Just a little back ground on this subject that happened back in 1988
and 1989 relating to the Sphinx, and the history of all the chairmen
of antiquities since this time. All the data is from a search of
the "New York Times" from 1981 to when I got tired of
looking for data. LOL.. You may already know all of this... but
it is relevant to what your looking at regarding Egypt...
Love and light...
If you look at this closely, you will find in Dec 1989 two articles
regarding what I did about the shoulder being felled by certain
Egyptians. This was reported while I was still in Egypt working on
this problem with prosecuting attorneys. Talk about obstruction
of justice, this is a real sweet case.
I DID A QUERY OF The New
York Times from 1981 to now regarding the shoulder of the Sphinx
in Egypt and its handlers. This is just query of the
New York Times. These events are chronological.
#1
The
New York Times
February 21, 1988 - Archives
TRAVEL ADVISORY
Chunk Falls
From Sphinx
A chunk of the
celebrated Sphinx at Giza in Egypt has crashed to the ground and,
archeologists say they are concerned that the entire right
shoulder of the limestone monument is in danger of collapsing.
The
Sphinx,4,600 years old, has been undergoing restorations since
Egypt's New Kingdom, more than 3,000 years ago. More recently,
about 80 percent of a restoration project begun four years ago has
been completed, according to Egyptian archeologists. The last
damage to the monument occurred in 1981.
The newest
damage occurred two weeks ago after six days of sandstorms that
battered the monument and the Giza pyramids nearby. The chunk of
rock broke off about halfway up the shoulder of the Sphinx, which
is 66 feet high and 160 feet long.
Zahi Hawass,
the director-general of the Giza Plateau, said that the chunk came
loose because salt inside the body of the Sphinx eroded the stone,
and the high-force winds then broke off the chunk of rock.
The Sphinx has the body of a
crouching lion and the face of a pharaoh thought to be Chephren,
builder of the second Giza pyramid. Chephren's father was Cheops,
who built the Great Pyramid. The purpose of the structure, which
rests on its paws at the base of Giza Plateau, is debated, but
many experts believe it was intended as a guardian to the desert
and the pyramids.
#2
March 2nd, 1988 By
Alan Cowell, Special to New York Times
Cairo
Journal; Now, After 4,600 Years, Time Adds a New Scar
Now, After 4,600
Years, Time Adds a New Scar
LEAD: A chunk
fell off the Sphinx the other day, and stirred more than just the
dust in which it landed.
A chunk fell
off the Sphinx the other day, and stirred more than just the dust
in which it landed.
The fall
inspired debate over how long the monument, now 4,600 years old,
can survive Egypt's modernity. Some gave it only 20 years before
it crumbled to powder, and others said that, really, the nation's
best-known monument still had many more inscrutable decades and
centuries to go.
The lesion on
the huge statue's right shoulder, moreover, claimed another
victim. Ahmed Kadri, Egypt's Director of Antiquities, lost his job
in the furor over who was to blame, a spasm of mudslinging that
raised an old and unresolved question: Who knows best about
Egypt's antiquity, foreigners or the Egyptians themselves?
The fall
occurred on Feb. 10, when two limestone slabs, weighing around 700
pounds between them, detached themselves from the monument
-measuring 66 feet high and more than 230 feet long - and
plummeted, leaving a dull scar in the pale stonework. The Father
of Terror
Egyptians call
the Sphinx Abu al Hawl, meaning father of terror - a great hybrid
of human and lion whose worn and wind-whipped face is thought to
depict the Pharaoh Chephren. As the wisdom goes, the huge monument
is thought to guard the three pyramids of Giza close by, or to
simulate the Pharaoh offering sacrifices to the sun god.
Either way, it
has stood since 2600 B.C., weathering excavations from the desert
sands that have covered it, sometimes nearly burying its body. And
across those millenniums, and in recent times, too, the great
monument has been beset by woes.
Since earlier
falls of rock in 1981, an Egyptian team has been working at its
restoration, reshaping parts of it with blocks of modern stone
that contrast sharply - some say incompatibly so - with the
weather-battered bulk of the monument. But the restoration, said
to be 80 percent complete, has not shielded the monument from the
ravages of wind-borne sand, and water, and pollution.
