Archaeologist at Large: Cultural Heritage

The rights to loot the Titanic

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 06:09:32 GMT

A sad day, this simply means more blunder

Premier Exhibitions, Inc. through its wholly-owned subsidiaries (collectively the "Company") today announced it has acquired Ownership Rights to the personal property on board the doomed ocean liner RMS Titanic from Liverpool and London Steamship Protection and Indemnity Association Limited (Liverpool and London).

At the time of Titanic's ill-fated maiden voyage, Liverpool and London was the insurer of the personal property on board the ship. By virtue of the settlements it reached with the Titanic passengers and their families soon after the tragedy, Liverpool and London acquired via subrogation ownership rights to the personal property, which remained on the vessel. With the acquisition of these rights, the Company now has the lawful claim to ownership.

In 1994, a United States Federal Court declared RMS Titanic, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, as the Salvor-in-Possession of the Titanic. Thirteen years later, the Company remains Salvor-in-Possession and as such is the only company permitted by law to recover objects from the wreck site. The Company has conducted seven research and recovery expeditions and has recovered approximately 5,500 objects.

This new acquisition provides the Company the Ownership Rights to the important personal property still resting at the wreck site.

If you can stomach it read more @ http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/CLW07918072007-1.htm

UK World Heritage to be protected

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:28:16 GMT

Public inquiries able to block insensitive building
· Unesco warns of sites hit by unsightly development

David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
The Guardian

Britain's 24 world heritage sites are to be "buffered" from unsightly skyscrapers and intrusive home improvements such as stone cladding and satellite dishes, Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, will announce tomorrow.

The new laws will create "buffer zones" around the country's most treasured sites to prevent their being degraded by nearby high-rise buildings. More stringent powers will be given to public inquiries to block insensitive development, and the move will make it easier for controversial building schemes to be "called in" by ministers to protect world heritage sites

Story continues @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2026541,00.html

Changes in Luxor

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:50:56 GMT

The Pharaohs get a face-lift

I was tempted to think that nothing ever changes in Luxor. Temples and tombs survive; boats sail on the Nile; the fellahin, Egypt's farmers, still irrigate their crops with rainwater from Ethiopia and Uganda; and the sun, the valley and nearby desert remain the defining facts of life, just as they were in the paintings in the pharaohs' tombs. But I was wrong. Luxor is being transformed.

The city is cut into two distinctive halves by the Nile, which is broad and beautiful here. At the time of the pharaohs, the east bank was busy, a place for the living, while the west side was as quiet as the occupants of the tombs hidden in its Theban hills. And that’s the way it is today: the city, the airport, the train station and two big temples on one side; the tombs and temples, the Theban hills, some villages and farmland on the other.

Yet, in the couple of years since Dr Samir Farag became governor, Luxor has gone through enormous change. On the eastern side of the river, he has renovated the train station, demolished the restaurants and souvenir stalls that blocked the view of Luxor and Karnak temples, and rebuilt the souk.

More @ http://www.thestatesmanonline.com/pages/news_detail.php?newsid=4062&section=9

Extreme Restoration

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:15:39 GMT

By Megan Lane
BBC News Magazine

Blown apart by the IRA and its ruins painstakingly dismantled piece by piece to make way for the Gherkin, this historic building ends an epic journey to Estonia on Friday - and starts another.

It's the ultimate flat-pack. Fifty numbered crates with arches, staircases, marble columns, panelled telephone booths, plaster sea monsters and even Britannia in all her glory.

Awaiting shipment to Estonia

All of which can be pieced together to restore the Baltic Exchange, one of the finest examples of Edwardian architecture until it was rocked by the IRA bomb that killed three in April 1992.

The Portland stone and granite facade was taken down and stored in the hope the building might be rebuilt.

But it was too badly damaged. Its Grade II* listed status - one down from St Paul's - was removed and the grandiose trading hall painstakingly dismantled, numbered and photographed at a cost of £4m.

More @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6230390.stm

Africa, its time to return what was stolen

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:11:11 GMT

Who owns the past? There are efforts by some Kenyans to reinvent themselves and find value and meaning in a cosmopolitan world.

In an effort to make peace with the past in Africa, there has been a call for repatriation of materials held in some of the largest museums in the world. In one of the most interesting debates going on in the world of heritage, the controversy pits mainly African, Asian and Middle East institutions against some of the most prestigious museums in Europe and America.

The debate is centred on materials that include human remains, art, jewellery and objects that are and have been held in the museums for a long time.

Some of the articles are of great prestige and interest - the Egyptian mummies - while others are of outstanding monetary value such as gold pieces taken by the British in Kumasi in the then Gold Coast, present day Ghana, in 1874.

Africa is making great efforts to reinvent itself. It wants to understand and own her past and the material remains that are part of her long history of political aggression that has resulted in deprivation of cultural objects.

More @ http://allafrica.com/stories/200706261066.html

Kenya Repatriation

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:38:05 GMT

For the last 22 years, a village along Kenya's picturesque coast has blamed its ill fortune on the theft of two memorial wooden statues known as vigango.

Earlier this week, Chalani village in Kilifi District was the scene of joyous celebration as villagers received two vigango which had been repatriated from the United States.

