Kodak Agfa Presents : At Al Azhar Park

Last month I visited Al Azhar Park to attend a family birthday and of course it was an opportunity to take my camera and snap couple of shots at Cairo’s biggest park. I did not have a chance to go around and smell clean fresh air for too long but I had an opportunity some shots at night I think they are interesting.

I am very proud of this shot for Mohamed Ali Mosque at night considering I am very bad at taking night shots.

I am so proud that I posted it at Your Shot at National Geographic. Of course it is nothing compared to the stuff there but I feel that I am accomplished something and I should celebrate it.
Here is another shot I am proud of.

By the way I must record my admiration for the gift the Aga Khan IV gave to the people of Cairo.
Also you must visit the Bazaar at the restaurant building in the park where you can find beautiful handmade stuff in very good prices.

Read More

Nasser in Moscow : Newsreel

As we were reviving the Nasser legacy in a way or another , I could not ignore that rare newsreel clip from Russia showing the visit of Nasser to Moscow in 1965.

By the way time changes indeed as well political alliances even faster as we may think 

Read More

Links and Notes 11/10/2013

• Ladies Who Rally by Tanya Habjouqa | PANORAMA

  Meet Speed sisters , the Middle East's first all female auto racing team from Palestine :) Oh yes Palestinian female auto racing team. Please check the fantastic Photo report from Panorama Mada Misr by Tanya Habjouqa

  tags: #DWC #LN Photos Ladies Women Arabs Panorama Cars Rally

• صحافة القاهرة: عناوين الستينيات + صورة السيسي | مدونة محرري ياهو مكتوب - أخبار Yahoo‎ مكتوب

  Dear Ahmed El Deriny compares the Egyptian press of today to the Egyptian press of 1960s. Same headlines about getting how evil America is and how getting close to its rival Russia is great but with one difference : Instead of Nasser pictures, you will find the photos of general Abdel Fatah Sisi. The Op-ed is in Arabic only.

  tags: #DWC #LN Egypt Arabic Press Sisi Nasser 1960s

• The Monkey and the Mask: Terrifying Portraits of Indonesia’s Street-Performing Macaques - LightBox

  This explains why I believe the acting monkeys in Jakarta were scary. Thanks for the animal activists for saving those monkeys and sparing us from that terror !!

  tags: #DWC #LN monkey mask indonesia portraits Photos

• No More ‘Monkey Business’ in Jakarta · Global Voices

  Great news because it was not animal abuse but also scary !!

  tags: #DWC #LN jakarta monkey Indonesia

• US, Israel lose UNESCO voting right in dispute - Region - World - Ahram Online

  Both Israel and US lose voting rights in UNESCO

  tags: #DWC #LN israel unesco dispute America Palestine

• Egypt: Police Violence Video Revives Fear of Return to Old Regime · Global Voices

  The Egyptian police is back to its what knows best : Torturing people !! This time the victim is from in Minya . Now you must know that at the same time we saw this video , we heard that a journalist was tortured in Minya also. The journalist is a MBC Misr reporter in the Upper Egyptian governorate and he is denying that he is the man in that video so we could be in front of two torture cases. As long as there are no true

  tags: egypt police violence video torture #LN #DWC

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read More

Links and Notes 11/09/2013

• When You Kill Ten Million Africans You Aren’t Called ‘Hitler’ | Diary of a Walking Butterfly

  About the not so much heard genocide committed by Leopold II in Congo

  tags: #DWC #LN genocide racism Europe Africa Congo Belgium

• Russell Brand: we deserve more from our democratic system | Russell Brand | Comment is free | The Guardian

  Russell Brand caused controversy last week with interview on BBC about elections and democracy. He is explaining his views more.

  tags: #DWC #LN democracy change Russell Brand UK Elections

• Michael Haag: The Struggle to Preserve Egypt's Heritage

  It is not only a struggle in fact it is like war that we are losing day after day.

  tags: #DWC #LN Egypt heritage history Cairo Alexandria

• Mansour revives plan for nuclear power plant on Egyptian coast - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online

