Image via Wikipedia, view from Cairo Tower

CAIRO, 7 October 2009, IRIN With about five million inhabitants, Alexandria is Egypt's second biggest city. A rise in sea levels of 50cm could lead to the loss of about 194,000 jobs and the displacement of about 1.5 million people.
Egypt’s Delta region faces a natural disaster of massive proportions by 2020 unless urgent action is taken to better manage scarce fresh water resources and come up with solutions to mitigate the effects of rising sea levels, according to government officials. The country is facing the dual threat of water needs surpassing resources by 2017, and rising sea levels in the decades ahead inundating much of the fertile Delta region, home to 60 percent of Egypt’s 78 million people, it added.
“Many of the towns and urban areas in the north of the Delta will suffer from the rise in the level of the Mediterranean with effect from 2020, and about 15 percent of Delta land is [currently] under threat from the rising sea level and the seepage [of salt water] into ground water,” Environment Minister George Maged told a parliamentary committee earlier this year. Mohamed al-Raey of Alexandria University told IRIN in Cairo that flooding had already begun with the Mediterranean rising an average of 2 centimetres annually over the past decade. “It has already flooded parts of Egypt’s shoreline,” he said, predicting an increase in sandstorms and longer periods of drought followed by flooding.
Researchers predict the Mediterranean will rise by 30-100cm by the end of the century. A one-metre sea-level rise would submerge Alexandria.

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Image via Wikipedia, A statue at the Temple of Luxor

Egypt Severs Ties with Louvre Over 'Stolen' Ancient Egyptian Artifacts

Egypt's antiquities chief says Egypt is suspending ties with the Louvre, saying the French museum has not returned what he says are stolen artifacts.
Zahi Hawass on Wednesday said the Louvre has repeatedly ignored requests to return steles, or large reliefs, that date back to the time of the Pharaohs. Hawass said the Louvre purchased the four archeological reliefs that were stolen from a tomb in Luxor in the 1980s.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said Wednesday that France is willing to return the relics if they were indeed stolen from the tomb site. He says he has asked a special commission to meet Friday to discuss the situation and rule on the matter.
Egypt has launched an extensive campaign to recover its antiquities abroad, including some objects currently exhibited in well-known museums.
In 2002, Egypt's Supreme Council ruled that all international museums must return antiquities that were stolen or smuggled from Egypt, including pieces that were purchased by museums but were ultimately proved to be stolen.
This is not the first time Egypt has cut cooperation with foreign art museums. Mr. Hawass severed ties with St Louis Art Museum in 2006 when it failed to return an ancient Egyptian burial mask. He took similar steps against the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels.

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The  The Los Angeles Times is reporting that "the head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Yusuf Al Qaradawi, is urging Egyptians to turn this Friday into a nationwide day of anger against the "Israeli practices at the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem."

Speaking at the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate in Cairo, the Qatar-based cleric condemned the Arab governments' silence towards the "violation of Al Aqsa's holiness" by Israeli settlers and occupation forces.

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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is in the United States for talks, says Arab nations would recognize Israel only after a just and comprehensive Mideast peace deal is reached.
Mr. Mubarak told Egypt's state-run newspaper al-Ahram that Israel must halt settlement construction and resume peace negotiations with Palestinians, before Arab countries can normalize ties with the Jewish state.
President Mubarak is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington Monday, and to hold talks with President Obama Tuesday.
The Egyptian leader told the newspaper some Arab countries that exchanged representatives and trade offices with Israel might consider re-opening those offices if Israel commits to a settlement freeze.
During a visit to the region last month, U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell called on Arab states to take "meaningful steps" to normalize relations with Israel.

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Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting and prayer, is to begin later this week. In some predominantly Muslim nations, the period marks a slowdown in business, an increasing concern in the Arab world as it tries to stake out a place in the global economy.

The demands of the global economy may seem at odds with a period of intense spiritual devotion.
But Sheikh Abdel Fattah Allam, the Deputy of Al-Azhar Institute in Cairo, says there is no conflict between Ramadan and modern, worldly affairs. "When Islam mandated this worship, it was to push us to work and advance and was never meant to slow down productivity," he said.
But here in Egypt, it's summer. It's hot. And the long days of fasting can take their toll.
The government and many businesses try to make it easier, setting shorter hours.
But the concessions come at a price. Less work is done. Productivity drops.
For some, that's not the point. "Earnings are from God, al-Hamdulillah [Thanks to God]. We believe he is the provider. Everything is fine, thanks be to God," said one vendor.
And Ramadan, at least at the local level, can provide its own economic benefits. "Some people, they take Ramadan as an excuse to work less. But people here like us here, Ramadan, no Ramadan, same hours, same activities. No problem, because people in Ramadan like to buy things," said a spice vendor.
"[Caliph] Omar saw a man at a mosque and asked him "Who's providing for you?" The man said its my brother. The Caliph told him "your brother's more pious than you, because he's working while you sit here praying, counting on his support," said Sheikh Abdel Fattah Allam.

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The rising sun in Egyptology - Forty years of Japanese excavations in Egypt are illustrated in a special exhibition at the Egyptian Museum

Image by khalid almasoud via Flickr

  Nevine El-Aref, writing in Al-Ahram Weekly, reports that "For the forthcoming couple of months the Egyptian Museum is hosting an exhibition of five dozen ancient Egyptian artefacts unearthed at three archaeological sites by the mission from Waseda University over the past 40 years.

These unique objects have never before been exhibited. They derive from Abusir, the site of 11 pyramids south of Giza; Dahshour, the site of King Senefru's pyramids; and Malkata on Luxor's west bank, where the grandfather of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, Amenhotep III, dug a lake and built a palace for his beautiful and powerful wife, Queen Tiye.

Among the objects on show are fragments of Pharaoh Amenhotep III's faience bracelet; a stele showing Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV making an offering to Horus; a faience sistrum with the name of Pharaoh Amasis; a terracotta statue of a recumbent lion with the name of King Khufu;  and two faience rings bearing the names of Tutankhamun and his wife, Ankhesenamun.

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