Chalani villager danced as the vigango were returned to the graves

Vigango are wooden statues which are considered sacred by Kenya's Mijikenda ethnic group and erected on the graves of revered elders.

Hundreds of vigango have reportedly been stolen and exported to Europe and the US, where they are sold to private collectors hungry for ethnic African art.

More @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6231134.stm

Sold down the river

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 08:47:50 GMT

The Thames Gateway is a place of rich history and eerie beauty. But 120,000 homes are being plonked down on it as if it were a cultureless wasteland, says Tristram Hunt

Monday June 18, 2007
The Guardian

A journey east along the A13 is not an uplifting experience. Passing outer London's lorry depots, storage units, and defunct factories, all the detritus of late-20th-century, post-industrial urban life is laid before you. The vast carcass of Dagenham's mothballed Ford motor plant is a particularly sorry sight.

But once you skirt the retail jungle of Lakeside Thurrock, a sharp turn south brings you to a hidden gem of English history. Marooned between a power station and cruise terminal, Tilbury Fort is an icon of our island story. First laid out by Henry VIII and then redesigned by Charles II (in whose honour the sumptuous Water Gate entry was designed), this is the spot where Elizabeth I rallied her troops to resist the Spanish Armada in 1588. "I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman," she famously declared, "but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too."

Sold down the river | Conservation | Guardian Unlimited Environment

Cracks threaten Rome's majesty

Sun, 20 May 2007 14:36:11 GMT

The Emperor Augustus said he found Rome a city of brick - and he left it a city of marble.

But 2,000 years on, the cracks in his legacy are beginning to show.

The Forum, the Colosseum and the palaces of the Palatine Hill still stand as proud testament to the Roman builders' genius. Yet today they are betrayed by monumental neglect.

The problem of course is money.

It costs millions to protect the treasures of Ancient Rome.

Not to mention the funds needed to safeguard the newly discovered ruins, which in Rome they find practically every week. The budget from the Italian Culture Ministry doesn't even begin to cover it.

Contested History

Sat, 19 May 2007 12:02:48 GMT

Poland Plans To Remove Communist Memorials

Poland's ruling conservative party plans to introduce a law that would remove public symbols of the 40-year communist era, Polish Radio said Friday.

The ruling Law and Justice party of President Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said the Polish people deserve to get rid of symbols that remind them of the totalitarian regime that ruled the country from the end of World War II to the fall of communism in 1989.

In a commentary on the law, still to be approved by parliament, Polish Radio said it is aimed at dislodging all monuments, obelisks, statues and plagues honoring Communist rule in Poland.

Pyramids in Danger, Again!

Wed, 02 May 2007 14:08:11 GMT

Pyramids of Giza in peril

These monuments of ancient Egypt have withstood the ravages of sand and time for four millennia, but now the modern woes of traffic, tourists, pollution – and too much camel dung – are taking their toll

GIZA, EGYPT

They have survived sandstorms and desert stillness, the fury of kings and the ravages of time, but the legendary Pyramids of Giza are endangered now and the agent of their peril is a gloomy Egyptian stable-owner by the name of Hesham el-Ghabri.

Or so you might think.

"They forbid us to ride around the pyramids," grouses the owner of the TWA Stable ("Camel and Horse Riding"), one of countless such tourist-dependent operations clustered in the shadows of the brooding Sphinx and the three celebrated Pyramids of Giza. "They accuse of us being terrorists. They say we are going to bomb the pyramids."

"They" are high officials at Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities “ the government body responsible for administering the Pyramids of Giza along with the rest of this country's innumerable ancient monuments “ and they have not actually accused el-Ghabri and his ilk of being terrorists, although perhaps they might as well have.

Oh the poor camel traders!!

Read on @ http://www.thestar.com/News/article/208677

Egypt's Heritage?

Wed, 02 May 2007 12:30:59 GMT

Egypt will request loan of artifacts

From the Associated Press

May 1, 2007

Egypt plans to seek the temporary return of some of its most precious artifacts from museums abroad, including the Rosetta Stone and a bust of Nefertiti.

The country's chief archeologist, Zahi Hawass, said the Foreign Ministry would send letters this week requesting that the ancient artifacts be loaned to Egypt.

Hawass has previously demanded the permanent return of many of the artifacts, claiming some of them were taken illegally.

This time, the country is requesting museums loan the artifacts so they can be exhibited either at the 2011 opening of the Egyptian Museum, near the site of the Great Pyramids at Giza, or the Atum museum, which is set to open in the Nile Delta city of Meniya in 2010, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement.

Egypt said it would request the loans from the British Museum, Paris' Louvre, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and two German museums.

The Rosetta Stone, a 1,680-pound slab of black basalt with a triple inscription, was the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is one of the centerpieces of the British Museum.

"We have never received a written request to loan the Rosetta Stone," British Museum spokeswoman Hannah Boulton said. "If one was put in, we would consider it."

Saving Karnak, Then and Now

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 14:24:53 GMT

A Karnak discovery shows how ancient builders shielded temples from Nile water

Remains of an ancient Egyptian wall used to prevent the leakage of the Nile flood waters from spreading over the Karnak temple in Luxor were discovered on Thursday at the templeâ€™s eastern side, culture minister Farouk Hosni announced on Sunday.