  The history of Egypt's ill fated Nuclear power plant in Dabaa , North Coast

  tags: #DWC #LN plant power Egypt Energy Nuclear Nuke

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read More

Links and Notes 11/03/2013

• Nubia: 50 years of displacement - Special Files - Folk - Ahram Online

  A fantastic report about the Nubian displacement in Egypt. It is a must read

  tags: Egypt #DWC #LN

• تفويضكم يقتلنا.. | المصري اليوم

  Since 3 July 2013 and Egyptian journalists as well Egyptian media are paying the price in Egypt. A powerful and important op-ed by Shaher Eiyad in Arabic

  tags: Egypt #DWC #LN Media

• Syrian asylum seekers: Lost at sea, barred from land - Region - World - Ahram Online

  The agony of the Syrian refugees.

  tags: Egypt #DWC #LN Syria Refugees

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read More

Links and Notes 10/25/2013

• Mīt `Uqba - Tadamun

  Learn the history of a famous working class area in Giza. It is a must read post.

  tags: Egypt Giza Mituqba History #DWC #LN

• Egypt’s got 99 problems, but US aid ain’t one | mohamed el dahshan. economist, writer, speaker, compulsive traveller.

  Dear friend and blogger Mohamed El Dahshan writes about Egypt's problems that do not include the US aid. 

  tags: egypt aid #DWC #LN

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read More

Pilgrimage in #Mecca Decades ago

Very happy and blissful Eid Adha for all the readers of the Egyptian Chronicles. Now today I share with you this video clip I found online showing the pilgrimage in Mecca many decades ago.

Rare footage for pilgrimage

It is very beautiful and rare footage in Arabic.
The creator the video says that the material he got in the video was hundred years ago and that its source was pilgrims from South East Asia. Well I believe that the material was from an old Egyptian newsreel film based on the accent of the narrator and his style of reading. It is the same as the one used in the old Egyptian newsreel.
By the way,Saudi News Channel announced that it was found out that the oldest photograph for the Holy Kaaba in Mecca was taken by an Egyptian army officer and geographer Mohamed Sadek  in 1880. The army officer who was fond by geography and photography wrote books about Saudi Arabia and the trip of Pilgrimage during then. He took about 18 photos then.

Photo for the Kaaba in 1880 by Mohamed Sade

A photo for Al Masid Nabawi in Medina in 1880

Amazingly the photos of Mohamed Sadek Beh were not found in Cairo in the forgotten Geographic Society but rather in the archives of King Abdel Aziz Al Soud. It turned out that a German explorer and geographer bought the photos from Sadek in 1883 during a trip in Tunisia. The photos since then disappeared then resurfaced again in 1989 in some auction where some collector bought the 18 photos for $ 2,900,000. I guess the collector was a Saudi Royal figure. I respect their efforts to collect this history and heritage.

Read More

Saving_history :It is sold now on #eBay

A screen shot from there

Professor Azza Sedky published on her blog a shocking post on how our ancient Egyptian artifacts are being sold on eBay now , oh yes on eBay !!
With quick search on eBay , you will find more than 1,000 artifacts for sale. Some of these artifacts are being listed by companies like Art Ancient LTD. Art Ancient LTD is a British company that works online in trading ancient artifacts from around the globe. It guarantees the legality of the artifacts it trades.
There are also items listed by ancient-artefacts.com that directs you to Antiquities.co.uk.
If I am not mistaken trading in Egyptian artifacts officially had been banned in Egypt since the second half of the 19th century.
I wrote before on how our ancient Egyptian heritage is being sold in international auctions. I will not deny that Egypt stopped some auctions in the past, but now it is getting ridiculous .. eBay for God sake !! What next we found our ancient Egyptian artifacts being sold on Craigslist !!
Already now the lazy ministry of antiquities began to act against some auction in Jerusalem showing some of the artifacts from different ancient eras.