Zahi Hawass,
an archeologist in charge of the district embracing the Pyramids
and the Sphinx at Giza, said a rising water table was gnawing away
at the statue's limestone, while recent rain and sandstorms had
battered its surface.
Just before
the latest fall of rock, a witness said, the Sphinx was lashed by
a cruel sandstorm that seemed to help loosen the slabs that fell.
Foreign Help Urged
Dr. Hawass is
one of those who contend the Sphinx is doomed unless scientists
work out a way to save it.
''Maybe we
will not find the Sphinx in the coming 20 years if we do not do
this type of study'' he said in a recent television interview.
''We know that water changes limestone to powder.''
Egypt's
Culture Minister, Farouk Hosni, has said an international
committee of archeologists should be convened to work on the
Sphinx's salvation.
But that
suggestion drew a tart response from Mr. Kadri, the former
antiquities director, whose dispute with the minister precipitated
his own downfall and whose department oversaw the restoration of
the Sphinx.
''The Sphinx
is facing no danger at all,'' he said. ''What fell was not a slab
but an outer coating. This is a theatrical farce.''
The debate was
woven, thus, from conflicting strands of nationalism: was it
better to get foreigners to come and rescue a nation's history, or
were Egyptians themselves better equipped to save their past from
their present? Or was it all, some cynics asked, just over the
complex politics of personalities surrounding Egypt's antiquities?
''The fight at the Sphinx,'' said a Western expert who declined to
be identified, ''was over the minister's wish to get foreigners
in.'' Two Views of the Director
Mr. Kadri
opposed that, although he has supported many other foreign
ventures in Egypt's ancient monuments, notably French and Japanese
teams working at the Pyramids.
His opposition
reflected a longstanding dispute about his tenure as Director of
Antiquities. Critics accused him of impetuousness, stubbornness
and arrogance, while others praised him for reviving his
department's fortunes and those of the monuments it oversees.
''Things were
in an incredibly appalling mess before he came,'' a foreign expert
said. ''Before he came along, we gave everything about five
years.''
A consensus
among many Egyptian and foreign experts seems to be that replacing
the fallen stonework is not a big problem, but that the fall
itself should be treated as a sort of omen.
''The piece
that fell off does not form a load on other parts of the statue,''
said Kamal Barakat of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, ''but it
should be taken as a warning and there is enough time for studies
on how best to restore it.'' 'It's Just Not Our Country'
But that does
not seem to ease the latent friction between Egyptians and
outsiders over who is best equipped to safeguard the future of
antiquities seen by some Westerners as part of the human heritage,
not purely a legacy for Egypt.
Foreigners had
total control of Egypt's antiquities, one expert said. until
Nasser rose to power in 1952, sweeping the outsiders' influence
before a wave of Arab nationalism.
''Some
foreigners,'' a Western expert said, ''are pretty scathing about
Egyptian skills. But some Egyptians have a great deal of feeling
for their monuments. For us, they seem to belong to the whole
world because they are so beautiful. The reality is, though, that
it's just not our country.''
''Things were
in an incredibly appalling mess before he came,'' a foreign expert
said. ''Before he came along, we gave everything about five
years.''
A consensus
among many Egyptian and foreign experts seems to be that replacing
the fallen stonework is not a big problem, but that the fall
itself should be treated as a sort of omen.
''The piece
that fell off does not form a load on other parts of the statue,''
said Kamal Barakat of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, ''but it
should be taken as a warning and there is enough time for studies
on how best to restore it.'' 'It's Just Not Our Country'
But that does
not seem to ease the latent friction between Egyptians and
outsiders over who is best equipped to safeguard the future of
antiquities seen by some Westerners as part of the human heritage,
not purely a legacy for Egypt.
Foreigners had
total control of Egypt's antiquities, one expert said. until
Nasser rose to power in 1952, sweeping the outsiders' influence
before a wave of Arab nationalism.