Hosni revealed that the wall was accidentally found by Egyptian excavators during an archeological inspection of the site undertaken as part of a development project aimed at removing encroachments accumulated over the years on the temples different sides.

More @ http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6798

Cool Website

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 14:13:15 GMT

Check this out

http://www.adgame-wonderland.de/type/bayeux.php

Its so weird and fun

Nigel

Creationist Museum to open soon

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:32:12 GMT

What is happening in the US?

For some a battle between science and religion is being fought for the soul of America. The Creationists argue God created the world in six days and want their beliefs given equal status to evolutionary science.

Across the divide - evolutionist Scott with creationist Ham

Petersburg, Kentucky, is in the middle of North America. It is supposedly within a day's drive of two-thirds of the US population.

For the rest, it is just 10 minutes from Cincinnati International Airport. That is why it was picked as the site for a new museum, due to open in a couple of months.

More @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6549595.stm

Underwater Treasures

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:28:02 GMT

Gaze upon a sunken ship on the actual shipwreck site? The concept is in development. Several projects for underwater museums are likely to materialize in the next few years.

Interesting article in Unesco Courier magazine about underwater museums.

More @ http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=37246&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

The Nertiti Bust Issue

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:22:58 GMT

A round up of some of the stories on this topic

Egypt warns Germany over Nefertiti

"(Egypt) will never again organize antiquities exhibitions in Germany if it refuses a request, to be issued next week, to allow the 3.400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti to be displayed in Egypt for three months," antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass told parliament, according to the official MENA news agency. More @ http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=6223&sectionid=3510202

Face to face

THE LONG-STANDING dispute between Cairo and Berlin over the iconic bust of Nefertiti, currently housed in Berlin's Altes Museum, reached new heights this week when German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann rejected a request to loan the bust to Egypt for three months, reports Nevine El-Aref. More @ http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/841/fr1.htm

Egypt wants to 'loan' Nefertiti bust @ http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=588&art_id=nw20070422215908713C954615

Tut Tour of the USA

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 21:55:48 GMT

A unexceptional review of the Tut tour of the US, except for this quote below, which has been repeated so many times people are beginning to believe it. It is blatantly untrue, in Egypt as in most countries revenues go to the treasury who then makes allocations to Ministries. This is not, repeat not a fundraising tour!

"Millions of dollars of income will this time go to help fund the building of new museums to house Egypt's treasures, and in addition Dr. Hawass hopes that the exhibition will increase tourism to Egypt"

More @

The North Shore News Onine - Travel

Peasants living above treasured tombs defy eviction from mud homes

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:35:51 GMT

THE Egyptian authorities have evicted hundreds of peasants from a small village in southern Egypt because their mud brick houses, which have sat on top ofV some of the world's most treasured tombs for centuries, were leaking sewage on to priceless antiquities.

The families have been resettled in a nearby new town with running water and telephones. But 80 are holding out, saying they want more from a government that has been reluctant to use brute force.

The standoff in Gurna, near the Valley of the Kings, illustrates the challenges facing an authoritarian government that for decades imposed its will on the people.

But others see a more pragmatic explanation for the government's approach. "The bureaucracy is heartless and usually heavy-handed unless it will cause bad publicity abroad or wide-scale popular outbreak of violence or rioting," said Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a democracy advocate who was jailed in connection with his work monitoring elections.

Ibrahim said president Hosni Mubarak's strategy of trying to co-opt rather than confront was rooted in two major riots that shook the country in 1977 and 1986.

In Gurna, any hint of civil disturbance could undermine a hub of Egypt's tourist industry in Luxor, so the government has tried to avoid confrontation

More @ http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=504302007

Valley of the bulldozers: Death on the Nile

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:05:25 GMT

The other side of the story-

In the shadow of one of the ancient world's most famous sites, a small community is being destroyed. Peter Popham reports from Qurna on the village for whom archaeology spelled disaster

" Slowly Qurna is being erased from the map. The process began last December after the Luxor authorities ordered the demolition of all the village's mud brick houses. "In just five minutes," reported Agence France Presse on 3 December, "and under the deafening roar of bulldozer engines, three long-abandoned houses were the first to go ... The stage-managed affair included a fashion show of children parading in ancient Egyptian costumes to the beat of epic drums and enthusiastic speeches by officials for the television cameras. Three thousand five hundred families will leave for a better life..."

And if any returning visitors wonder where they have all gone, they will have left no trace and the question will fade unanswered. Because the concern of the tourist business is not the living but the dead, and the longer they have been dead, the better.

Read the full article @ http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2374347.ece

Swiss Company Touts Watches Made From "Titanic-DNA"

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 02:08:59 GMT

This is sick!

Swiss watch maker Romain Jerome has announced the worldwide launch of a watch which it claims is made from authentic parts of the Titanic, the ocean liner which became infamous for its collision with an iceberg, and for its dramatic sinking on April 14, 1912. The watch is a part of the company's new "DNA of Famous Legends" collection.

According to the watchmaker, the steel that makes the body of the watch has been created by a fusion of authentic steel from the shipwreck and that of the future Titanic II at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast.

