to make the Nubian language courses available in schools, starting in Aswan where most of the students already speak some Nubian.

The Club President, Mossad Herki, adds that it is a shame that French and English are requirements in the nation’s schools and Nu-bian is not, even though it has played such a central role in Egyptian history. “It is in our blood. It is in our roots,” said Herki, “this is the backbone of the country.”

63

64

Riding Egypt’s killer dunes

Nothing quite beats the adrenalin rush you get when you are look-ing down an enormous sandy hill, knowing it’s a long way to the bottom. Armed with only your board and your sense of balance, you throw caution to the wind and get ready for the ride of your life.

This is how many young sandboarders described the feeling they had when they took their first ride down the steep Egyptian sand dunes. “It’s one of the most ex-citing things you could do, you’re surrounded by noth-ing but beautiful dessert land and sunny skies,” said Ma-hitab Salem, a 21 year old who developed a passion for the sport one year ago.

The sport, sandboarding, has taken Egypt by storm; re-cently becoming popular amongst the youth with many people starting their own companies to facilitate this growing need. One such company is Sand Riders, start-ed two years ago by Mohamed Marzouk along with his friend Moataz Ahmed, both sandboarding enthusiasts.

Mohamed started his own sandboarding company after watching a show on National Geographic about the sport. “I saw it and I thought all you need in or-der to sandbaord is to find a place with dunes, so I went out and bought the tools.” After spending some

time building his business, he was surprised to find that he was not the only one to come up with this idea, saying, “I was astonished to find other businesses had started up for sandboarding before me.”

Mohamed’s company is certainly not alone; there are around four sandboarding companies in Egypt today. The first organisation for sandboarding, ‘Dune Raiders’ was set up by Karim Hossam in 2007 after he decided to take his favourite activity to a whole new level, “it was a hobby at first, I used to take my friends to Obour and sand board there, then after a while people said that I should consider making it a business,” said Karim Hossam, the federation’s sandboarding repre-sentative in Egypt.

Sandboarding Pharaohs?

What may surprise many readers is that sandboarding in Egypt is not a new sport. Dune Raiders say that “Dune Riders International, (the governing body for sandboarding), provides accounts of ancient Egyptians sliding down golden dunes of sand on planks of hardened pottery and wood.” What is interest-ing here is that this sport has been around for so long and, yet, not entirely well known.

Nouran El KadyPhotography credits: Louay Nasser

Culture

64

65

“If you were to ask people about sandboarding three years ago, many would not know what you were talk-ing about,” stated Laila Arafa, a 21 year sandboarder. She has also been sandboarding for a year and regular-ly goes on weekends. “It is so much fun, it is different from anything you’ve ever tried before, I am sure. The atmosphere is amazing, and you go through different ways of sliding down the hills, there are always new tricks to discover.”

Karim has certainly seen the dramatic rise of sandboarders in Egypt since he set up his company, saying that “back in 2007, we used to take only 15 to 20 people with us and it was a monthly event, nowadays, we take upwards of 70 people and it’s every weekend.”

Getting away from it all

For some, sandboarding is more than just a sport, it is a chance to get away from their busy hectic daily lives and embrace the simplicity of the mass space around them in the dessert and beyond. One person who feels this way is 24 year old Sherief Hassan who says, “Cairo is so intense, sometimes, you need to break away and realise that there is something bigger and less hectic out there. That mellow laid back environment is really vitalising, I like the adrenaline rush but it’s not just about that, it’s about a chance to experience something more refreshing than the city life.”

It is clear the atmosphere of the places plays a big part in the sandboarders attraction towards the activ-ity. Many say they enjoy going there with friends and having a barbecue beside the sandy dunes. “When I go sandboarding, they now bring bands or a DJ to play music while people are doing the activity, it puts everyone in a great mood and makes the whole day much more fun,” Mahitab commented. Sandboarding

companies in Egypt are looking for innovative ways to make the events of sandboarding appealing to a wider range of people. In a recent sandboarding event, the company brought the singers Amir Eid and Hany Adel who sang the famous “Sout El Horreya” (the sound of freedom) during the time of the Egyp-tian Revolution in 2011.

