4 - 10 January 2001
Issue No.515
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 4 - 10 January 2001 Issue No.515 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
A long and winding road
Egyptians flocking to the Giza Pyramids during last week's holiday met with an unpleasant surprise. Hundreds attempted to reach the plateau via the Mena House entrance, only to be barred by the tourist police. The reason, they were told, was that a decision had been made granting access through the Mena House route only to foreigners, tourist buses and VIPs. Egyptian visitors were re-directed to a new entrance on the Fayoum road, four kilometres away. Foreigners have to pay to enter the area, Egyptians do not.
Many would-be visitors, were left not only with a sense of disappointment but also with many unanswered questions. For their part, antiquities officials conceded that the decision was an attempt to discourage Egyptians from turning the area into a venue for feast celebrations, complaining of the "irresponsible" behaviour of Egyptian visitors who deport themselves in a manner "incompatible with the sanctity of the archaeological sites."
Advancing this line of reasoning, Zahi Hawass, director of the Giza Plateau, wrote in the International Journal of Cultural Property, published by Oxford University Press, that "the majority of visits conducted by Egyptians to the site, the plateau, are for fun rather than culture or education. It is unfortunate that Egypt's own people are a source of site pollution. Recreational visitors damage the monuments and degrade the dignity of the site," Hawass claimed.
In the past up to half a million Egyptians would visit the Pyramids Plateau over the holiday period, utilising one of the few open spaces available to Cairenes on shoe-string budgets.
Yet even those Egyptians who made it via the new entrance were barred from going near the Pyramids and ordered to stay within a so-called "amusement area". Understandably, many thought the decision "discriminatory," amounting to second-class treatment in their own country. Leading columnist Salama Ahmed Salama told Al-Ahram Weekly that the decision conjured up images of discrimination against Egyptians in favour of foreigners in 19th century Egypt.
Salama believes that the decision amounts to an institutionalising of discriminatory acts against Egyptians that have been on the rise in many tourist spots. Defending the decision, Hawass insists that the public outcry stems from "a sense of extreme chauvinism." He denied that the decision was meant in any way to deny Egyptians access to the site. It was rather part of a plan to "re-structure and re-organise the site," he says.
The new route, according to Hawass, is part of a master plan which the SCA launched in 1991 to conserve the site. The plan, which has been subject to several modifications, will cost LE40 million, and will eventually lead to the exclusion of all vehicles from the site following the construction of an electric transportation facility.
The area allocated for Egyptian visitors was located nearly three kms away from the Pyramids. The area has wooden seats and kiosks, though its predominant feature is a series of giant plastic garbage bins.
Hawass insists that "the Pyramid area is not a zoo and should not be the scene of acts of vandalism and disfigurement to which the walls of the Pyramids bear witness. People have to understand that it is a sacred, divine place, not a venue for parties, dancing and singing."
At least one antiquities official, however, who preferred to remain anonymous, rejected Hawass's argument, pointing out that the plateau has recently been used for squash contests and musical concerts, the last being the millennium performance of Jean-Michel Jarre's Twelve Dreams of the Sun. At the time concern was raised about the effect of vibrations on the monuments, only to fall on the deaf ears of antiquities officials. "I would say that the acts of official vandalism inflicted on the site far exceed those committed by ordinary visitors," said the official.
Ni'mat Ahmed Fouad is a staunch opponent of the plateau master plan, arguing that what is actually being questioned is the worthiness of Egyptians to be the heirs to their own heritage. "This decision has dangerous implications because it is a reflection of the loss of cultural self-confidence," she said.
And certainly the arguments appear to have resolved themselves into the binary category of "us vs them," of Egyptians versus monument-loving foreigners. Yet there are those who argue that the disrespect shown by some foreigners to Egypt's heritage goes beyond all reasonable bounds. Abdel-Halim Noureddin, former head of the SCA, cites the example of an American tourist who recently stole some stones from the plateau only to put them up for sale on the Internet.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