Read More

#Saving_History : Destroying our History by our hands

When the tragedy of Mallawi museum took place last August , some people blamed foreign parties and enemies of standing behind the looting and destruction that took place in the Upper Egyptian museum just like what happened in Iraq.
Unlike Iraq , I believe we do not need foreign enemies and parties because so far I am afraid to say we are own worst enemy when it come to how we destroy our history and heritage.
After all the looting happened to the ancient Egyptian archaeological sites and the attack against old Christian churches and monasteries , we continue our attack on the Islamic heritage of Egypt.
From couple of weeks ago I was surprised and shocked like many “I Believe” to know that part of the 17th century Youssef Agha mosque was turned in to a Shoes shop o!! Oh yes a Shoes shop !!

Shoes shop in 17th century mosque !!

First of all I will be lying to say that I even knew that this beautiful mosque existed in Egypt. It is in old Cairo and it was built by a Mamluk Amir Youssef Agha Al-Hinn in 1625. It was a mosque and a school. This beautiful mosque is besides the Islamic museum and the Cairo security directorate.

The Mosque before the shop "Mohamed Msobeih"

It is very beautiful mosque. Here is a photo gallery in the old days. “Most of the photos are from researcher Mohamed Msobieh’s forum.

I am sorry but from what I see that the Cairo governorate , the local council and the police are all involved in this crime because you can not open a shop like that without licenses and permits from the government !!
FYI the mosque is registered as a monument. It was also renovated after the 1992 earthquake.  You can also read more about the history and architecture of that mosque from this informative e-book.
I do not know why TV channels launch a true campaign to save the heritage and the  history of this nation for real instead of that campaign to fight terrorism full of racism and hatred.
Archeologists are demanding the government to change the minister of antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim as soon as possible. It was their demand from the start.
I think we need make more noise about this unaccepted attack. If you are okay that a Shoes shop opens a branch in a mosque that is regarded , tomorrow do not be sad when you some foul and falafal sandwiches in some ancient Egyptian site.
We are indeed our own worst enemy !!
The nation that sells its history for wealth , deserves none!!

Read More

#9/11 : What We Fail To learn as usual from history

Today is the anniversary of the 9/11 attack that changed the World upside down. Of course I can not get over this anniversary when we are having the infamous “War against in terrorism” in Egypt. Unfortunately we refuse to learn from other people’s experiences nor to learn from history .. even our own history.

These points below I believe we should know in Egypt especially now , they are lessons learned in a hard way from 9/11 and what followed it.

• Force will not beat terrorism and the evidence is in front of us , almost after 12 years of the 9/11 attacks and before it the World Trade center attack , the terrorists are not defeated !! In fact why we take an example from the U.S when we have our own experience with the bitter terrorism in the 1990s which I still remember very well. Using force and police state techniques did not stop radical thinking and terrorists.
• Terrorism based on ideology can not be defeated only by force but I will dare to say that you need counter ideologies more than force to fight the radicalism in ideologies that lead to terrorism.
• Fighting terrorism for real should start by admitting the root problems causing it from social, economic , cultural and above all political problems and try to solve it in order to prevent any radicalism in the future.
• Discrimination against others will not stop terrorism , in fact it may breed a new class of radicals who may resort to terrorism to make that society that rejected them suffer.
• History proved that “War of terrorism” was used by the Bush administration for certain political, economic and military gains that used fighting terrorism for a cover and the Iraq invasion is a good example.
• Shutting down media and forcing journalists to shut up in these times of so-called War of terrorism mean that there is something wrong and you do not want the public to know it.
• Do turn monster while fighting monsters. There are human rights according to religion and laws that should not be broken under any circumstances.
• McCarthyism always fails in the end

BY the way this year marks the 40th anniversary of Chile’s infamous coup supported by the CIA. I look to what happened in Chile and I know that there are many lessons should be learnt :

• The West has no problem with military tyrannies as long they serve their political and economic interests.
• Justice will prevail in the end in a way or another.
• Killing and torturing thousands can not be justified under any circumstances.

I am creating fighting terrible fall flu so I am not in mood for long posts to explain each point.