Risky Moves

Another attraction when it comes to sand boarding is the risk factor. Sand boarding is known for being on the dangerous side and while many people are hesitant to try it because of the risk at first, it is for that very same reason that others are attracted to it. “I’m a very adven-turous person, if something is risky and will give you an adrenalin rush then I will want to try it out,” Mahitab said. Many of those who go sandboarding can come home with sprained or broken limbs, Mohamed once broke his leg going down the dunes saying, “I didn’t even realise how bad it was until I got home, in sand-boarding you get used to falling and hurting yourself.”

Even those who were at first fearful of the activity are swayed. “At first I was terrified, I did not like the idea of how dangerous it was but after trying it I really liked it and even felt that the danger was exciting,” said Donna Magdy, a sandboarding enthusiast.

Hossam said that people are bound to be attracted to sandboarding because of the risk, commenting that “It is an extreme sport, Egyptians love extreme sports, that’s why we get more and more people every week com-ing along to try it out.”

Trend or Serious Sport?

Sandboarding may be gaining popularity, but the question is why? Many people believe that it is only a trend in Egypt like any other and one which might fade away like other

65

66

fads. “People are bored of going to cafés and restau-rants, sandboarding is exciting and new, no one actually sees it as a real sport, it is just something fun to do on a day out and you can tell because no one goes sand-boarding by themselves, that would be really boring,” Laila commented.

This seemed to be the general outlook for many of the people interviewed; they felt as if sandboarding was a trend that was just currently popular and not a serious sport. “Everyone is talking about it, it’s really cool nowa-days to sandboard with your friends, but no one goes because they think of it as a sport,” Donna stated.

Sherief believes the activity is soon going to be divided into those who take it seriously and those who see it as a passing phase. “It is about to turn into a cliché, we abuse our trends and it is starting [sandboarding] to be-come abused. I think we’re going to see two categories, of those who truly see it as a sport and those who were just having a good time,” Sherief said, adding that if the sport becomes less expensive then it could still remain popular as people from different socioeco-nomic classes come and try it.

Despite this view; however, sandboarding is a real sport and one that has many contend-ers and people across the globe going up against each other to break world records and to win competitions.

What many of the youth may not realise is that Josh Tenge, the world champion of sandboarding, came to Egypt to break the world record in the back flip, Tenge has set three Guinness World Records, including one for the longest back flip by dis-tance of 44 feet, 10 inches. It is clear that other people around the world see Egypt as an important place to come practise this sport and some sandboarders believe it is time we start taking this sport more seriously.

“We started our dune raider 2009 local challenge here in Egypt and we even had a sponsor for the event. We had almost 355persons beside the crew come on the day to participate and we even brought in Josh Tenge to help us practise. This was the biggest event in sandboarding in Egypt,” Karim said.

Yet, Karim has no intention of stopping there and has already started planning bigger and better things. “We’re having a world challenge on 22nd February 2012. This will be the first International Champion-ship in Egypt. It is going to be huge; we have many sponsors lined up and some famous judges in the world of sandboarding coming.”

Pyramids, Camels and Sandboarding

“This sport is not available in other Arab countries and not in many other places. It is something which can al-most be exclusive to our country. Egypt has some of the best dunes, the sand we have here is soft and easy to use for sandboarding,” Mahitab said, commenting on our un-used resources, saying, “If you start raising awareness and we show others how to start sandboarding we could end up with regular international competitions which would bring in more tourism. They love the Egyptian desert.”

The point that Mahitab raised is a vital one, why do we not utilize this new trend in order to help promote tour-ism in the country, and what can be done to get more people interested in the sport. “Sandboarding could cer-tainly help tourism, the government needs to treat it like any other sport and gives it an association and funding in order for it to grow,” Mohamed said.

When asked about this issue, many of the sandboarders immediately had ideas on how to promote this sport in

Egypt and across the globe.

“We could definitely hold annual competitions in Egypt. We would

get professional trainers from abroad and have them doc-

ument their experience on sandboarding in Egypt, a film that will really make more people want to try and come here and try it them-selves,” Mahitab said.