"This is how the DNA is captured; a myth is reborn," the company said, according to Fibre2fashion.com.

The minute and hour hands of the watch are shaped like the anchor of the Titanic and the company describes the deep black dial as taking its color from the "coal collected in the legendary shipwreck."

The company has produced only 2,012 pieces of the watch to represent the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic and the launch date of the Titanic II in Belfast in 2012.

ENGLAND: Thousands of churches face closure in ten years

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:47:50 GMT

Thousands of churches face closure, demolition or conversion in the next decade, leading to the demise of some branches of Christianity in Europe, according to experts.

In some parts of the country, former churches are being turned into centres of worship for other faiths. A disused Methodist chapel in Clitheroe on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales is the latest, destined to become a mosque for the town's 300 Muslims.

There are more than 47,000 churches in Britain today, and 42 million people, more than 70 per cent of the population, consider themselves to be Christian. It sounds a lot, but behind the figures lies a story of decline in the country's established religion.

Although the Pentecostal and Evangelical branches of Christianity are growing, worshippers often prefer modern, functional, warehouse-style buildings to the traditional neo-Gothic landscape of British ecclesiastical architecture.

Just one tenth of the nation's Christians attends church, and churches are now closing faster than mosques are opening. Practising Muslims will, in a few decades, outnumber practising Christians if current trends continue.

Continues @ http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5511

Bridge stirs the waters in Machu Picchu

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:46:04 GMT

In the year that Peru is trying to get Machu Picchu voted one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, there are growing tensions over the country's greatest tourist attraction.

A former mayor has built a bridge which creates a new route to the World Heritage site, threatening to bring more tourists and, some say, open up a new route for drug traffickers.

The 80-metre long Carilluchayoc bridge, which crosses the Vilcanota river near the base of the 15th-Century Inca citadel, is to be inaugurated in February, despite a court order prohibiting its construction and protests from the government and environmentalists.

There is concern that - with around 2,500 visitors a day - there are already too many tourists tramping around the ruins. The UN's cultural division, Unesco, is due to inspect the site this year to decide whether it should be classed as an endangered heritage site.

But the former mayor of La Convencion province, Fedia Castro, whose term ended recently, says the village of Santa Teresa needs the bridge to end its isolation and bring commerce and tourism.

Continues @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6292327.stm

Egypt Derides 7 Wonders of World Contest

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:17:38 GMT

Best News I have had in a while

Egypt is scoffing at a global contest to name the new seven wonders of the world, saying it is a disgrace that the ancient Pyramids of Giza — the only surviving structure from the traditional list of architectural marvels — must compete for a spot.

Top Egyptian officials have criticized the popular contest that urges people around the world to vote for their top sites from a list of 21 finalists that lumps the pyramids with upstart wonders like the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and Peru's Machu Picchu.

The pyramids are "living in the hearts of people around the globe, and don't need a vote to be among the world wonders," said the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, according to the state-run Middle East News Agency.

Egyptian officials refused to meet with the organizer of the "New 7 Wonders of the World" contest, the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber, when he visited Egypt earlier this month, said the contest's spokeswoman Tia B. Viering. When Weber tried to hold a press conference near the pyramids, she said, police shut it down.

Continues @ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/01/28/entertainment/e142628S87.DTL

English Heritage: downloadable audio tours for unstaffed sites

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:53:19 GMT

Of the 400 sites that English Heritage looks after, more than 240 are unstaffed and open to the public at all reasonable times. Free Sites Unlocked is a new English Heritage project seeking to improve the interpretation of these free sites. We are also improving our webpages by providing more information on the history of our sites and suggestions for further reading.

More @ http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.10612

Modernity threatens Iran's 'museum city'

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:16:34 GMT

In the 17th Century the central Iranian city of Isfahan was the capital of Safavid Persia - a place of dazzling wealth, with pleasure palaces, ornate gardens and mosques with the most exquisite tile work.

The city was a centre to which poets, philosophers and artists flocked from all over the world.

Today only a few intrepid tourists make it to Isfahan if they can get a visa.

And the Naqshe Jahan Square, where the King of Persia once watched polo games, now has traffic running though one end, even though it is a Unesco World Heritage site.

"It's been destroyed, really, really destroyed; what remains are tiny, tiny pieces of a puzzle. That just gives us a glimpse of the whole," explains journalist Hassan Zuhoori of the Cultural Heritage News Agency in Tehran.

More @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6251041.stm

An ambitious effort to preserve an ancient Egyptian sanctuary

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:02:26 GMT

Before the great pyramids, ancient Egyptian kings left less grandiose monuments to themselves: fortresslike sanctuaries enclosed by mud-brick walls. Inside these mortuary complexes, people presumably gathered to worship and perpetuate the memory of their departed ruler.

The crumbling, almost vanished remains of such structures, archaeologists say, attest to the political hierarchy and religion of the newly unified Egyptian state, beginning more than 5,000 years ago.

As symbols of the early power of kings and their roles in the cosmic order, these mysterious funerary centers are considered ancestral in purpose to the classic pyramids of Giza.

The last and largest of the cult centers — the only major one still standing in clearly recognizable form — was erected for King Khasekhemwy, who ruled in the second dynasty around 2780 B.C.

