El-Baz: his name on Mars
By
Zahi Hawass
Farouk El-Baz graduated from Ain Shams University in 1958 and gained his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 1964. In 1966 he returned to Egypt and was asked to teach a subject outside his field of expertise: chemistry.
In search of work as a geologist, he travelled to America in 1967, first to work for NASA, then for the Smithsonian Institute, and in 1982 he was asked to create technologically advanced cameras for the space programme. He is now director of the Remote Sensing Department at Boston University.
El-Baz is an impressive and amiable man with a great love for his mother country. He is, in fact, Egypt's outstanding unofficial ambassador to America. When you meet him you are straightway struck by his sincerity. Success has not changed him. Although he uses English in conversation he is down to earth, a true ibn al-ballad as we say.
He has taken up residence in Boston but his heart belongs to Egypt, and he has carried the spirit and culture of his homeland overseas. He was behind the four- month Ramses the Great exhibition in Boston, at which time the whole city was transformed. I saw the Egyptian flag everywhere, as well as Pharaonic replicas. El- Baz's wife Pat made Egyptian delicacies for all the celebrations. She told me that all her Bostonian friends now had a taste for foul and falafel.
El-Baz invited Queen Farida to the opening of the Ramses exhibition, and on her arrival arias from Aida were broadcast and we honoured her with a standing ovation. I was there on the occasion and as I watched the Queen approach I remembered seeing her in Egypt 12 years earlier with my friend Farouk Hosni, now minister of culture. The three of us drove to Saqqara to see the monuments. On the way there, our car was involved in an unfortunate accident. We hit a cat. We immediately stopped the car and the Queen ran to the animal with tears in her eyes. She picked up the injured animal, held it in her arms and insisted we take it immediately to the nearest vet.
During that visit I had lunch with El-Baz, together with the late Gamal Mokhtar and the director of the Museum of Fine Arts. I told El- Baz that this museum in Boston had three painted reliefs taken from Old Kingdom tombs at Deir Al-Gabrawi in Middle Egypt, and that they had been purchased from an antiquities dealer in Cairo.
I was then director of the Giza Pyramids and did not have authority to pursue the return of these objects to Egypt. However, it was El- Baz who said: "Ask for their return, and threaten the director of the museum that if they are not sent back to Egypt, the museum will not be able to take out future concessions to excavate in Egypt." I followed his advice. The director agreed. And the reliefs are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
As a result of his work on Mars, there were people who believed that Farouk El-Baz had found evidence that the Pyramids were built by Martians! An American wrote an article on the Internet to the effect that El-Baz was hiding this information from the public. He wrote, moreover, that because he was my friend, I was committed to suppressing facts. When El-Baz read this ridiculous story he could not stop laughing and commented about the crazy world in which we live.
Al-Mansoura University honoured El-Baz for his space studies. He was born in a village near that city and spent his early years there with his brother Osama, today President Hosni Mubarak's advisor for Damietta. The university published a book about him to which I contributed a chapter describing my relationship with this great personality. A point that I stressed was that although El-Baz had spent most of his life in America, he never acted like an American, or used American slang.
He often talks about the hidden wealth under Egypt's desert, referring not only to antiquities but also to its underground water resources. When President Mubarak launched the Toshka project, many were critical. However, when El- Baz studied the project and the geology of the land announced that it would be of inestimable benefit in the development of Egypt, his conclusion was accepted and the project went ahead.
School children today study the life and times of Farouk El- Baz, a contemporary hero. In fact, he has become a symbol of success to young people throughout Egypt and I am proud that my name will be written beside his on a compact disc that will be sent to Mars.