There’s even talk about adding sandboarding to

the rounds of trips that tourists can take while

they are in the country. “I would get tour companies to

include sandboarding with the list of things they offer, or hotels,

instead of just offering snorkelling and hiking, which they’ve been doing for years;

why not try sandboarding?” Mahitab stated.

Clearly these sandy dunes have been neglected by the Egyptian people and are unknown to the rest of the world for far too long, it is time we use our resources to their best potential and really push for this sport to become something which is widely rec-ognised in Egypt. Regardless of whether or not the growing popularity of the sport continues, we must use this new found asset to our advantage and try to encourage tourists to experience Egypt’s beauti-ful dunes for themselves.

Karim tells of their company’s motto, one that symbolises using what you have and making it into something amazing, “we have a saying in our com-pany for when it comes to competing with sports like skiing and snowboarding. ‘No snow? No prob-lem, we’ve got all the sand in the world.’”

66

68

“Old myths, old gods, old heroes have never died. They are only sleeping at the bottom of our

mind, waiting for our call. We have need for them. They represent the wisdom of our race.”

These fine words of the poet, Stanley Kunitz reflects the importance and reliability of mytholo-

gies, and as Ancient Egypt goes, mythologies were the base foundations which shaped and built

virtues, characteristics and religious comfort within Ancient Egyptian people. Although there has

been resemblance between both Egyptian and Greek mythologies, it has been historically proven that Ancient

Greece was more than influenced by the Egyptian mythologies, constructing their own Greek myths according

to what the Pharaohs depicted, from gods and goddesses to the positive or negative qualities that they preached as

part of life. From myths such as Isis and Osiris, Horus to the

Great Queen Hatshepsut, there’re more legends that took

part in polishing the history in Egyptian mythologies,

legends that were unfortunately unheard of, legends

that are worth your time; just like fishing, you’re

unaware of what lies beneath the water, but

when you pull the rod you can end up with a

mermaid on your hook, a mermaid worth

all the fish in the world, a mermaid that

would someday represent the Nile, a

mermaid that is entitled Hatmehit.

Like a fish and a hook, like the Nile is to Egypt, and as Ancient Egyptians were tied to myths, there must have been one signifying the Nile. Hatmehit, also known as Hatmehty, is the earliest fish goddess to exist when Egypt surfaced from the ancient waters and was wor-shipped in the Delta City of Mendes, which is located in northern Egypt (Lower Egypt) where the Nile drains from the west of Alexandria to the east of Port Said, covering around 240 km of Mediterranean coastline. The city of Mendes is known today as Tell El Ruba.

Hatmehit means “She who is in front of the fish” or “Chief Fish”, both representing that she’s above and the leader to all kinds of fish. She is represented and depicted as a woman with the head of a fish, which looks like a dolphin with a body of a human, or is simply portrayed as just a fish. Chief Fish is known to be the goddess of life and protec-tion and was often compared to Isis, the great Egyptian goddess that appears at the begin-ning of the year to announce the flooding of the Nile, and manifests all that is feminine and personifies the goodness of a divine wife and mother. Isis’s celestial wife and mother figure is very significant and goes hand in hand with Hatmehit’s life and protection effigy, since to

be a fine wife and mother, you must be able to protect your loved ones and their lives. An-other interpretation to Hatmehit might be that she was a primitive goddess preceding marine life, since fish theologies are limited and far fetched in ancient Egypt. Ironically, back then fish were the people’s main source of protein and nutrition, yet, they were never offered to the gods, and moreover, in some places, eating fish would cause “ritual impurity”.

The place, Mendes, where Hatmehit was worshipped is actually very relevant and plays a prominent part to her mythology. She was the goddess of the sixteenth lower Egyptian nome (a district in ancient Egypt), or declared as the fourth dynasty, distinguished as the “golden age” of the Old Kingdom, also known as the “pyramid building age”, from CA. 2613 to 2494 BC. She had one of the states of Lower Egypt named for her because she was married to Banebdjedet, a sacred fertility god where the city was originally named after him, Djedet, which was later renamed to Mendes. His name means, “Soil of the World Mendes” or the “Spirit of the World Djedet”. He was also claimed to be the figurative father of Ramses III. But just like how reality reflects in its history, the importance and value of Hatme-

Fish GoddessHana Mashhour

Culture

68

69

hit’s cult was tapered and completely narrowed after marrying Banebdjedet; instead of sup-porting his wife as a worthy goddess, he con-trolled and took over as the main god. Just like a mirror, it’s very typical in today’s world for a man to discourage his wife in order to gain more control and power.