In the end I will quote what Ben Franklin once said :

Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Read More

Happy New Egyptian Year

Happy New Egyptian Year to all the readers of Egyptian Chronicles.

Today is the start of the new year 6255 according to the ancient Egyptian calendar and the new year 1730 according to the Coptic calendar.

Today is the start of Thout. 

Hopefully this year will be better than last year .. hopefully insh Allah 
 

Read More

#Mallawi Museum Tragedy : We continue to lose our history

On August 16, 2013 while Egypt was witnessed the aftermath following the dispersal of Rabaa and Nahda sits in ,the Mallawi museum in the city of Mallawi ,  Minya governorate was completely looted and destroyed.

For hours the museum was looted completely and the police did nothing , it did not stop the looters. I ran through the photos of the looted antiquities and one thing for sure the looters did not come individually but they came in big pick up in order to transfer that large amount of artifacts. Here is a slide show for the museum from “Egypt’s heritage task force”

It is very sad.

Officially 1089 artifacts were stolen from that museum. Only 216 artifacts have been restored so far.

Of course people and media back in Cairo accused the Muslim brotherhood and Islamists especially that there were on going attacks against Churches and shops owned by Christians in the same governorate at the same time. Well I do not think they are Islamists but rather the antiquities traders and their thugs in the area. I believe the looters and their bosses of antiquities traders seized the opportunity in the chaos.

Well regardless of the police ,I wonder why all those years since the inauguration of that valuable museum in 1960s, it did not have enough modern security systems at all !!

To be honest I admit that as Egyptian , it is the first time I know that there is a museum in Mallawi in the first place let alone a very rich and important museum like that despite it was founded in 1962 !!!

Anyhow in an attempt to save what we can save from our stolen heritage , archeological Facebook pages published some of the stolen artifacts including some of their descriptions.

Many of the antiquities go back to the Greco-Roman age. There are antiquities from more ancient times.

I gathered dozens of the photos in a Storify slide show, may be we can save some of these artifacts and stop them of being sold in auctions and so on.

I will post the rest of the photos in another post. Please spread them as much as you can especially if you are in country that got auction houses that sell ancient artifacts.

You must know that the illegal digging and excavation are spreading like epidemic through out Egypt. Looters do not give a damn for the police or the army. 

For decades we saw our history while it is stolen in front of us. This has to be stopped.

Read More

Fearing an Egyptian Waco

The time cover during then

In April 1993 , the World watched how a disaster was taking place in Waco, Taxes. After nearly 51 days siege the ATF agent and FB dispersed the sit in at compound in Mount Carmel held by Branch Davidians sect killing 76 people inside the compound including the infamous cult leader David Koresh and ..28 children in a big fire.
The ATF believed that federal firearms law had been preached and the sect members had already a stock of firearms in their compound. Still there were women and children killed in the siege.
Till this day this is a controversy about Waco siege and there has been a debate since then about how the ATF dispersed the siege despite everybody knew that David Koresh was crazy cult leader who deserved to be sent to some mental asylum.
Now in 2013 we got two sits in Cairo and Giza and I fear that they will have the same fate of Waco sit in especially knowing that our police is not trained to disperse sit-ins peacefully or even sits in that are that big in residence areas where children as well people who are ready to die for their cause. “Some of these people are also armed according to different news reports including a report from The famous Robert Fisk himself”
I am not comparing the Davidians with the Muslim brotherhood supporters but I can not stop myself of drawing parallels between the sits in and the doomed end. Some Egyptians believe that we are going to have a Jonestown Massacre in Cairo and honestly I think that this is wrong comparison.
Yesterday the Egyptian cabinet ordered the ministry of interior to end the Pro-Morsi sit-ins in both Rabaa and Nahda square , of course in accordance with law and human rights.
Today the ministry of interior called the protesters in both sits in to leave quickly and to clear the sits in promising them a safe exist and full protection.
The ministry of interior in cooperation with the ministry of defense are inviting international media as well local media to see how the sits in will be dispersed. The ministry denied it later “Well of course , since when the MOI in Egypt is transparent”
The ministry of information also called the international media for a press conference tomorrow Friday.
Unfortunately considering the record of Egyptian security forces to disperse sit-ins and the fact that we got people ready for martyrdom in both sits in , I am not that optimistic. We are speaking a big sit in again with people ready to die including armed people and children with their mothers.
A sit in in the middle of a residence area. Neither our police nor our army is trained for this. The Tahrir sit-ins were not that complex. In fact in the past two areas, police and army used to disperse the Tahrir sit-ins when numbers were low. Already do you remember the massacre of Sudanese refugees' sit in
As I said before the Pro-Morsi sit-ins will end in disaster , real disaster if there not is some kind of divine

