Living in Luxor - News in and around Luxor in October 2013

 

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Feast of Sacrifice - Eid al-Adha, Egypt

(13/10/13)
From 15 to 18 October 2013, Eid al-Adha, the most important religious holiday, will be celebrated by Muslims worldwide. Eid al-Adha celebrations take place at the peak of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which has started today in the early morning.
The festival, also called The Greater Eid, is held to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead. For Muslims who can afford it it's a religious duty to sacrifice their best domestic animals. The meat is divided into three parts. The family retains one third of the share; another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors; and the other third is given to the poor and needy. In order to ease this, the government announced a 10 to 15 percent discount on basic commodities and meat in public stores.
As it is at Eid al-Fitr (The Lesser Eid) the visit of mosques, cemeteries and relatives are part of the feast. Men, women, and children are expected to dress in their finest clothing to perform Eid prayer.
Kul sana wa inta tayeb, inti tayeba - Eid mubarak!

1st Meeting with the Governor, Luxor East Bank

(06/10/13)
Yesterday night, about 200 or 250 ex-pats of Luxor came to meet the Governor of Luxor Tarek Saad El-Din at Sofitel Karnak. General Hafez, former head of tourism police, presented the ideas of the governate:

1. In order to ensure a constant communication between the Governor and the ex-pats, a committee will be formed consisting of representatives of the governate, tour guides and ex-pats from different countries. The committee should hold a meeting once a week and meet the Governor once a month. All those interested to join it could sign in during the evening.
   
2. Also, the meetings of the Governor with all ex-pats should take place once a month.
3. There will be a page on the website of the governate, on which coming events will be announced in good time in advance.
4. It will be possible in the near future to communicate questions, suggestions or complaints in different ways:
   • via the planed web page
   • at a special desk or office, which will be established in the Tourist Office at the train station
   • via the email address helm_lux@yahoo.com (correctness not confirmed yet)
     Update 13/10/13: The right email address is now: info.luxor.committe@gmail.com

All these measures aim to improve the life of ex-pats if necessary as well as to use our know how and our contacts to make Luxor as a tourist destination more attractive.
During the meeting, which took two hours, a few questions were discussed like the validity period of visa or the repeated power cuts. The Governor had a sympathetic ear to all and promised to attend to the different concerns resp. to pass on these suggestions, which are beyond his responsibility.
Marginal information: It looks good for the resumption of the lectures at the Mummification Museum in this season despite the posting of Mansour Boriak to Cairo (he had organised the lectures uo to the past season).

The Governor Convenes a Meeting, Luxor East Bank

(03/10/13)

"The Governor of Luxor cordially invites
all foreign nationals residing in Luxor
to attend a meeting at the Sofitel Hotel, Karnak
on Saturday 5th October at 7.00 pm"

The Governor and the Sofitel provide minibusses from Luxor to Karnak. They will wait from 6:15 pm at the Iberotel/HSBC, departure 6:45 pm. People living on the west bank will be picked up at the public ferry at about 6:50 pm. Another minibus will pick up people from Karnak at Al Olah Supermarket at about 6:45 pm.
Please send your questions to the following email address (that's to make sure that everybody will be heard): mohamed.maah@gmail.com

Tutankhamun's Replica Tomb Will be Re-Erected on Luxor's West Bank

(02/10/13)
Nearly one year ago the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb (KV62) by Howard Carter had its 90th anniversary. In honour of this occasion Egypt received a generous gift from the Spanish company Factum Arte, the Society for the Friends of the Royal Tombs of Egypt (Zurich), the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation Madrid, and the University of Basel: a facsimile of the burial chamber of Tutankhamun, which had been produced over three years with a lot of technological equipment (see our news from 21/01/11). The plan was to erect the facsimile on a prepared location close to the Carter House where it should be permanently open for public view instead of the original tomb, which suffers from humidity and fungus generated through breath and sweat.
So far so good. Yesterday, on 1 October 2013 the decision had been confirmed to re-erect the dismantled replica tomb of King Tutankhamun beside the former residence of Howard Carter on Luxor's west bank. However, it should stay there just until the completion of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) at the Giza plateau. Then, it will eventually be transferred (like Tutankhamun's treasure which is now on display at the "old" Egyptian Museum at Cairo's Tahrir Square). - We hope the jury is still out!
Read more about the the purpose and process of the facsimile project:
Adam Lowe: The Authorized Facsimile of the Burial Chamber of Tutankhamun with Sarcophagus, Sarcophagus Lid and the Missing Fragment from the South Wall, 2012 (Download 4,2 MB)

The Seti laser scanner was specially designed for the Egyptian SCA

The system used to ensure accurate colour matching

Comparing colours of the original sarcophagus with colours of the facsimile

Work in Progress

Work in Progress

The finalised facsimile - all photos: © Factum Foundation