Known today as Shunet el-Zebib, the roughly one hectare, or 2-acre, enclosure stands on a desert plain at Abydos, about 500 kilometers, or 300 miles, south of Cairo near the burial grounds of early Egyptian rulers.

More @ http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/10/healthscience/snegypt.php

A mirage on the Mersey

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:03:40 GMT

A interesting Story about a lost masterpiece

It should have been Britain's greatest cathedral, built by its finest architect. But it wasn't to be. Jonathan Glancey on how Edwin Lutyens' dream has come back from the dead

Had it been built, it could have swallowed St Paul's whole. Sir Edwin Lutyens' tantalising 1930s design for the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool, was intended from the outset to be grander - taller, wider, longer - than the rival Anglican cathedral rising from the opposite end of Hope Street. In fact, it would have been the second biggest church in the world, after St Peter's in Rome.

The imperious domed cathedral, one of the greatest buildings never built, would have loomed magnificently in tiers of grey-pink St Helens brick and silver-grey Irish granite, over Liverpool and the Mersey - and over the lives of hundreds of thousands of Catholics, many of them Irish immigrants escaping famine and unemployment over the water, who had made the great

Story continues @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/architecture/story/0,,1997949,00.html

Victoria Falls 'at risk', UN warns

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:09:43 GMT

Unesco has never taken any site off the World Heritage List, do not expect it to happen any time soon!

World Heritage status may be revoked as Zimbabwe and Zambia compete for tourist income

By Christopher Thompson

Victoria Falls, one of the world's greatest natural wonders, may cease to be a World Heritage Site as a result of the chaos in Zimbabwe.

Known locally as Mosi oa Tunya, or "the smoke that thunders", the falls are more than a mile wide and 420ft high. They have been a tourist hotspot since 1905, but Unesco is now considering listing the site as "endangered" because of mismanagement that has allowed the once prosperous resort to deteriorate.

Furthermore, over-zealous Zambian developers are proposing to build 500 chalets in a national park overlooking the falls, prompting warnings that the plan could lead Unesco to remove the site'sWorld Heritage status immediately.

Control of the Victoria Falls, named by the explorer David Livingstone in 1855, is at the centre of a turf war between two government bodies - the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management - both fighting over rights to manage one of the country's last remaining sources of valuable tourist revenue as hyperinflation touches 1,100 per cent.

The Zambezi river, which plunges over the falls, forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Most Western tourists used to stay on the Zimbabwean side, attracted by top-class facilities such as the Victoria Falls and Elephant Hills hotels, but the surrounding decay, and safety fears after the often violent land seizures initiated by President Robert Mugabe, have seen tourist revenues plunge by more than 70 per cent to $98m (£51m) last year from $340m in 1999, before land reforms started.

Unesco is also alarmed by Zambia's efforts to benefit from Zimbabwe's disarray. In a reversal of the traditional position, most foreign visitors now approach the falls from the Zambian side, even though the view is less spectacular. The tourism industry in Zambia is booming, with the number of overseas arrivals doubling between 2003 and 2005, bringing the country much-needed income, and new hotels are springing up near the Zambian town of Livingstone.

Mubarak's visit to Luxor

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:30:24 GMT

The Upper Egyptian city of Luxor caught this week's headlines as President Hosni Mubarak, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and a score of ministers embarked on a tour last Sunday to inspect the most recent development projects undertaken there, as well as inaugurating a number of historical, cultural, archaeological and tourist sites, as well as service zones for Luxor residents and tourists.

The tour was within the context of President Mubarak's programme to improve services for Egyptians, as well as develop and promote tourist projects which will in turn provide more job opportunities and upgrade local incomes.

This on the Valley of the Kings, no mention of the TMP and our Masterplan

Still on the West Bank, President Mubarak headed towards the Valley of the Kings to inaugurate the newly- established visitor centre. The-one-storey edifice has been built by the SCA in collaboration with the Japanese government with a grant of $2.5 million offered by JAICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency).

Mustafa Waziri, director of the centre, said it would provide visitors with all the information necessary about the Valley of the Kings and its 27 royal tombs. Maps hang on the walls and there is a huge model of the valley and its causeways and corridors.

Two plaza screens show a unique film about the boy king Tutankhamun and the story behind its discovery and how its discoverer, Howard Carter, took the tomb's treasures from Luxor to the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.

Abdel-Hamid Qutub, head of the SCA's engineering department, said the centre was supplied with another service building to serve all the tourists at the Valley of the Kings. It included a cafeteria to seat 400 in one time, 56 bazaars, and a parking lot with a capacity for 100 buses, 50 microbuses and 50 private cars and taxis. There is also a book shop. The Taftaf wagons (small train) used to transport visitors in and out of the Valley of the Kings have been developed, with a special path has been determined for them. Electricity is being used to operate the Taftaf instead of gas, in an attempt to reduce pollution.

Within three months, Waziri said, a project will be submitted to safeguard the royal tombs in the valley, especially those close to the ticket kiosks or near the gate. As the ticket to the Valley of the Kings allows only three tombs to be visited out of nine tombs that open to visitors every six months according to a rotation system, the new plan will suggest three visitor routes, each including three tombs; one near and two away from the valley.