A child in Rabaa sit in "EPA"

intervention that saves the day. I fear that the blood that is going to be spelled will be used cheaply in negotiations where as there will be a huge crack in the Egyptian society that won’t mended easily. 
The perceived image for those two sit-ins in the mainstream media in Egypt is we are dealing with armed sits in where some protesters are being held against their own will as well fear to be arrested. Both sits in are facing accusations of killing and torturing locals and residents from the neighborhoods.
There are Egyptians “and they are not a minority” thanks to the media believe that tanks should cleanse both sit-ins.
Personally I prefer the government to leave the sit-ins like July 2011 sit in in Tahrir square or even the Hezbollah supporters’ sit-in “2006-2007” that continued for months in the heart of Beirut paralyzing it and forcing the closures of shops and restaurants.
 Already I feel that the MB leadership is praying for another massacre to have power in the negotiations.
Already I do not know if we are going to reach for a political resettlement that allows us for a true political reconciliation according to the law if we have blood in the streets once again or not.
If nothing happens today in Rabaa or Al Nahda sit in then tomorrow we will have a series of MB rallies. I think the security forces may do start its move tomorrow’s night or Saturday.
A trusted informed source once told a friend of mine that we should wait the 24th and 25th of Ramadan , today it is the 23th of Ramadan. According to citizens in Nasr City area, CSF vehicles are parked all over the sit in.
Some Egyptian journalists are reporting that the police is starting to build a siege around the sit in and that no new comers will be allowed to join the sit in. They also say that food or water will not be allowed in to the sit in.
All sources say that the current regime does not want the sit in to continue more than that. It has been 33 days since its start and if it continues more than that , it seems that it will be troubling.
Anyhow as a Muslim I believe the last 10 nights in Ramadan are blessed , I hope that believers pray to God to protect Egypt and what I fear for real does not happen and the sit-ins end peacefully without a single blood.

Read More

#RIP Princess #Fawzia , The Beautiful Sad Rose of the #Nile

As she lived in complete silence , she departed our world in even more silence that does not suit a figure like her. After all she was not only the surviving sister of late King Farouk but she was also the ex-wife of Shah of Iran Reda Pahlavi.
Princess Fawzia Fouad passed away last July 2,2013 in complete silence in Alexandria. Her very small funeral that did not suit her was held last July 3, 2013 from El Saida Nafisa mosque in old Cairo. She was not buried in the royal cemetery besides her brother late King Farok in Rafai , she was buried in her husband's family "The Shereens" cemetery in Cairo.
Only very few relatives attended the funeral. Of course the media was not that interested in covering the funeral but I found couple of clips from the funeral.

The media was not that interested because it is not a secret that we are having political unrest in the country.
I do not know what to say about that beautiful princess honestly as I have always admired her as a person and as a royalty figure.

 In 1939 the 18 years old Princess Fawzia married crown the 20 years old prince of Iran Reda Pahlavi in one of the most famous political marriages in the Middle East in the 20th century. It was said that king Farouk tried to lead the Muslim world and at the same time Pahlavi was trying to support his rule with a regional alliance, a great one too.Of course my generation looks to it as when a Sunni princess married a Shia prince and everyone was happy for it.

Princess Fawzia gave a birth to Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi in 1940.

