Egypt
Biblical Archaeological Review (Hershel Shanks)
- Catching Up With Zahi Hawass
Globalpost (Deena Adel) For years the renowned Egyptian archeologist Zahi Hawass earned worldwide fame bringing the country’s treasures to a global audience, unearthing mummies on his very own reality show, launching a clothing line and eventually becoming...
- Hawass Responds Re His New Situation
New York Times (Kate Taylor) Zahi Hawass, whose departure as Egypt’s minister of antiquities was announced in a cabinet reshuffle this week, said in an e-mail Friday that, while he continues to supervise the agency while his replacement is found, he...
- Egypt’s Man From The Past Who Insists He Has A Future
Past Horizons (Jack Shenker) No one interviews Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s self-styled Indiana Jones of the east – he interviews himself, fist pounding on desk and spittle flying forth into the ether. “Do I look like a minister to you? Of course not!”...
- Speaking With The Sphinx
The New Yorker Newsdesk (Jenna Krajeski) A look at the impression that Hawass has made during the Egyptian crisis and the looting of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The gates to the office of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, and of Zahi Hawass—the...
- Protests Turn Against Minister Hawass
Bikya Masr Egypt’s Zahi Hawass, the man who has become synonymous with Egyptology, known for his cowboy had wearing, has sparked the ire of Egyptians in recent days, with protests chanting for him to step down from his post atop the country’s Supreme...
Egypt
Egypt’s Chief Archaeologist Defends His Rights (and Wrongs)
Biblical Archaeological Review (Hershel Shanks)
On Sunday, January 16, I interviewed Zahi Hawass in his office in Zamalek, the elegant Cairene island in the Nile and home of the Gezira Sports Club, from which Hawass commanded an army of 32,000 employees as secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The following Thursday, I left Egypt. And five days later the mass protests erupted that would topple the government of Hosni Mubarak. As part of an effort to save his thoroughly despised regime, Mubarak appointed Hawass Minister for Antiquities. One blogger described Hawass’s appointment this way: “Zahi Hawass, the bombastic, clownish pseudo-archaeologist who has tyrannized, bullied, and manipulated Egyptologists and Egyptian Villagers alike for years now, today officially accepted President Hosni Mubarak’s appointment as Minister of State for Antiquities.” On March 3, Hawass resigned but was reappointed in March (see sidebar).
But my interview with Hawass was before all this. True, Hawass was widely vilified—but also widely admired. The New Yorker called him the “international star of Egyptology … at the intersection of archaeology, show business and national politics.”
The New York Times, on the other hand, had characterized him as “obnoxious.” He threw “tantrums,” the Times said, at his subordinates. I was also aware, as the Times put it in another article, “He has been taken to task for his critical statements about Jews.”
I found him confident, overbearing, domineering, brash and loud. But he was also sometimes reasonable and often even charming.
- Catching Up With Zahi Hawass
Globalpost (Deena Adel) For years the renowned Egyptian archeologist Zahi Hawass earned worldwide fame bringing the country’s treasures to a global audience, unearthing mummies on his very own reality show, launching a clothing line and eventually becoming...
- Hawass Responds Re His New Situation
New York Times (Kate Taylor) Zahi Hawass, whose departure as Egypt’s minister of antiquities was announced in a cabinet reshuffle this week, said in an e-mail Friday that, while he continues to supervise the agency while his replacement is found, he...
- Egypt’s Man From The Past Who Insists He Has A Future
Past Horizons (Jack Shenker) No one interviews Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s self-styled Indiana Jones of the east – he interviews himself, fist pounding on desk and spittle flying forth into the ether. “Do I look like a minister to you? Of course not!”...
- Speaking With The Sphinx
The New Yorker Newsdesk (Jenna Krajeski) A look at the impression that Hawass has made during the Egyptian crisis and the looting of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The gates to the office of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, and of Zahi Hawass—the...
- Protests Turn Against Minister Hawass
Bikya Masr Egypt’s Zahi Hawass, the man who has become synonymous with Egyptology, known for his cowboy had wearing, has sparked the ire of Egyptians in recent days, with protests chanting for him to step down from his post atop the country’s Supreme...