I bring this up after a semi marathon on NATGEO yesterday concerning Egypt yesterday. Due to the current upheaval and anti-American or non-Muslim anger running through the Mid-East how long will it be before all non Islamic archaeologist, Semitic and non Semitic will be forced out of Egypt and the destruction of the relics will begin? We saw what the Taliban did to the statues in Afghanistan and from what I can gather the Muslim Brotherhood makes these guys look like boy scouts in some aspects We no longer have Zahi to speak up for the antiquities since he has left the country and if the military who is sharing power with the Muslim Brotherhood ( and ladies pardon my frankness ***** SLAP them and say leave the relics alone ) in the near future see Karnack bulldozed down in to the ground. I am well aware at one time the Muslim, Arabic, Moorish, people were great scholars and respected history but ( as they say in my part of the country) "These guys ain't it" there thugs in power who would blow up the pyramids if it suited them. Now I may be going out on a limb on this but with Coptic churches getting attacked ( check world net daily for info) how soon will they start going after Egypt's ancient history. Just something to think about and what can we do to stop it.
Protection of Egyptian Antiquties and foreign archaeologist.
- Thread starter China Jim
- Start date
Le Saboteur
Active member
China Jim said:
Wait? What? Racist much? Let's damn those dirty 'Moo-slems' for plowing under Justinian's Palace and putting up their unsightly mosque too!
Despite the hyperbolic nature of Jim's post, you can read about the current wrinkle in Egypt's march towards...something here. By all accounts the church in question doesn't appear to have been an "antiquity." Otherwise, the reason for its demolition -- not having the right permits -- wouldn't fly.
Oh, and as much as I like Dr. Hawass, under his tenure there was a very real plan to put a modern super highway through the Giza Plateau in the mid-nineties.
Keep fanning those flames, though.
Protection of Antiquities #2
It was not my intention to start a fight I am concerned that's all now La Sabotuer if you were being sarcastic fine I am not fanning any racist flames here but people as far back as the Egyptians has used the peoples belief to fan hatred for a political reason to gain power. I too did not agree with all that Zahi did I sometimes thought of him as a ethnocentric jerk concerning some parts of Egyptian history, I was not aware of the superhighway you mentioned through the Giza plateau but I did hear him when he spoke about closing the plateau to the public to start intense preservation work on the pyramids and the sphinx due to all the human interaction going on, last season of chasing mummies he made this statement. I only saw the headline on this subject concerning the church and that 25 Christians had been killed by government troops who were protesting the vandalism by extremists I was not aware of it being scheduled for demolition or some such thing.
It was not my intention to start a fight I am concerned that's all now La Sabotuer if you were being sarcastic fine I am not fanning any racist flames here but people as far back as the Egyptians has used the peoples belief to fan hatred for a political reason to gain power. I too did not agree with all that Zahi did I sometimes thought of him as a ethnocentric jerk concerning some parts of Egyptian history, I was not aware of the superhighway you mentioned through the Giza plateau but I did hear him when he spoke about closing the plateau to the public to start intense preservation work on the pyramids and the sphinx due to all the human interaction going on, last season of chasing mummies he made this statement. I only saw the headline on this subject concerning the church and that 25 Christians had been killed by government troops who were protesting the vandalism by extremists I was not aware of it being scheduled for demolition or some such thing.
Goodeknight
New member
The Egyptian Museum, I believe, was broken into during the riots. I do see danger of that kind of looting if there is more upheaval. Or of antiquities simply falling apart due to lack of proper care. (Technologically, the Egyptian Museum is more than half a century behind the times in most respects.) But that has been the case for decades.
Tourism is Egypt's biggest industry. Bigger than growing cotton. So it draws in big bucks.
However, terrorist groups who want to jack up the whole economy and screw with people's minds have attacked tourist sites in Egypt before. So I don't think bulldozing or blowing up a major national treasure is entirely out of the question. As mentioned, it wasn't beyond the Taliban.
If the Muslim Brotherhood took over the government in a big way, then the decision would be whether they wanted to keep westerners (non-Muslims) out of the country, or if they wanted the income from tourism.
As for Zahi, he he got kicked out with the rest of Mubarak's top people. Mubarak was very pro-west, so it will be interesting to see how the tourism industry shifts in coming months and years.
Interesting to note: The state department no longer has a travel warning for Egypt. Warnings are still up for 30+ other countries including Israel, Haiti, and Mexico. But not Egypt. I checked recently because I may be going back soon.
So things seem to have cooled off considerably.
Tourism is Egypt's biggest industry. Bigger than growing cotton. So it draws in big bucks.
However, terrorist groups who want to jack up the whole economy and screw with people's minds have attacked tourist sites in Egypt before. So I don't think bulldozing or blowing up a major national treasure is entirely out of the question. As mentioned, it wasn't beyond the Taliban.
If the Muslim Brotherhood took over the government in a big way, then the decision would be whether they wanted to keep westerners (non-Muslims) out of the country, or if they wanted the income from tourism.
As for Zahi, he he got kicked out with the rest of Mubarak's top people. Mubarak was very pro-west, so it will be interesting to see how the tourism industry shifts in coming months and years.
Interesting to note: The state department no longer has a travel warning for Egypt. Warnings are still up for 30+ other countries including Israel, Haiti, and Mexico. But not Egypt. I checked recently because I may be going back soon.
So things seem to have cooled off considerably.