Egypt
onearth (Stephen Glain)
A mega-resort west of Cairo threatens a vast archeological treasure
- More Re The Threat To The Faiyum
Egypt Today (Farida Helmy) While the layman in Fayoum would probably welcome the idea of a project bringing in income and job opportunity to the quiet governorate, experts are far less eager. Fayoum is Egypt’s oldest city and is located 130 kilometers...
- Petition To Stop The Destruction Of The Lake Qarun Protected Area
PetitionOnline Thanks to Per Storemyr for sending this to me - a petition for the protection of the priceless antiquities in the Lake Qarun area of the Faiyum depression, to the southwest of Cairo. The petition can be viewed and signed above. They also...
- Travel: The Green Fields Of Faiyum
Egypt Today (James Chester) Tiny flatfish sold by the highway, iridescent green bee-eaters swooping over tangled telephone wires and mud-brick pyramids in the midst of farmland – in Fayoum Oasis, ancient culture and abundant nature combine for the perfect...
- Interview With Neil Hewison Re Faiyum Depression
Taiwan News (John Bordsen) Resident and author tells all about Fayoum, one of six main oases in the Western Desert of Egypt What's it like to live in a far-off place most of us see only on a vacation? Foreign Correspondence is an interview with someone...
- Travel: Wadi Al-rayan And The Faiyum
Al Ahram Weekly (Amira El-Naqeeb) After a week full of work, a night out with friends on the weekend or chilling out in front of the tube won't do it for me. I decided to pack for a short and easy trip to Wadi Al-Rayan. Although Fayoum governorate...
Egypt
The Faiyum continues to cause serious concern
onearth (Stephen Glain)
A mega-resort west of Cairo threatens a vast archeological treasure
Each working day, a road crew lays another few hundred feet of two-lane highway around Lake Qarun, the gemstone of the Fayoum governorate in central Egypt. When finished, the 60-kilometer tarmac will serve a planned resort complex to be raised on the northeastern shore of the lake, a stunning oasis about an hour’s drive west of Cairo, and for those opposing the project it may as well be a noose.
"The access road is the beginning of the end," says Erik R. Seiffert, a vertebrae paleontologist and an associate professor at New York’s Stony Brook University who has done research in the area. "I don’t see how we can offer any real protection with that thing coming in."
It is a tragedy of modern Egypt that what lies below the soil is often of greater potential value than what lives above it. That is certainly the case with Fayoum, which is among the more neglected regions in an historically deprived nation. Settled in 4,000 B.C., the city is thought to be one of the oldest in Egypt and is a treasure trove of antiquities of all kinds.
- More Re The Threat To The Faiyum
Egypt Today (Farida Helmy) While the layman in Fayoum would probably welcome the idea of a project bringing in income and job opportunity to the quiet governorate, experts are far less eager. Fayoum is Egypt’s oldest city and is located 130 kilometers...
- Petition To Stop The Destruction Of The Lake Qarun Protected Area
PetitionOnline Thanks to Per Storemyr for sending this to me - a petition for the protection of the priceless antiquities in the Lake Qarun area of the Faiyum depression, to the southwest of Cairo. The petition can be viewed and signed above. They also...
- Travel: The Green Fields Of Faiyum
Egypt Today (James Chester) Tiny flatfish sold by the highway, iridescent green bee-eaters swooping over tangled telephone wires and mud-brick pyramids in the midst of farmland – in Fayoum Oasis, ancient culture and abundant nature combine for the perfect...
- Interview With Neil Hewison Re Faiyum Depression
Taiwan News (John Bordsen) Resident and author tells all about Fayoum, one of six main oases in the Western Desert of Egypt What's it like to live in a far-off place most of us see only on a vacation? Foreign Correspondence is an interview with someone...
- Travel: Wadi Al-rayan And The Faiyum
Al Ahram Weekly (Amira El-Naqeeb) After a week full of work, a night out with friends on the weekend or chilling out in front of the tube won't do it for me. I decided to pack for a short and easy trip to Wadi Al-Rayan. Although Fayoum governorate...