 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 July 1999 Issue No. 437 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 July 1999 Issue No. 437
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Focus Books Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Tracing the holy trail
The Egyptian private sector is taking the lead in restoring the Holy Family sites which are being promoted as a destination for religious tourism in June 2000. Muriel Allen reports
At long last, flesh has been put on the bones of the planned re-creation of the Holy Family's passage across Egypt. For so long people have had no inkling of how the pilgrimage would be organised and what form it would take. But the grand scope of the idea has now been revealed. There is now a clear picture of how modern-day Christians can make a pilgrimage, which is both symbolic and also well serviced in terms of facilities available to tourists.
On 1 June next year, modern-day pilgrims from around the globe will follow the route the Holy Family took from Sinai through the Delta to Wadi Al-Natroun and Cairo 2000 years ago on their flight into Egypt for refuge. Six months after gala celebrations to mark the dawning of the third millennium, the country expects up to three million visitors seeking to trace the roots of their faith. And a new organisation, the National Egyptian Heritage Revival Association (NEHRA), is playing a key role in restoring some of the most important sites associated with the biblical event.
The date has been chosen because Coptic Christians believe that Theophilus, who was the patriarch of the Coptic Church around 500 AD, had a dream in which not only were the places where the Holy Family stayed named, but the date of 1 June was given for its entry into Egypt.
NEHRA is the brainchild of a group of businessmen headed by Mounir Ghabbour, owner of the Sonesta Hotel. "Egypt has a long and unique role as part of the Holy Land," Ghabbour said. "This heritage must not be allowed to crumble or lie neglected since it is vital to Egyptians and all Christians." Gawdat Gabra, a consultant to the Holy Family project and former director of the Coptic Museum, told the Al-Ahram Weekly, "It's time for Egypt's private sector to get involved in preserving the country's cultural heritage. I feel that the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) would find it difficult to restore all the monuments without the help of the private sector. Private citizens can work with European restoration companies which can send experts to Egypt."
This is the first time a private association has been formed to oversee such a huge agenda of work on Egyptian monuments, Gabra said. "Of course, there have been earlier campaigns to save the monuments of Egypt, but the NEHRA plan is different because it involves Egyptian businessmen and contractors. It also confirms the trend toward more responsibility for the private sector," he said.
"We are in contact with the Vatican, and an invitation [to attend the Holy Family celebration] is on its way to the Pope from the Egyptian government," Ghabbour told reporters.
Many people visit the Holy Virgin in Haret Zuweila, Old Cairo, each week to pray and gaze at its wonderful art. Equally, the distinctive domes of the Church of the Holy Family in Maadi and the Monastery of St Abu Makar at Wadi Al-Natroun are a source of interest to people from Egypt and overseas Photos: Sherif Sonbol and Michael Stock
The association is concerned with the whole heritage of Egypt. "Its members include both Muslim and Coptic businessmen," Gabra explained. "It's not a religious association. But it's important to know that the Holy Virgin Mary is venerated in the Qur'an," as well as in the Bible, he said.
NEHRA is focusing on seven specific sites in Northern Sinai, the Delta and Cairo which will be of most interest to religious tourists. Gabra would like to see an actual procession on 1 June, perhaps similar to those common in medieval times when pilgrims walked or rode animals for thousands of miles to famous shrines, he said. "In Egypt tourists could walk at least a small part of the way between the seven sites. The plan is not finalised, but the procession could start from Farma and move towards Cairo. Everyone could walk a symbolic five or 10 kilometres. The procession would have caravans and facilities for resting along the way. It would be a wonderful way to celebrate the Holy Family's visit to Egypt, with the whole world participating," Gabra said.
One of the most archaeologically important sites is Farma in North Sinai, known as Pelusium in ancient times, which is said to be the first major stop on the journey into Egypt. The SCA is restoring the foundations of churches discovered there.
