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Al-Ahram Weekly 3 - 9 June 1999 Issue No. 432 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 3 - 9 June 1999 Issue No. 432
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Interview Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Sindbad goes to Paris
YESTERDAY saw the opening of the Fifth Euro-Arab Book Salon in Paris. The salon, which takes place biannually, was established in 1990 with the object of promoting Arabic and European publishing in the Arab world. Organised by the Institut de Monde Arabe in collaboration with Sindbad Publications, Paris, the fifth salon was inaugurated by Esmat Abdel-Megid, secretary-general of the Arab League, and Pierre Bernard, director of Sindbad Publications, and will continue until Sunday, 6 June. Last year more than 200 publishers participated, half of whom were from the Arab world. Besides book exhibitions and colloquia -- this year the topic of discussion is how effective Arabic and European publications are within the Arab world -- the salon includes multimedia presentations and a state-of-the-art information system making use of the Internet, with information displayed in Arabic and French. Arab representation includes Akhbar Al-Adab (Egypt), Al-Itihad Al-Ishtiraki (Morocco) and Al-Ayyam (Bahrain). Moroccan writers -- including critic Mohamed Barrada and novelist Taher Ben-Jaloun -- are this year's guests of honour. Tonight a special evening dedicated to the late poet Nizar Qabbani will be held within the Salon, where poets Ahmed Abdel Moeti Hegazi and Mohamed Ali Farahat will be talking about the influence of Qabbani on Arabic poetry. Other participants in the evening include his daughter Hadbaa Qabbani and Moroccan singer Naziha Mouftah who will sing poems by Qabbani.
On the trail of the ancients
ON TUESDAY in Paris, UNESCO celebrated the 30th anniversary of the the colossal project it undertook in cooperation with the Egyptian ministry of culture to salvage Egyptian monuments under threat of inundation during the building of the High Dam in Aswan. Tharwat Okasha, minister of culture under Nasser, occupied centre stage in the celebration, also attended by Minister of Higher Education Mufid Shehab. The project that was an odyssey with a registry includes 29,000 photographs and documents kept in the National Institute of Monuments. It all began in 1959 when, following the digging of Lake Nasser,15 of the temples lying between Aswan and Dongola (on the Sudanese border) were saved from submersion, and countless monuments were unearthed and recorded for the first time. The climax of the odyssey, however, came in 1963 when the work on relocating the Temple of Abu Simbel began, raising it to a site 180 metre above sea level. The work involved dismantling the temple into 10-30 ton pieces and re-erecting it atop Abu Simbel Hill. Accompanying this project was an exceptional venture which brought together Egypt's leading artists and intellectuals in what amounted to a large-scale expedition to track down and record different aspects of life in Nubia-- a land that was soon to be drowned under the massive Lake Nasser. And it is thanks to Tharwat Okasha, and the artists who cooperated with him, that Nubia will ever be alive in the collective memory of the Egyptian people. It is only fitting that he be honoured today.
Nubian wedding, Tahiya Halim, 1961 and Tharwat Okasha