''Some
foreigners,'' a Western expert said, ''are pretty scathing about
Egyptian skills. But some Egyptians have a great deal of feeling
for their monuments. For us, they seem to belong to the whole
world because they are so beautiful. The reality is, though, that
it's just not our country.''
#3
Published: March 23 1988
OPINION
It’s
Time to Give Back the Sphinx’s Beard
It’s
Time to Give Back the Sphinx’s Beard
The Great
Sphinx at Giza is in danger of losing more than its shoulder
(Cairo Journal, March 2). Built as the living image (seshepankh)
of the fourth dynasty Pharaoh Khafre, the 4,600-year-old monument
originally had a stone pharaonic beard, which buttressed its
somewhat unstable head. Back in antiquity, the beard fell off, and
was later carted away to the British Museum, where it now rests.
#4
The New York Times
World
December 14, 1989 –By Alan
Cowell, Special to New York Times
CRUMBLING
SPHINX: WAS IT SABOTAGE?
CRUMBLING
SPHINX: WAS IT SABOTAGE?
LEAD: The
Egyptian authorities have reopened an investigation into what
really happened last year when a 700-pound chunk of the Sphinx's
shoulder plummeted to the ground. In a nutshell, the question is:
Did it fall or was it pushed?
The Egyptian
authorities have reopened an investigation into what really
happened last year when a 700-pound chunk of the Sphinx's shoulder
plummeted to the ground. In a nutshell, the question is: Did it
fall or was it pushed?
The visual
evidence so far is that around 1:30 P.M. on Feb. 10, 1988, two
limestone slabs fell from the 66-foot-high statue in front of
hundreds of astonished tourists, hawkers of camel rides and
antiquities officers in the area that embraces both the Sphinx and
the Pyramids of Giza, six miles from Cairo.
The incident
produced dire forecasts that the great monument blending human and
beast and dating back 4,600 years might have only 20 years or so
to go before crumbling to dust - a martyr to wind, rain and salt
crystals drawn up into its very being from the rising and
increasingly saline water table of the Nile.
But to insure
that no dark doings or skulduggery clouded the destiny of one of
Egypt's best-known ancient wonders, the authorities set up a
committee to investigate, among other things, the question of
sabotage. The committee concluded just the other day that there
had been no sabotage and that the slabs had fallen victim to
natural causes. Reports of Sabotage
Then something
odd happened, antiquities officials say.
An American
visitor identified only as Larry Hunter, whose home address or
whereabouts have not been made public, produced a videotape. On it
was a taped confession by Ahmed el-Shaer, a guard at the Sphinx,
who said he had seen two antiquities officials hammering at the
Sphinx's shoulder before the slab fell down.
What's more,
he said on the tape, he had taken a bribe from high officials to
remain silent about what he had seen, say officials who have seen
the recording.
Farouk Hosni,
the Minister of Culture, ordered the investigation reopened,
thereby stirring furies old and new about Egypt's antiquities and
those who are supposed to care for them.
''This is a
ridiculous story,'' said Dr. Zaki Hawass, the archeologist in
charge of the Giza area, accused on the videotape of being part of
the cover-up. ''Scientific reports prove that the rocks fell
because of natural reasons, caused by erosion, rain and salt
crystals between the outer rock and the mother rock of the
statue.'' 'Two Tiny Women Like Us'
''How could we
commit such a crime in the middle of the day without being
caught?'' said Amal Samoyl, one of the officials, both women,
accused of hammering at the Sphinx.
''And even if
we tried, the rock weighs over 700 pounds and how can two tiny
women like us manage to break it, apart from the fact that we
would have needed a 12-foot ladder to climb up there?''
Others said
the controversy related somehow to the profound personality
differences between Culture Minister Hosni and Ahmed Kadri, the
former antiquities director, who once oversaw the restoration of
the Sphinx and who lost his job when the shoulder fell off last
year.
Dr. Hani Hilal,
a professor of rock engineering at Cairo University, said: ''The
whole issue is a personal conflict between antiquities officials.
