Egypt
Recently a friend sent me some photographs that she took herself, showing heavy littering at the Saqqara and Abu Sir archaeological sites, one of which is attached in this post. She lives and works in the area at the moment and finds this unacceptable - in her own words "it is terribly frustrating to be told that they are building a wall to keep 'people like me' out of the desert that I love and actively try to care for". She goes on:
It is always so frustrating and sad to see how the Egyptian desert is so often neglected and even abused by both tourists and local inhabitants. It is even worse when the damage is caused by those working in an official capacity and whose role is supposed to be the protection of heritage!
A long time ago I wrote a heartfelt piece on the subject which I never got around to publishing, but which I will certainly update and publish soon in the light of an ever growing body of evidence that shows how much the desert suffers at people's hands.
- Illegal Road On Antiquities Land Near Abusir
Cairo/Giza Daily Photo (Maryanne Stroud Gabbani) Maryanne follows this story with the better news that he local families met the other night and told the members who built the road that they could not quarry in this area, but it still makes one wonder...
- Photo For Today: Essam And Nasr, Siwa 2008
Bonfires are not permitted in the desert areas with local wood because insects and animals depend upon them. So you either take your own wood or you wait until you are on the edges of civilization before you light one. In this case we were on the outskirts...
- Donors React Fast To Save Site In The Faiyum
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology (Willeke Wendrich) Our primary goal in archaeology is to collect information, but academic archaeology has moved beyond just survey, excavation and analysis to include the protection of cultural heritage in its broadest...
- Revised Edition: The Western Desert Of Egypt
Cassandra Vivian The Western Desert of Egypt New Revised Edition 2008 AUC The revised edition of the only handbook for exploring the Western Desert of Egypt has turned up on my doorstep this weekend. I ordered it around a year ago to replace my battered...
- Eastern Desert Conference
Archbase If you are interested in the Eastern Desert, you may be intersted in an update from Hans Barnard who syas that the first abstracts for the conference on "The History of the Peoples of the Eastern Desert" are now on-line at the above address:...
Egypt
Litter in the desert around Cairo
Recently a friend sent me some photographs that she took herself, showing heavy littering at the Saqqara and Abu Sir archaeological sites, one of which is attached in this post. She lives and works in the area at the moment and finds this unacceptable - in her own words "it is terribly frustrating to be told that they are building a wall to keep 'people like me' out of the desert that I love and actively try to care for". She goes on:A couple of weeks previously a group of us were out in the desert when a tractor pulling a trailer pulled away from one of the Czech sites. As soon as it was out of the line of sight of the diggings, the Egyptian workers began tossing trash from it into the desert. We shouted at them to stop and pick it up and they did so. The big question around here is that if the wall is protecting the antiquities from the local robbers, who is going to protect the desert from the SCA?
It is always so frustrating and sad to see how the Egyptian desert is so often neglected and even abused by both tourists and local inhabitants. It is even worse when the damage is caused by those working in an official capacity and whose role is supposed to be the protection of heritage!
A long time ago I wrote a heartfelt piece on the subject which I never got around to publishing, but which I will certainly update and publish soon in the light of an ever growing body of evidence that shows how much the desert suffers at people's hands.
- Illegal Road On Antiquities Land Near Abusir
Cairo/Giza Daily Photo (Maryanne Stroud Gabbani) Maryanne follows this story with the better news that he local families met the other night and told the members who built the road that they could not quarry in this area, but it still makes one wonder...
- Photo For Today: Essam And Nasr, Siwa 2008
Bonfires are not permitted in the desert areas with local wood because insects and animals depend upon them. So you either take your own wood or you wait until you are on the edges of civilization before you light one. In this case we were on the outskirts...
- Donors React Fast To Save Site In The Faiyum
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology (Willeke Wendrich) Our primary goal in archaeology is to collect information, but academic archaeology has moved beyond just survey, excavation and analysis to include the protection of cultural heritage in its broadest...
- Revised Edition: The Western Desert Of Egypt
Cassandra Vivian The Western Desert of Egypt New Revised Edition 2008 AUC The revised edition of the only handbook for exploring the Western Desert of Egypt has turned up on my doorstep this weekend. I ordered it around a year ago to replace my battered...
- Eastern Desert Conference
Archbase If you are interested in the Eastern Desert, you may be intersted in an update from Hans Barnard who syas that the first abstracts for the conference on "The History of the Peoples of the Eastern Desert" are now on-line at the above address:...