"This will provide the opportunity for visitors to see as many tombs as they can, especially as tour guides always choose the closest tombs and never venture far inside the valley's hill," Waziri said. He added that before drawing up the plan, he had met the head of the tour guides syndicate and the Egyptian Tourists Authority in order to take note of their suggestions and requirements.

Continues @ http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/828/heritage.htm

Forum UNESCO - University and Heritage Newsletter - N.11

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:45:11 GMT

=====================================================
FORUM UNESCO - UNIVERSITY AND HERITAGE
http://universityandheritage.net

Newsletter
=====================================================

Dear Sir/Madam,

We would like to draw your attention to the Forum UNESCO-University and Heritage
Newsletter (Nº 11) on the website:

http://universityandheritage.net/Boletin_FUUP/2006-11_eng.pdf

Hoping that this information will be to your liking, with kind regards,

Jose Luis Montalva Conesa
Polytechnic University of Valencia

Valuing Our Heritage

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:44:28 GMT

NEWS RELEASE - ON BEHALF OF BRITAIN'S LEADING HERITAGE ORGANISATIONS

VALUING OUR HERITAGE

THE CASE FOR INVESTMENT

Prospectus shows over £1 billion in outstanding repairs

Less per head spent in England on Heritage than in other European countries

Britain's leading heritage organisations (Heritage Link, English Heritage, National Trust, Historic Houses Association and the Heritage Lottery Fund) have today presented Government with a report, 'Valuing our Heritage - The case for future investment in the historic environment' (see http://www.heritagelink.org.uk), which details the challenges facing owners and guardians of our historic sites, buildings, places and gardens.

Valuing our Heritage presents Government with a major opportunity to halt the decline in the state of thousands of historic buildings, to ensure a simpler and faster heritage protection system gets implemented successfully, and to broaden audiences and get more people involved with the historic environment.

Figures show that there is a backlog of over £1 billion in outstanding repairs at listed places of worship and charitably and privately owned heritage. At the same time, the report shows that spending per head on heritage in England is less than in other European countries including Germany, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands.

Appealing to Ministers ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review later in the year, Anthea Case, Chairman of Heritage Link, representing over 80 voluntary heritage organisations said, 'Last year's History Matters campaign demonstrated the public's enduring support and affection for our heritage. In one weekend alone, over 1 million people visited historic venues and some 70% of the population have visited an historic site in the last 12 months. Moreover, our heritage regularly tops the list of reasons why tourists visit Britain, supporting a tourist industry which contributes £75 billion to the economy each year.

The enormous input from people from all walks of life, volunteers young and old, shows how passionately people care about our heritage but maintaining these assets requires even greater attention and investment.

Over 17,000 buildings are at risk in England alone despite the money already committed to maintenance by private owners and public support. But HLF awards are down 15% in real terms over the last two years, and English Heritage has seen its spending fall by £19.6 million in real terms over the last 5 years. Today's report seeks to remind Ministers of the economic, social and educational benefits of maintaining the built heritage and sets out ways in which Government can make a difference.'

World treasures meet the enemy: It's us

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:37:57 GMT

Some of the world's most treasured destinations are in peril. Many are being trashed by mass tourism, with an assist from indifferent government policies and greedy developers. Among them:

- Luxor. With its temples and the nearby Valley of the Queens and Valley of the Kings, Egypt's Luxor is one of the richest archeological zones in the world. But, as Burnham described it, "Luxor is one of the great catastrophe areas in the world with the convergence of environmental factors, man-made factors and unmanaged tourism." The most disastrous problems are rising water tables and the farming of sugar cane, a crop that introduces fertilizers and other chemicals into the ground water. Burnham said archeologists are trying to pull antiquities out of the ground before they're destroyed by the ground water and pollutants.

Adding to the problem are thousands of tourists who arrive by bus from Sinai resorts all at the same time. "Egypt," she said, "has a very specific tourism goal for Luxor--to reach 10 million visitors a year by 2010."

Full story @ http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0612020108dec03,0,4152502.story?coll=chi-travel-hed

Valley of the Kings Masterplan

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 01:18:49 GMT

Egypt increases efforts to preserve royal tombs in Luxor's Valley of the Kings

CAIRO, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has had a new plan to preserve the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings on the western bank of the Nile River in the southern city of Luxor, the official MENA news agency reported on Saturday.

According to the plan by the Supreme Council of Antiquities, touring times and duration will be limited and tour revenues will be funneled into restoration projects of the tombs.

Meanwhile, the council has recently opened a visitors' center at the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, over 700 kilometers south of Cairo.

According to local daily The Egyptian Gazette on Saturday, there had been no facility to provide visitors with the overall view of the Valley of the Kings and the expertise on individual tombs.

There was also concern that large number of visitors may damage the paintings and walls inside the tombs, which prompted the Egyptian government to formulated the project to address these problems.

The Valley of the Kings is house for 63 tombs, including 26tombs belonging to Ancient Egyptian dynasties.

Having the tomb of Tutankhamun, the valley is one of the mostfamous tourist destinations in Egypt, attracting more than 2million visitors annually.