There have been far more drastic incidents and nobody paid any
attention to them.'' Scaffolding Around Sphinx
None of that
seems to help the Sphinx all that much.
''The main
rock of the Sphinx is already defective,'' said Dr. Omar el Arini
of the American University of Cairo. ''It has fissures that
allowed salt to crystallize between the fallen rock and the mother
rock.''
An
international committee is supposed to be working on the
monument's preservation, and so, these days, Abu el Hawl (Father
of Terror), as the Sphinx is known in Arabic, is corseted in
scaffolding because of earlier indignities.
When chunks
fell off early in the 1980's, some repair work was done, but that
too has started to fall down. ''These restorations were wrong and
they've been stopped,'' said Dr. Hawass, the director of
antiquities in the Sphinx and Pyramids area. ''We expected them to
fall apart because they were scientifically wrong.''
#5
December 17, 1989 – Week in
Review
HEADLINERS; Who Done It?
HEADLINERS;
Who Done It?
LEAD: The body
of a lion, the head of a man and now the center of controversy. A
panel of antiquities experts in Egypt recently concluded that a
700-pound chunk that fell from the shoulder of the Sphinx last
year was dislodged by natural forces - wind, rain and salt. But
then along came Larry Hunter, an otherwise unidentified American.
The body of a
lion, the head of a man and now the center of controversy. A panel
of antiquities experts in Egypt recently concluded that a
700-pound chunk that fell from the shoulder of the Sphinx last
year was dislodged by natural forces - wind, rain and salt. But
then along came Larry Hunter, an otherwise unidentified American.
Mr. Hunter recently presented authorities in Cairo with a
videotape of the confession of a guard who said he saw two
antiquities officials hammering at the Sphinx's shoulder before
the chunk was dislodged. Ridiculous, said one expert after
another, including the two who were accused. Some suggested that
the whole incident had more to do with old enmities between
experts. It seems that Ahmed Khari, who was in charge of restoring
the Sphinx until he was fired after the shoulder separation, has
had profound personal differences with Farouk Hosni, the Minister
of Culture, whose portfolio includes Egypt's antiquities. The
unspoken implication seemed to be that if the guard's confession
was true, Mr. Khari was fired unjustly. In any case, Mr. Hosni
ordered the investigation into the matter reopened.
#6
Obituaries
Published: October 9, 1990
Ahmed
Kadry, 59; Egyptian Art Official
Ahmed
Kadry, 59; Egyptian Art Official
Published:
October 9, 1990
LEAD: Ahmed
Kadry, chairman of the Eqyptian Antiquities Organization from 1982
until his abrupt dismissal in 1988, died Thursday in Pittsburgh.
He was 59 years old. Friends said he had liver cancer and was
awaiting a transplant. Mr. Kadry, an army officer who took part in
the 1952 coup that toppled King Farouk and installed Lieut.
Ahmed Kadry,
chairman of the Eqyptian Antiquities Organization from 1982 until
his abrupt dismissal in 1988, died Thursday in Pittsburgh. He was
59 years old. Friends said he had liver cancer and was awaiting a
transplant. Mr. Kadry, an army officer who took part in the 1952
coup that toppled King Farouk and installed Lieut. Col. Gamal
Abdel Nasser as head of a republican Government in Egypt, joined
the Antiquities Organization in 1962 and became chairman in 1982.
He was named
to the top post when a stone fell from the decaying Sphinx and his
predecessor was dismissed. Six years later, another rock fell from
the huge statue's right shoulder, and the Culture Minister, Farouk
Hosni, called Mr. Kadry to account.
Mr. Hosni
blamed the accident on restoration in progress under Mr. Kadry,
who retaliated by accusing agents of the minister of loosening the
stone to embarrass him. After heated public argument, Mr. Hosni
dismissed Mr. Kadry.
At the
Antiquities Organization Mr. Kadry shifted its emphasis from
excavation to preservation. He restored ancient mosques and other
Islamic monuments, including the sultan Saladin's fortress
overlooking Cairo.
After his
dismissal in 1988, Mr. Kadry joined the faculty of Waseda
University in Japan.
No information
on survivors was available.