In Cairo the site of the famous tree and well of the Virgin Mary in suburban Matariya also has high priority and has been chosen by NEHRA for the first phase of the restoration project. A passageway will be built leading to the tree. It will contain niches with decorations of the Holy Family and modern art representing their story, Gabra said. Plans include landscaping, building a visitors' centre and finding artists. Tourists will be able to buy bottles of holy water from the well, something that is offered at religious shrines in Europe.
At Abu Serga, the crypt where the Holy Family is believed to have hidden is full of underground water. NEHRA plans to isolate the sacred chamber there from its surroundings and keep it permanently dry by placing it in a reinforced concrete box. The organisation has obtained permission from the government to start constructing it.
Gabra said the Church of the Holy Virgin at Haret Zuweila in Old Cairo, "will be a very difficult project because the whole church is being attacked by underground water. It will take more effort to repair than Abu Serga. The governor of Cairo and the minister of culture have visited the church and are cooperating with NEHRA, especially on the water problem.
Each site has special problems that have to be solved. The solution to the water problem at Abu Serga cannot be applied at Haret Zuweila, for instance, because the area is too narrow to accommodate a concrete box, so the municipality has agreed to undertake a project to lower the ground water level as quickly as possible so that repairs can proceed. The longest lasting patriarchate, or residence of the reigning patriarch, in Egypt, was at Haret Zuweila from the 14th to the 17th centuries.
Haret Zuweila is famous for its icons. Twenty-five of the most historically important of the more than 94 icons in the church are to be cleaned and restored by next June. In July, Russian and Egyptian artists will start conserving those damaged by humidity and the rising water table, said Gabra. Egyptians will gain experience in restoration work from the Russian experts, he added.
Sakha near Kafr Al-Sheikh in the Delta is another church and holy site with a sacred relic related to the Flight into Egypt: a stone reputed to bear the footprint of Jesus. There is a good asphalt road to this church; the area needs only landscaping and a new door in a wall to bring tourists directly from the existing park to the church.
The Virgin Mary's Church in Mostorod, between Cairo and Belbeis east of the Nile, is surrounded by many old, unrelated buildings which may be removed to upgrade the area. Thousands of pilgrims come to this church every August and spend two weeks because they believe the Holy Family stayed there, Ghabbour said. Here landscaping is also necessary.
As for Wadi Al-Natroun, NEHRA is planning to collect masterpieces of Coptic art from the monasteries of Al-Soriyan, Baramus and Abu Makar in the museum of Anba Beshoi. The latter is one of the four surviving monasteries in the area for which renovation is planned. Ghabbour said the association was also thinking of building a large antiquities area where monasteries can place all their precious objects. This would be called the Wadi Al-Natroun Cultural Centre, Gabra added. "It would not be a museum but would contain the church's treasures."
The seventh site scheduled to be upgraded by mid-2000 is the Church of the Holy Virgin in the Cairo suburb of Maadi, from where the Family is said to have made its way to Upper Egypt.
Ghabbour hopes to extend NEHRA's work on Holy Family sites to Upper Egypt in future years.
Ghabbour expects some visitors to come on packaged tours to see only the Holy Family sites, while others will want to include the Pyramids and other Pharaonic monuments in their sightseeing. It will be easy for tour operators to link the Pyramids with a visit to Wadi Al-Natroun on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, he said, or to combine visits to shrines in the Delta with other historically important antiquities such as those at Tell Basta nearby. Religious tourists could start their visit at Farma, see sites in the Delta and follow up with holy sites in Cairo the next day.
The Egyptian government, mainly through the ministries of tourism and culture, plus the SCA, is providing support to NEHRA's first project to revitalise the pilgrimage route.
Ghabbour estimates the entire project will cost between $100 million and $150 million. Fund-raising has just started. To date, the organisation has collected $700,000 from Egyptians working in the US and LE3.5 million from Egyptian Copts. Most of the money will have to be raised from private businessmen, Ghabbour said.
Beginning with the year 2000, the celebration of the Holy Family's entry into Egypt will be an annual event, the founders of NEHRA said. They would like to see 1 June declared a national holiday.