My Al Jazeera Programme

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 10:06:45 GMT

Temples of Doom

Luxor Temple, Egypt

The gift of the Nile. Egypt owes its very existence to the waters of the great river, which for thousands of years has made barren land fertile, given life to one of history’s great civilizations, and sustained a population now approaching 80 million people.

Yet those same waters are now threatening some of the world’s most spectacular monuments. The ancient temples of Luxor and Karnak, and several others in southern Egypt, are in real danger from rising ground water in the Nile Valley.

Karnak Temple, Egypt

However the temples are not only being threatened by damage from salt water and the environment; their survival is also being compromised by an ever-expanding army - of tourists.

Egypt currently receives eight million tourists a year, most of them attracted to the ancient sites of the pyramids, the valley of the kings, and Luxor.

The Egyptian government recently announced plans to double the number of visitors to the country within the next decade, to 16 million by the year 2016.

Temples of Doom examines the real concern that Egypt's ancient sites simply cannot cope with this volume of traffic.

The antiquities of ancient Egypt have survived for more than four millennia, but if they are to be preserved for future generations, drastic action is required across the region - and time is running out.

See http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3E71E29F-DA97-4870-BCCF-ABA500A28579.htm

Thieves beware: museum curators are after you

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 16:20:38 GMT

International Rescue eat your heart out

LONDON. Faced with the prospect of dissolution, the Art and Antiques Unit of the Metropolitan Police has come up with a new idea—to recruit curators and art historians as special constables. The scheme, dubbed Art Beat, is set to start in April. This is the first time the police has attempted to recruit such specialist volunteers.

Detective Sergeant Vernon Rapley told The Art Newspaper that the scheme was devised after the Art squad was told by the Metropolitan Police Authority that it could be disbanded if it did not become 50% self-financing by 2008.

Art Beat Special Constables are being recruited from museums such as the Victoria & Albert and the British Museum, universities, insurance companies and other cultural organisations. After four weeks training in police procedure as well as specialist art squad techniques, volunteers will be sponsored by their employers to work as Special Constables for 200 hours a year or one day a fortnight. They will be uniformed and will have full police powers.

“The aim is to build bridges between the police and the art world and maintain a high visibility presence in areas with a high level of art sales,” said DS Rapley. “This could include patrolling antiques markets like Bermondsey or areas with clusters of art dealers like Kensington Church Street, Bond Street or Camden Passage, or undercover intelligence work.”

The Art and Antiquities Unit currently consists of only four full time officers. “At the moment we are not receiving as much information as we would like from the art trade,” said DS Rapley. “We have tried to recruit from areas with the kind of specialist knowledge that will benefit from our work.” So far the police have recruited archaeology and antiquities experts, and hope to have 14 constables trained by April

Bad Vibrations

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:59:44 GMT

After clamping down on tour buses in an attempt to save what remains of the Step Pyramid, SCA director Zahi Hawass launches a concerted campaign to stop damage to the nation’s antiquities

Tour buses are the main culprits, according to SCA studies. In peak season large groups of buses sit just outside the site idling their engines and creating vibrations that reach all the way to the Step Pyramid. In October, Hawass announced that doing so now constitutes a crime.

“There is a new criminal charge called damaging antiquities. It will fall under the same law as stealing them, and we are going to have much harsher penalties,” he states. Because it is still new, no one is sure what kinds of difficulties will be encountered with pressing charges. For emphasis he adds, “If you run your motor on the site, you will go to jail.”

Even while acknowledging potential problems, Hawass is pleased with the new law. “I’m sure that the prospect of jail, for however long it is, will make people think twice about these things.”

Online @ http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7075I will try to find out more about this and see if any laws have bben passed-Nigel

Fears for Machu Picchu as mayor builds easy-access bridge

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 12:44:13 GMT

Move to help local economy could bring more visitors and aid cocaine smuggling

Rory Carroll in Cusco
Wednesday December 27, 2006
The Guardian

A new road bridge to the base of the mountain citadel will cut journey times to the Unesco-listed site but has heightened fears of it being swamped by backpackers. Photograph: Walter Wust/AP

A Peruvian mayor has built a bridge leading to Machu Picchu, Peru's Inca citadel, despite warnings it will wreck the archaeological gem and open a route for drug smugglers. The 80-metre (260ft) long bridge over the Vilcanota river is due to open this week in defiance of a court order and protests from the government, which fears hordes of backpackers will swamp the site.

The UN conservation agency Unesco is due in February to inspect the mountaintop ruins, a world heritage site deep in the Andean jungle, amid concern that there are already too many visitors. But Fedia Castro, mayor of Convención province, said the bridge would end her community's isolation and give tourists a cheaper option than a train which, until now, had a monopoly on transport through the Sacred Valley. "It's almost ready, so they can't stop it," she said.

More @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1978696,00.html

Wearing out our welcome

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 23:03:12 GMT

I will probably never visit Prague in the Czech Republic. Though I once spent a month in India, I didn't tour the Taj Mahal. And it would take a live sighting of Shakespeare to make me return to Stratford-upon-Avon in England.

