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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 May 2000 Issue No. 480 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 May 2000 Issue No. 480
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Back on the beaten track
By Rehab Saad
Once a beaten track by early Christian pilgrims, the route followed by the Holy Family through Egypt is one of the country's newest tourist products. The brainchild of the Ministry of Tourism, the plan to revitalise the pilgrimage was born a year ago. Since that time, a number of projects have been undertaken, especially in Old Cairo, to restore and upgrade some of the sites associated with the flight.
The fruits of the ministry's labours are now coming to bear, but some of the places on the route are still inaccessible and require more restoration. Tourism officials maintain that the holy route, and the renovation and upkeep of the sites associated with it, is an ongoing project that has only just begun.
Egypt is the only place outside Palestine that Jesus and Mary remained in for some time and for that reason many people who are interested in religious tourism will be attracted to the opening of a charted route following the Holy Family. Mamdouh El-Beltagui, the minister of tourism, announced that there will be a large celebration, slated for June, commemorating the advent of the Holy Family to Egypt.
The celebration will be held at the Church of the Virgin Mary, in Maadi, which houses a small tunnel and staircase that leads to the Nile. The spot is considered to be the place from which the Holy Family took a boat to Upper Egypt. "This church has witnessed a big development project, as it is one of the important stations of the route of the holy trip," El-Beltagui told Al-Ahram Weekly.
El-Beltagui explained that the celebration in the church will include an opera performance called Blessed Be Egypt My People, and that a numerous international television channels will transmit the celebration to many countries worldwide. "The place is now being prepared for the event," El-Beltagui added.
It was amidst the world's nervous excitement leading up to the turn of the millennium that the idea of highlighting the Holy Family's stay in Egypt began to form, El-Beltagui said. The Ministry of Tourism suggested that Egypt's millennium celebrations could be twofold -- first the big celebration at the pyramids, and second the retracing of the footsteps of the Holy Family. The New Year's Eve celebrations at the pyramids at Giza were executed by the Ministry of Culture, and the Holy Family project was given to the Ministry of Tourism.
According to tradition, the Holy Family stayed in Egypt for about four years, leaving what El-Beltagui called a "holy historical path extending from Farama, in northern Sinai, down to Assiut in the south." Given the ministry's policy of diversifying the Egyptian tourist product, the idea of promoting this route was suggested as a new way to engage visitors in Egypt's history.
Around the cave where the Holy Family hid in Dronka was born the Monastery of the Virgin Mary
"This project is considered a part of the comprehensive revival of all the Egyptian monuments, whether Pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Coptic or Islamic, that is taking place in the era of President Hosni Mubarak," El-Beltagui said.
Last year, the ministry published a book offering the historical details of the trip of the Holy Family through Egypt. Revised by Pope Shenouda III and published in nine languages, the book is distributed throughout the world. "The book was highly celebrated by many people and was a practical response to any views that might be sceptical of the unity and solidity of the Egyptian nation throughout its long history," El-Beltagui said.
El-Beltagui pointed out that the route of the Holy Family is divided into several stages. At every stage, several development projects and environmental upgrading schemes are taking place. "This will all be done according to a fixed schedule and through the collaborative efforts of the public and private sectors, as well as the Association for the Revival of the Egyptian National Heritage, which the Ministry of Tourism greatly encourages," El-Beltagui said.
He explained that the association is formed of intellectuals, university professors, businessmen and cultured people, both Muslims and Copts, who have offered to fund and carry out development projects along the route. "These projects, as I mentioned before, are done according to a fixed schedule," El-Beltagui said. "The first extends from Farama to Old Cairo. Then the development process will go on in other phases, highlighting a very significant human message about the unity of the Egyptian nation and about the historical identity of Egypt as a land of tolerance and peace."
When asked about places on the route of the Holy Family that do not seem "ready," including important stations like the city of Assiut (see related article, p.17), El-Beltagui affirmed that the "first phase" of the project -- from Farama to Old Cairo -- is now complete and ready to receive tourists.
(Top) the cave where the Holy Family hid at Dronka, near Assiut; (above) inside the Monastery of the Virgin Mary
photos:Ayman Ibrahim
"As for Assiut," he said, "it is the last station in the route and as soon as we get to it we will develop its sites, its services, its utilities and will also upgrade its environment to make it suitable for tourism, like what happened in Old Cairo."
"This upgrading process will take place in areas like Assiut or Minya," El-Beltagui continued, adding that the projects will "create consciousness among [local] inhabitants of the importance of the project" and that people will "feel it is being done for their benefit." El-Beltagui explained that the development and upgrading schemes will also create job opportunities and "could create opportunities for inhabitants to establish small tourist projects that could bring them a lot of money."
El-Beltagui stressed that this has already taken place in Old Cairo, which is the main station of the first phase. "One of the main results of the upgrading project executed by the Ministry of Tourism in Old Cairo is that the inhabitants of the area were provided with job opportunities in the development project itself. The value of the buildings increased and the number of visitors to the area has also increased by 300 per cent, which resulted in an increase in Egypt's tourist income and has benefited the inhabitants of that old place," he said.
El-Beltagui said that the success of development projects in Old Cairo -- including the upgrading of the well-worn facades and the establishment of a commercial market called Al-Fustat -- is due in large part to the joined forces of the Tourism Development Authority (TDA), the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the Cairo governorate and Arab Contractors Company, as well a team of history professors, engineers and inhabitants of Old Cairo.
According to El-Beltagui, there are many examples of development in Old Cairo. For example, an international project for establishing a concrete structure around the church of Abu Serga was carried out to prevent water from submerging the lower part of the structure, which holds the cave where, according to tradition, the Holy Family lived for six months. The cave was also restored by French experts at a cost of LE25 million, paid by the Association for the Revival of the Egyptian National Heritage.
El-Beltagui said that a team of 15 Egyptian and Russian experts in Bab Zeweila are restoring the icons of the church of Bab Zeweila at a cost of LE12 million -- also paid for by the association. He also stressed that it is not only the Coptic sites in Old Cairo that are being restored and developed, but Islamic sites as well, like Amr Ibn Al-As mosque, the oldest mosque in Egypt.
As for providing suitable hotel capacity for the expected influx of tourists, El-Beltagui pointed out that the Ministry of Tourism does not build hotels; this has been the job of the private tourist sector since 1993. "Old Cairo is a part of Greater Cairo, which includes a large number of hotels of all different categories," El-Beltagui said. "So far, Cairo has 19,300 rooms. This number might be insufficient compared to the large number of tourists who arrive to Egypt, but we have a practical and ambitious plan to balance supply, represented by the number of rooms, with demand, represented by the number of tourists. This plan aims at multiplying the current hotel capacity to 94,000 rooms in the coming five years."
"On the other hand," he added, "I am really happy about the enthusiasm of the inhabitants of Old Cairo and their awareness of the importance of development. Some of them have even started to establish small motels for accommodating tourists, as well as bazaars, which creates good job opportunities for the people of the area and provides places for tourists to stay in that magnificent old spot."
The holy route "tourist product" has been promoted worldwide. "The book published by the ministry about the route has received extensive international response, especially because it was widely distributed in different countries through our embassies and our tourism offices abroad," El-Beltagui said, adding that a special Web site dedicated to the route of the Holy family was created on the Internet (www.holyfamily.com.eg) in order to access a larger market.
"This allows visitors from all over the world to get acquainted with the details of the holy trip to Egypt. Moreover, there are some local and international travel agencies which have started to promote the route among their tourist itineraries abroad," he said.