Hatmehit’s son, initially called Harpak-hered, was renamed by the Greek as Harpo-crates, which means “Horus the Child”. Horus, Isis’s son, was originally a well known Egyp-tian god (portrayed as a man with a falcon’s head) that indicates “Lord of the Sky” who was vigorous in the Underworld and symbol-ized the godly kingship in ancient Egypt. Horus obtained many titles that stressed his correlation to various other temples, mytho-logical gods, goddesses and events; one of which is Harpocrates. Within this shape and state of being, he’s a defenseless young god, viewed as a child sitting on his mother’s lap, wearing the “side lock of youth”, which is represented as one long curl of hair on the right side of his head. He is sometimes ex-posed as sucking his forefingers or illustrated with Isis whilst being breastfed. This specific fragile form interprets that Harpocrates, the frail and vulnerable side of Horus, acts as a

protector of children and deflects danger-ous animals. It also infers the close relation of Hatmehit to Isis; that the fish goddess, who’s less empowered than the great mother goddess, has her child, Harpocrates, in a less empowered state and form than Horus. Yet, it could also be translated that Hatmehit and her child are metaphorically a basis establishment to Isis and a full-fledged Horus.

Hatmehit might not have been a famous ancient Egyptian goddess, and her mytholo-gy might’ve not travelled far, but for a rather delicate and innocent goddess to represent the Nile, which is supposed to be a strong, powerful bond that connects Egypt, you can’t help but find it paradoxical. For the current use of the Nile nowadays that ties Egypt together is but fragile water being taken advantage of, from polluting it to dumping corpses, and the fish are no longer rich in colors or qualities, just shades of grey and dull scales. Hatmehit portrays so much of the river Nile, from being taken advantage of by her husband to being a mother of a god in his weakest form; yet, just like the river, without Hatmehit, the basis of Egyptian my-thology would suffer a great deal of thirst.

69

70

“ A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pic-tures on silence.” Leopold Stokowski couldn’t have defined music better, for the pictures musicians paint on silence could comfort one’s soul whether through notes, tunes, lyrics, rhythms or rhymes. But Donia Masoud could paint her canvas using all five elements;

actually, she could still paint music using none of these elements, but her stunning deep voice and yet her canvas would remain as captivating and magical as always. For a woman that uses classical folk tunes and lyrics that leave you speechless through a mesmerizing voice, one can’t help but

notice Masoud’s music is what feelings and emotions would sound like. With only one album, Masoud has proven to herself how little a musician needs to go to paint a sound worth listening to.

Born and raised in Alexandria, Dunia Masoud, just a mere young and fragile woman, had so much in her heart to express from social life,

love and hate. Even though her acting career launched nicely, her folklore music profession unfortunately didn’t; although her music, mainly her

voice, is a talent ten times worthwhile than her acting. But just like a mere fragile woman living in Egypt her voice would not be heard unless it ac-companied a specific tune, except unlike a lot of modern Egyptian female singers, Masoud did not have to dress revealingly in front of a video, danc-ing seductively to a typical beat that lacks creativity and singing to lyrics that lacks justified meanings. Instead, she decided to roam around Egypt for a musical hunt, a hunt that would define her musical abilities and status to what type of artist she’d become.

Masoud left to Cairo by the age of 21 for her musical journey. Travelling all around Egypt, from Suez to Upper Egypt in search of the right musical style it wasn’t long until she was enthralled by the Egyptian folk and Nubian music, which she later turned into her

own. She established her own independent cast of musicians who stuck to simple beats that mainly include the Tabla, originally an

Indian percussion instrument; the Oud, a stringed instru-ment commonly used in Middle Eastern music and the

Ney, a Middle Eastern wind instrument, similarly to a flute, and one of the oldest instruments still in use since Ancient Egyptian times. Although their notes and tunes were based simply, Masoud’s lyrics and shrilling yet charming voice provided inspirational

and original rhythms and rhymes.