Princess Fawzia with Princess Shahnaz in Iran "Hassan Kamel"

Amazingly Princess Shahnaz is just like her mother , a media shy person who is living away from lights unlike the rest of her family.
Unfortunately the princess that became a young beautiful Queen returned Cairo in 1945 leaving her daughter in Tehran. The sad look of the princess since then became her trademark. Many people spoke about why the royal-imperial marriage did not work  but the young princess who came from different royal court and different country could not coup with her mother in law and sisters in law not to mention the young Shah had a mistress.
I once read the memories of Adel Thabet , King Farouk's relative that the young Queen was extremely depressed to the level that she fell sick, extremely sick. After knowing what happened to his sister , Farouk ordered her return immediately to Cairo to be divorced.
In 1949 she married colonel Ismail Chirine , another Mohamed Ali family member and an army officer/diplomat. They were considered the most cutest couple in Egypt then according my grandma.
The princess got two children : Nadia and Hussein.

After 1952 , the citizen Fawzia carrying her son Hussein "Kelisi"

It is worth to mention that Nadia Chirine was the first wife of famous actor Youssef Shaaban.
Princess Fawzia was like an acting first lady of Egypt till the short marriage of King Farouk from Queen Neriman especially with the departure of Queen Nazli to the States.
In 1952 the princess who was married to the minister of defense then was said to predict that something was going to happen and it did happen. The free officers did their own coup which was regarded later as the 1952 revolution n Egypt.
She refused to leave Egypt unlike the rest of sisters. She lived in Alexandria along with her husband and her children Nadia and Hussein.
Princess Fawzia led very extreme quiet life refusing to speak the media decades even in time of Mubarak. The only recent photo for the princess we found it in her daughter's ex-husband Ardeshir Zahedi's website during her visit I think to the States from a decade ago.

With princess Shahanz's ex-husband Ardeshir Zahedi

Of course my generation rediscovered her from the old photos thanks to the Nostalgia to the old black and white Egypt.
Now I know this is not a proper obituary for such personality.
Below one of the biggest flickr photo album dedicated Princess Fawzia. Please pray for her or read the Fataha on her soul.

Read More

#Egypt From More than 100 years In Color

The Brooklyn Museum published on Flickr this amazing collection of photos or rather Lantern slides taken in Egypt in year 1882. Yes in 1882 and they are in color , it is just amazing.
The photos were taken in different parts of Egypt in 1882. It is just amazing to see how our country and our people , our ancestors looked like during then. This is how Egyptians lived then. There are extremely old photos from Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Assuit , Luxor , Aswan and the newly founded Suez Canal and its cities like Ismailia.
You can a whole photo gallery with more than 100 photos from that year.
I was running through the photos and try to see how places had changed. For instance the photo of Wadi Es Sebua made me wonder about the fate of the ancient temple as I did not know before that we had an ancient temple with that name. I found that it was located in Lower Nubia in Egypt and it had to be displaced because of the Aswan High Dam. 

Just imagine that those photos were taken in 1882. Just see the photos you may be looking for your grandfather without knowing.
It is worth to mention that in 1882 Egyptians and their Egyptian army as well Sudanese under the leadership of Ahmed Orbai rebelled against their ruler Khedive Tewfik. Unfortunately this rebellion , this revolution was ended with occupation when the Khedive asked the help of the British. The British wanted to protect the new Suez Canal by all measures. This was one of the oldest invasions I believe using the minorities paper.
The Orbai revolution was the first time the Egyptian army of the Egyptian modern State truly stood with the people.
I wish people to learn and read about that revolution and its lessons.

