 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 December 1999 Issue No. 460 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 December 1999 Issue No. 460
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Debate Focus Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Countdown at Giza
By Nevine El-ArefTell me about the actual site of the millennium celebrations at Giza, in relation to the pyramids?
The celebrations will take place in the desert of Sahara City, which, during the 1960s and '70s, was where some chalets had been constructed [now removed]. The area is far from the archaeological site and well outside the protected area.
What precautionary measures have been taken?
To ensure complete protection of the plateau and its monuments, a wooden platform has been erected on the sand to provide a base for the spectators' tents. Not a single grain of sand will be removed from the plateau. Nothing will change or disfigure the panoramic view of the pyramids area, which only provides a background for the millennium performance.
A point of considerable concern is how the plateau can be accessed by such a large number of people at one time. What procedures have been laid down to accommodate them?
The present entrance from the Mena House Hotel will be closed for good and a new entrance located on the Cairo-Fayoum road will be opened for visitors. Here there will be a parking area and other facilities, such as a ticket kiosk, a police station, toilets, and bookshops, selling archaeological and tourism books. Bazaars selling souvenirs, as well as stables for horses and camels will also be located near the new entrance, outside the archaeological area, as well as a fair for those people who want to have a picnic in the desert while enjoying a panoramic view of the three pyramids. The archaeological area will only be accessible by people who are interested in a cultural tour.
What about the golden capstone? Isn't it dangerous to place a nine-metre-high pyramidion on the top of the Great Pyramid, when its blocks are already suffering from deterioration? What is it made of and how will it be placed in position?
Zahi Hawass
We are not working haphazardly. We have carried out serious field studies. Our target is to protect and preserve the lofty monument, not to share in its collapse. The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) is carrying out research in collaboration with the Remote Sensing and Space Science Authority (RSSA) and the Egyptian Armed Forces to assess the condition of the great stones on the face of the pyramid and determine the best method to place the cap.
Archaeologists are registering the number of blocks on the surface at the top of the great pyramid of Khufu and documenting graffiti found on its top. As for the capstone, the most feasible suggestions are being considered. It will be fabricated in wood and covered with golden textile.
There was a suggestion the pyramidion be made of an iron frame covered with copper, but studies revealed that this could adversely affect the monument, so the idea was abandoned.
Even at the last minute, placing the capstone could be cancelled if -- according to Farouk Hosni, minister of culture -- field work indicates it could affect the monument.
How could you consider using a helicopter to place the capstone on the pyramid at midnight, when the vibrations and the air would be like putting a bomb beside the monument?
Using a helicopter was only one suggestion considered. It was studied and proved a failure. We will not use a helicopter, the cap will be placed in its position in advance by the Armed Forces and will be illuminated at midnight on the 31st of December, announcing the beginning of the new millennium.
How credible are the allusions on the Internet and in opposition newspapers that the planned celebration supports Jewish and Masonic ideas?
The suggestion is groundless. Putting a golden capstone on the pyramid is not an invention or supporting Masonic ideas; it is a pure ancient Egyptian tradition. A relief found four years ago in a tomb in Abusir, beside Amenemhat's pyramid, showed a number of workers pulling a pyramidion bearing hieroglyphic text that revealed the name as ben-ben, and the word gaen, which means "white gold", while women are dancing and singing. The celebration has nothing to do with Masonic beliefs. It is a performance inspired by celebrations held by pharaohs after the completion of their great funerary complex.
To ancient Egyptians, building a pyramid was a national project in which all strata of society were brought into requisition; the completion of a great towering monument on top of the plateau was a symbol of power, strength and national unity. The design on the US dollar is a faulty imitation of the pyramids of the Middle Kingdom.
According to my colleague Mohamed El-Saghir, head of the pharaonic department in the SCA, The Twelve Dreams of the Sun [Jean-Michel Jarre's "electronic opera", to be performed at the millennium celebrations] is also an ancient Egyptian invention because the Egyptians worshipped the sun. They believed that there were twelve hours of the day and twelve of the night, when the sun traversed the underworld. Texts written in the mortuary literature allude to this, and representations can be seen in many tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Queens in Luxor.
Do you think there is a connection between the pyramids of Giza and the lost civilisation of Atlantis, as published on the Internet by the New Agers?
This is false information published by crazy people who also announce that they will come by aeroplane and land on the pyramid by parachute to see the discovery that is bound to be made, or see devils coming out of the Great Pyramid. The opinions of people like these cannot be taken seriously. Anyway, complete security measures will be provided on the plateau, because our aim is to protect our monuments and our guests.
Spiritual tourism and praying inside the pyramid is becoming more widespread. Who are these spiritual tourists, and will there be a special prayer inside the pyramid for the new millennium?
There will be no special prayers celebrating the new millennium. On 31 December, Khufu's pyramid will be closed and no one will be allowed to enter. People of different nationalities come and meditate inside the Great Pyramid every two weeks, under the supervision of an archaeological inspector and a member of the tourism police. Americans, Canadians and Japanese were among the earliest and most interested, but there are also Australians and few Europeans.
A lot of people still believe in the Pharaoh's curse. What is it? And how credible is it? There is no such thing as a Pharaoh's curse. It is the invention of a German writer who attributed the death of Lord Caenarvon and Howard Carter after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb to the curse -- and the idea took root. It was suggested that when tombs, or any other monument for that matter, were excavated after thousands of years, microbes may have survived, and the person who entered the monument would die. Many Egyptologists have discovered sites and nothing has happened to them. There could be microbes in a tomb. These days when we open up a site, we expose a small hole and allow any microbes to escape before opening it up fully and entering into it.
Tell me about some of the special visitors to the plateau.
I will mention particularly those people who impressed me most. They include Princess Diana, who was very well informed about archaeology. She visited the plateau to see the excavation under way in the workmen's tombs. Prince Charles was also at Giza and was very adventurous; he wanted to enter the pyramid of Khufu at night and went into it at 1.00am. He was the first person to go into the pyramid at that hour.
Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea visited the pyramids twice, and on one of these occasions Hillary celebrated her birthday in front of the Great Pyramid. The king and queen of Spain, the queen of Sweden, and Jacques Chirac, the French president, have all been to the pyramids. Also, Mrs Bush, the wife of ex-American president George Bush, visited with her family and we discussed the faulty shape of the pyramid drawn on the American dollar, and how Americans imitate Egyptians.
Among the actors who have visited the plateau are Omar Sherif, with whom, in 1988, acted in a film about the secrets of the pyramid. Brooke Sheilds and Roger Moore are also among the visitors who have come to Giza.
And after the millennium?
My plan is for all the monuments and sites in Egypt. We must have a strategic plan to save and preserve our heritage, especially from the influx of tourists. We must work together with foreign missions. We must give more care to the restoration and stop unearthing new sites, except in the area of the Delta, where artefacts might be damaged by subsoil water.
We must have alternative monuments for tourists to visit. For example, we have 62 tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Queens in Luxor and only four of them are visited. The pressure on them is consequently very great. If we continue to act like this, after 50 years we will have no monuments to see at all.