#7
December 24, 1990
Obituaries
Sayed
Tawfik, 54, Dies; Archeologist of Egypt
Sayed Tawfik,
Egypt's chief archeologist and chairman of antiquities, died of a
heart attack on Thursday, friends and newspapers reported on
Friday. He was 54 years old.
Mr. Tawfik, a
former dean of archeology and professor of Egyptology at Cairo
University, was the author of a half-dozen books on Egyptian
antiquities.
As chairman of
the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, he was in charge of all
restoration and conservation work on Egypt's vast legacy of
pyramids, tombs, temples and other relics threatened by time,
pollution and the demands of an exploding population.
But among
Egyptologists, he is remembered most as an excavator, especially
for his work on a windblown bluff overlooking the ancient royal
burial grounds of Sakkara south of Cairo.
He began the
excavation eight years ago. In 1985 he uncovered an unknown burial
ground from the time of Pharaoh Ramses II, tombs hidden 33 feet
below the desolate hillside, which yielded a rich store of data
about some of the most important officials of the Egypt of 3,250
years ago.
Friends said
Mr. Tawfik had been at Sakkara on Thursday. That night he suffered
a heart attack and died instantly. He was buried on Friday.
Survivors
include his German-born wife, Frieda; a son, Tarek, an Egyptology
student at Cairo University, and a daughter, Sophie, a pupil at a
German school in Cairo.
DR. MOHAMED IBRAHIM BAKR
WAS CHAIRMAN after SIED TAWFIK and before Ablel
halim Noureddin Bakr died very soon after
being removed by Farouk Hosni from his position as chairman…
#8
November 12, 1995
New York Times
TRAVEL ADVISORY;
AN
EGYPTIAN PYRAMID CLOSES FOR RESTORATION
One suggestion
being considered is that of Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim Bakr, former
director of the antiquities on the Giza plateau
Mohamed Bakr
#9
February 11, 1996
TRAVEL ADVISORY:
CORRESPONDENT’S REPORT; Cairo
Cancels Exhibition Planned for 5 U.S. Cities By
Douglas Jehl
Abdelhalim
Noureddin, chairman of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, said
#10
Published:
August 10, 1997
The New York
Times
Archives
A Third Pyramid Closes for Repairs
The danger,
according to Zahi Hawass, the director of the Pyramids and one who
would prefer that they all be closed to tourists permanently
Dr. Ali Hassan
is the chairman of Egypt’s supreme Council for Antiquities in this
time between Dr. Noureddin and Dr. Gaballah. Very
short time.
#11
Published:
January 22, 1998
The New York
Times
World
Egypt to Tear
Down Homes at Ancient Sites
The head of the
nation's antiquities program, Gaballah Ali Gaballah,
Mr. Gaballah,
chairman of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, said
#12
August 16, 1998
By Douglas Jehl
TAVEL ADVISORY;
CORRESPONDENT’S REPORT;
said Ali Hassan,
then chairman of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, when the
decision to go forward with the project was announced last fall.
#13
January 18, 2000
The New York
Times
ARTS
FOOTLIGHTS
By Lawrence Van Gelder
Gaballah Ali
Gaballah, chairman of Egypt's Supreme Antiquities Council
Royal Homecoming
The stolen bust of an ancient queen is to be flown back to Egypt on
Thursday, a decade after it was smuggled to Britain and displayed at
the British Museum. Gaballah Ali Gaballah, chairman of Egypt's
Supreme Antiquities Council, said the bust of Queen Meret, who lived
during the New Kingdom, which lasted from 1550 B.C. to 1150 B.C.,
was taken from a storehouse by a British national. Ahmed Salah, a
public relations officer at the Egyptian Culture Ministry, said the
bust, partly damaged by the smugglers to obscure its identity, was
acquired by the British Museum, which restored and exhibited it
until Egypt demanded its return.
#14
May 26, 2006
New York Times
US
By Sharon Waxman
Antiquities in
Office? Not While King Tut Rules Chicago
Zahi Hawass,
the hard-charging secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of
Antiquities, learned