Read More

Actually The Police Can Stop them .. If they Want to

The official page for the ministry of antiquities on Facebook “It is the ministry’s official page thought” paged on Thursday very alarming posts about ancient tombs discovered and controlled by the locals who are not allowing the Egyptologists nor the police to come near to the tombs.
The tombs are said to be in Aswan , particular in the West. Ancient Egyptians used to have their tombs in the West. There are about 6 tombs discovered there recently by the people who took control of these tombs.
Yes the people do not want the state to control the tombs. Already I saw the photos and video from there and I am not an Egyptologist to say that this was an Authentic tomb or but its colors and drawings look amazing.
Here are some photos taken from inside one of the tombs

Here is a video from inside one of the tombs.
Now I do not understand who the Police can not control this tomb, I feel that we are living in Shadi Abdel Salam’s “The Mummy” !! The police can stop the locals of managing the sites as they want , they can even do it in a civilized way.

Read More

Save our heritage , Save our history for God sake "Updated With Photos and Info"

Yesterday we were shocked to find out through the Facebook as usual that a historical gate in Islamic old Cairo was demolished. Yes it was demolished or to be accurate was bulldozed by some contractor !!!!!!
The photos are horrible.

Before the gate looked like that by Amina Abdel Bar

After the bulldozer attack :(( 

The gate of Bab Al Wazir was the among the remaining gates of old Cairo. Here is another page about the Gates of Old Cairo in Tour Egypt.
I want to cry and scream.
More photos and information about the building that turned to be a building and not a gate.The photos are from Reuters' Aswat Masrya by Ahmed Hamed

 Now it turned out that the building is not from the historical gates of Cairo. That building was built in early 19th century for the Sheikh of Al Azhar then Sheikh Abdel Rahman Kara'a. It turned out that despite it has a very distinguished style and despite it is located in a historical area , it was not registered as historical building. The reason is not clear why it was not registered as historical building.  

Now it turned out that the granddaughter of Sheikh Abdel Rahman Kara'a who owns the building decided to demolish it in order to build a modern ugly building of 3 floors. Of course it is her right legally but where the state was from that building and where the urban coordination sector in the ministry of culture from preserving the old Islamic style in that historical quarter in Egypt.

Read More

Follow Up : Mohamed Ali Palace in Shubra El Kheima

This is a follow up post for the Mohamed Ali Palace in Shubra El Kheima and what I wrote about earlier regarding the palace.
Tweep @Ronna56 works in the ministry of culture and she told me on twitter that the engineers and experts in the ministry already wrote a report about the bad condition of the palace. 

A photo for ceiling by Howard Jones

@Ronna56 , who is also an engineer says that according to the report “Wadi Al Nil for constructions” committed horrifying mistakes in the renovation like for instance like using bad type of fire stop plastic pipes that led to water leaks if I understood correctly affecting the old palace. The report is supported by testimonies from professors in engineers.
Allegedly the construction company follows the General Intelligence , thus no one dared to speak up and criticize their work !!
The report predicted that the palace will collapse from several years ago.
I do not understand we did not spend LE 55 million to have fancy restaurants and gala hall , this is a part of our great history. Egypt was ruled from this palace , in fact that palace witnessed the birth of Modern Egypt !!
The report is kept in the ministry of culture for anyone interested. I believe the ministry should represent it a report the prosecutor general despite he will not do something still this is the right legal step available.
At the same time I urge the journalists to dig for the report and publish it in their newspapers and websites in order to force the government to do something. It seems that this is the only way available to us.
Here are @Ronna56's tweets  in Arabic

@zeinobia شركة المقاولات المنفذه للترميم "وادى النيل" مخابرات محدش هيكلمهم - والموضوع ده قديم وزمايلى أشتركوا فى تقرير هندسى عن حالة القصر 1
— اﻷفكار المبعثره (@Ronnaa56) May 20, 2013

@zeinobia جبنا لجنه هندسيه لأثبات أن الترميم فيه خطأ وشبهة فساد - جابوا دكتور من هندسه ورفعنا تقرير وأتشال فى الدرج عشان ميفتحوش فى القديم 2
— اﻷفكار المبعثره (@Ronnaa56) May 20, 2013

@zeinobia أنا عندى التقرير اللى أترفع للمسئولين .. للتنبيه بحالة القصر وتوقع انهياره .. من سنين الكلام ده .. بس كالعاده لا حياة لمن ينادى 3
— اﻷفكار المبعثره (@Ronnaa56) May 20, 2013

@zeinobia مشروع أتكلف 55 مليون جنيه وأتنفذ مواسير الحريق فيه من خامة "البلاستيك" والفسقيه لم تعالج فحدث تسريب منها لكل أساسات القصر
— اﻷفكار المبعثره (@Ronnaa56) May 20, 2013

Read More

Leave Cairo's Saint Patron Alone For God sake !!