Donia was eager to make art out of music so she continued to hunt for more Egyptian folk musical and poetic genres till

she was stirred to make her first and only broadcasted album, “Mahattet Masr”, also known as “Egypt’s Station”. This album consists of ten tracks

that analyzes and criticizes issues, behaviors and opinions about people, their roles in society and their social life in Egypt. The album from its name symbolizes how Egypt as a whole is considerably a station where people, or Egyptians in specific, stop by to take their trip through life, whether posi-tively or negatively.

A Touch of a Woman’s Voice

Hana Mashhour

Culture

70

71

“Mahattet Masr” includes various tracks such as Ale Etgharab and Ya Lalale which are well known songs, originated in Upper Egypt about the vital positions women play in taking care of their loved ones, which she covered in a rather slower and hypnotic pace, providing the songs with more piercing sceneries.

Then there are songs like Betnadeeny (You calling me), Garhy (My pain), Hen Al Ola (Go gentle on me) and Babee Yasmeen (Selling Jasmine) which all revolve around the term “love”. Actually all these songs share the same mean-ing that love, in fact, is tricky, and sometimes could be very hurtful; whether you love someone and they don’t love you back, or they pretend they did till they love someone else, or how love can blind you to many things that were sought to exist only to upset you. With Babee Yasmeen, Masoud focused on how patience is needed to those who aren’t lucky with love, whenever they try to sail towards it they end up sailing against the wind; hence the harder they try the more they’re pushed away. It ironically delivers that “love” could change a person to the worst.

Donia Ya Donia (Life Oh Life) is a very interesting track that mocks certain types of men nowadays. Masoud starts off this song by singing how strange what happened to life, all of a sudden men are ruled by women. She interprets situations where men are no longer fulfilling their responsibilities and duties instead women are in control with such errands, which, as much as it’s ironical as much as it reflects the truth. There are a lot of women today that are in charge of house cleaning, cooking, taking care of their husbands and children, but on top of that, working to help with rent and financial matters. Masoud’s interpretations include that some men are nothing but suits, those who think that manhood’s about talking, walking and looking good; also that women take their men to the market as a stepping stone, just another stone they step on when the floor’s wet or muddy.

Mesh Eb Aleky (Shame on you) is a song that infers how a mother-in-law’s heart decided to beat again at her age, yet, the more she falls in love the more she drives her daughters-in-law crazy. It’s a humorous song on how an old lady is capable of being jealous from her daughters-in-law and is also capable of trying to control them. As amusing as it is, it reveals part of the Egyptian culture on how mothers-in-law like to chime in and get involved in whatever their daughters-in-law are doing.

El Tager (The Merchant) is an important song on how people always judge appearances rather than focusing on ones true color. The song begins with a merchant who went to the market to buy something precious, but discovered that the pearl is cheap but its shells are valuable. Not only is it paradoxical, but it’s a metaphor that is adapted to how people treat each other today, rather than getting to know ones’ character and personality they automati-cally criticize them on how they look and dress.

Last but not least, Masoud’s version of Nenae El Genena, which is originally a Nubian song sung by the veteran Nubian singer, Mohammed Mounir, is but the most hypnotic song in the album. Not one instrument is played during this song yet her voice filled that void with appealing altitude of notes that no instrument can make. Her voice alone provided depth and intensity to the song.

What’s fascinating about Donia Masoud’s album is that it’s entirely different to what the Arabic music industry recently presents. This is a woman who wants to be acknowledged by her talent, voice and lyr-ics, not the opposite. She’s a woman that understands music in its originality, she’s also that same woman that melodically paints a canvas that reflects the reality of life and love. “Mahattet Masr” is an album that’s one of a kind, for that woman, that singer, that artist has enchanted us with her folklore style, striking tone of voice and poetic lyrics, but most of all, she managed to charm us with her “music” and not with her figure.

71

Kemet

Documents

Transcript of Kemet