RIGHTS-EGYPT:
Families Uprooted as Sphinxes Revive
by Cam McGrath, Interpress Service News Agency,
24/02/2010
LUXOR,
Feb 24 (IPS) - Hajj Khodari lifts a defiant fist at the demolition machinery
now just meters away from his front door.
"I will not be forced out
of my home without fair compensation," the village elder vows as a
hydraulic hammer reduces his neighbor’s brick home to rubble. "If
they try to destroy my house I will lock myself inside it."
Khodari is the patriarch of an
extended family of 14 who live in the two-storey house, its exterior walls
adorned with paintings of his pilgrimage to Mecca four years ago. He has defied
a municipal eviction order and demands "equitable compensation"
before vacating the home he claims is built on land his family has occupied for
over 200 years.
"For the past month the
government has cut off our water and electricity during the day to pressure us
to leave," he says. "Then they came a week ago and told us we must
go. Go where? Into the streets, the desert… to Israel?"
Hundreds of low-income families
have lost their homes since Luxor city officials approved a controversial plan
to excavate an ancient processional route and develop it as a key tourist
attraction. Buried for centuries under soil and houses, the 2.7-kilometer
‘Avenue of Sphinxes’ once connected the temples of Luxor and Karnak
in what was then the ancient city of Thebes.
The processional route, first
used during the reign of Amenhotep III (1386-1349 BC), took its final form
under the 30th Dynasty king Nectanebo I (380-362 BC). Over 1,300 stone sphinxes
line the paved avenue, which fell out of use in the 5th century AD after a
flood covered it in a thick layer of silt.
"It was always our dream
to uncover this sacred route between Luxor and Karnak temples," says
Mansour Boraik, SCA’s director of Luxor antiquities. "It is the
longest and biggest religious route ever built in the ancient world. There is
no parallel to it anywhere on earth."
The SCA is supervising the
demolition of buildings that lay above or adjacent to the ancient route, and
has cut a 100-meter-wide trench through densely populated neighborhoods and
cultivated fields along its length. Two of four sections are expected to open
to the public early next month.
Few doubted that
archaeological treasures would be found in the process. Excavators have already
uncovered ancient chapels, a Roman wine factory, and 620 sphinx statues, some
in remarkably good condition. But critics say the supercharged tourism project
has resulted in sloppy archaeology and unacceptable social costs.
"You don’t do
archaeology with a bulldozer," said one foreign archaeologist, who
preferred to remain anonymous. "It can take years to excavate and record a
site. Work on the sphinx avenue is being rushed to get it ready for tourism, and
several historical buildings have been deliberately destroyed."
Residents charge that the
government is using archaeology as a pretext to raze low-income neighborhoods
it perceives as eyesores. Over 800 families have been forcibly relocated since
the project began three years ago.
"So far we have removed
about 95 percent of the houses on the sphinx avenue," says Luxor governor
Samir Farrag. "We give them a choice of compensation: a new flat or LE
75,000 (13,500 US dollars). The new flats [are located] just 200 meters from
the old ones. If they choose the money, we give them a check and they go to the
bank to receive the money."
Evicted families that IPS
spoke to, however, claimed this was not the package they were offered. Some
said they received as little as LE 30,000 (5,500 dollars) for their homes.
Others complained that the new flats, when provided, were unfinished or in
remote desert areas.
One local resident, who gave
his name only as Ramadan, said he was offered a new flat in the desert beyond
the city’s airport, but it was "very small and very far away."
Instead, he accepted LE 40,000 (7,200 dollars) per floor for his three-storey
house and moved into a rented flat on the city’s outskirts. It would cost
about LE 750,000 (136,000 dollars) to purchase a new house like the old one, he
estimates.
"We are eight men with
our wives and children living under one roof," he explains. "The
settlement money will run out in a few months, and we don’t know where we
will go then."
The home demolitions are part
of a government-backed master plan that ostensibly aims to protect
Luxor’s ancient heritage and increase its tourism revenue. The plan calls
for removing encroachments on the city’s archaeological sites and
relocating residents to new planned communities. It outlines extensive
infrastructure improvements and new tourist facilities with the goal of
creating the world’s largest open-air museum by 2030.
But the plan has drawn fire
for its aggressive gentrification. One commentator noted that "rather than
encouraging the mingling of tourists with the local population, which enriches
the visitors’ experience and generates valuable income for the locals,
the [Egyptian government’s] policy promotes segregation of the two
groups."
Meanwhile, implementation of
the sphinx avenue component has caused friction between the Egyptian government
and UNESCO, which monitors the bookended World Heritage sites of Luxor and
Karnak temples. A joint World Heritage Center/ICOMOS mission in April 2008
reported that several historical buildings were demolished, while SCA
excavations appeared both hurried and clumsy.
"It is inconceivable that
such an enormous expanse of the avenue was thoroughly excavated and recorded in
such a short period of time. Heavy machinery was obviously used, as betrayed by
the leveling of the soil and the marks on some of the stone blocks," the
mission report stated.
There is also concern that the
master plan will result in the ‘Disneyfication’ of the ancient
Egyptian city. Tourism developers are mulling plans for pharaonic-themed
tourist villages and the reenactment of ancient processions along the sphinx
avenue. Officials even flirted with the idea of a monorail to ferry around
tourists.
Instead, tour buses will
proceed in caravans along two lanes that run parallel to the restored avenue.
Tourists will be allowed to disembark and descend several meters to the
open-air exhibit.
"We will open some
sectors with controlled entrances under our supervision so [tourists] can see
parts of the avenue," says Boraik. "We will not build any replicas of
the sphinxes, because the destruction of the sphinxes is history, but we are
restoring the ones we find."
When completed, the sphinx
avenue will generate tourism revenue through ticket sales, tour fees and
increased hotel guest spending. While officials are reluctant to put a figure
on it, one tourism expert estimates the new attraction should bring in at least
50 million dollars a year.
By contrast, the government
has allocated just over 5 million dollars for one-time compensations to
relocated families.
"It really makes the
government’s compensation package look pathetic," says one man whose
home is slated for demolition.
(END/2010)
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