I am getting tired of hearing that sort of news everyday.Yesterday I found photos showing horrible agression on Sayeda Zeinab Mosque in Old cairo. First you can read more about the history of that mosque and shrine in Cairobserver blog. You will be shocked to know that this mosque is not listed as Islamic monument !!
Now It seems that either the ministry of endowment or some people decided to paint the old mosque as they want. They began to color the roof white the minaret was painted by pink !!
Here is a photo gallery for what happened exactly in the mosque from Historic Cairo Facebook Page.

 It is unclear who is behind this cultural agression. Some say that it is the ministry of endowment while others say that they are some El Sayeda fantatics trying to get rid to celebrate the birth of Cairo's Saint patron in their own way !!
Either ways the ministry of culture and its Urban harmony sector are extremely angry and they demand that nonsense to stop right way.
The head of the Sayeda Zeinab district claimed that he did not do anything about the painting of the mosque !! 
The district stopped the painting thank goodness but one must wonder what if those photos above did not make it online.
By the way I think the ministry of culture and ministry of antiquities should pay attention to what is happening to the old mosques related to Islamic saints. I wrote before about Sultan Abu Ela Mosque and nothing happened. By the doom of Sultan Abu Ela mosque is painted white. 

Read More

Can We Save Mohamed Ali Palace in Shubra El Kheima ??

Culture activist Sally Soliman spoke on her twitter account about what happening and is happening to Mohamed Ali Palace in Shubra El Kheima and it is not good.
First of all Mohamed Ali Palace in Shubra is one of the most oldest and beautiful palaces remaining from Mohamed Ali Era itself. Mohamed Ali Pasha ordered its construction in 1808. The construction of that palace finished in 1812.

A painting showing the palace during the day of the Pasha

The Palace is built like the Palaces in Istanbul , extremely beautiful. 
It was neglected for years yet in 2000 the minister of culture then Farouk Hosni suddenly remembered. Not less than LE50 millions were allocated then for the restoration works in the neglect palace. About 14 experts in the restorations of palaces from Italy and France were brought in to help in its restoration.
In 2005 it was re-inaugurated by Mubarak in a very big celebration. Of course since then we knew that the palace was being rented for big galas , parties and weddings especially for the VIPs like former NDP leading member and policy maker Mohammed Kamel "He is still in the scene and last thing I know about him was being an adviser to Ahmed Shafik."
Now Soliman shocked us and told us online that part of the palace is collapsing.

 Part of the Palace , one of

its dooms collapsed in 2012 and nobody paid attention as usual. Al Ahram Daily published a report then with a picture and nobody moved a muscle. Yes I know we are in transitional period , difficult and soon on but this will be not forever the case.

It seems that the was corruption as usual in the restoration works. In 2010 Al Masry Al Youm published a report with a video about the neglect in the palace and how the paint used in the restoration works began to collapse after only 5 years of the restoration work.
Sally Soliman raised important matter. If you remember I wrote once that old original paintings were stolen in 2009 from the palace  and suddenly resurfaced in matter of days in some mystery. Up till now we do not know who stole those paintings and why they were returned and more important : Where the paintings are now !?
Allegedly they are in some warehouse.
Another thing she says during the restoration works there were rumors that the original crystal chandeliers from Beligum and Italy were being replaced by Egyptian ones.
Here is a slide show with photos from the beautiful palace that can bring to Egypt a lot of cash if you treat it like the Turks and their palaces. If the history talk does not work , the money talk does.


Below the series of Soliman's tweets in Arabic.

Read More