That's because I don't like crowds, the trash they leave, tour-bus fumes, full parking lots, long lines. There comes a point when it's simply not worth seeing the Louvre's Mona Lisa or Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa, if it means being pushed, squeezed, elbowed and distracted.
Beyond the annoyance, swarming tourists often contribute to the degradation of famous sites. They trample the French parterres at Versailles, short-cut switchbacks on trails at the Grand Canyon, pocket stones from Mexico's Chichén Itzá, write their names on the Great Wall of China. And wherever they go, fast-food restaurants, chain motels and kitschy souvenir shops are never far behind.

To describe crowding in Venice, English historian and travel writer John Julius Norwich coined the phrase "tourist pollution." As many as 18 million people visit the Italian city a year, spawning hotels, restaurants and shops. As a result, rents and property prices have skyrocketed, driving average, workaday Venetians to more affordable housing on the mainland.
More @ http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-spano26nov26,1,4485147.column?coll=la-travel-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

Tourists could be left in dark

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 23:01:46 GMT

Visitors to a World Heritage Site could soon find themselves lost' for tourist information.

Anne and Roger Heald, who have run Saltaire's unofficial tourist information centre for more than a decade, are to quit.

Boards advertising the prominent four-storey building in Victoria Road for sale have gone up.

Mr and Mrs Heald's decision to sell the successful business, which is a Yorkshire Tourist Board member although not an official tourist information centre, was made after mutterings' Bradford Council had plans to open one up.

Their decision to sell up means the village could be left without a tourist information centre of its own - the nearest is in Shipley.

More @ http://www.thisisbradford.co.uk/display.var.1042504.0.tourists_could_be_left_in_dark.php

Museum of Omani Heritage — a journey to the rich past

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 19:37:35 GMT

MUSCAT — The Omani Museum is set to open its doors to the public under the new name, Museum of Omani Heritage. Originally a villa, the building was being used as a museum, and now, it has been enlarged for more space to hold more collections and modified in accordance with the cutting edge architecture to suit a modern museum.

Aside a visitor-friendly exhibition hall, the museum has administrative and public facilities. While the ground floor accommodates the foyer, offices and the first part of the exhibition on traditional subsistence strategies, the first floor is devoted to the second part of the exhibition, the ‘cycle of life’ and third floor includes a small coffee shop with a magnificent view of the city across the sea.

The new name, ‘Museum of Omani Heritage’, has been chosen to reflect the more anthropological new exhibition storyline. It is theme-oriented, and is aimed at not just displaying the tangible architectural splendour but in a surreal way showcasing the intangible cultural traditions with the Omani people as the fulcrum of the exhibition.

More @ http://timesofoman.com/inner_cat.asp?cat=1&detail=1537&rand=0QfjweFv5sTKvjUne56pnx0u9i

Redesign of Britain’s most famous seafront moves closer

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 19:35:20 GMT

The redesign of Britain’s most famous seafront moved a step closer this week when ReBlackpool, Blackpool’s Urban Regeneration Company, short listed and then held the initial briefing for design teams.

Following initial expressions of interest, ReBlackpool has shortlisted the seven design teams. They are Edaw; FAT; Fluid; Gensler; Nio; LDA Design; and Studio BAAD.

Short listed design teams will now be required to prepare their design concepts for the headlands currently being constructed which are part of the overall redevelopment of the Blackpool seafront and sea defences. The design teams involved with the project, which is being dubbed ‘The People’s Playground’, have until January 22 2007 to submit their proposals, which will be followed by a public exhibition of all the designs.

The winning design team will be announced in February 2007 and will be selected by ReBlackpool, assisted by a panel comprising the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), Blackpool Council, the Arts Council for England, independent design advisors and local consultee groups.

More @ http://www.reblackpool.co.uk/detail.aspx?id=46

Message fron Caroline Simpson

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 10:15:28 GMT

As many of you will know, the authorities are moving the Qurnawi
off the hillside.

The reason given is to discover and excavate more tombs.

For this they are using bulldozers in the back of the Nobles Tombs area.

This is a message I received yesterday morning:
Just spoke to M, 17.30 Egyptian time, Hurubat being bulldozed as
we spoke, large scale, much noise, engines and trucks audible in the
background... Some still not wanting to leave, most sad and angry.
As M put it, "our hamlet is gone..."

No site management plan has been written, even discussed, for this
precious area. Leaving aside the damage to the more ancient history,
the history of the last 200 years is being bulldozed. That will include
Yanni's house and those of all his later neighbours.

The owner of the new Guest House up by Sennufer showed the
Minister of Culture around the other day and told him that only
two buildings had been given permission to stay - one of them
was his new fired brick guest house with its water and showers
for guests.

Say goodbye Qurna, and weep.

Yours in great sadness,

Caroline Simpson

Bahrain's changing face captured on camera ...

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:47:00 GMT

BAHRAIN'S rapidly changing urban landscape and its complex social fabric and cultural heritage is being explored and captured by Bahrain-based photographer Camille Zakharia.

The award-winning Lebanese-born Canadian photographer is one of nine photographers and artists taking part in My Father's House, a lens-based media commission founded by the British Council.

The project explores cultural heritage and the legacy of contemporary redevelopment of the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula.

More @ http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=164803&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=29273