Theban Panoramas News

Report No.3

May 23rd, 2001

Qurna Discovery - Opened April 6th

also:

I now know every builders’ merchants, paint shop and wood yard on east and west banks, also every paper, art materials and print shop. You can get everything – providing you know where and who from. Last year it was a late Victorian red brick, lathe and lime plaster house in North London - it took ten months. This year it was a mud brick and mud plaster one in Qurna - it took three and a half weeks. I would rather work with the Qurna team any day.

Thank you to:

el Najjar – master mason and plasterer
Abu’l Sabuur – craftsman, restorer and site supervisor
Kher – carpenter and joiner
Mohamed Abu Salah, Ahmed Mohamed, Mustapha Mahmoud, Bedawi Abu’l Qumsan, little Ali and donkey for 66 trips for water.
metal workers Ahmed and Mohamed.
Special thanks to electrician extraordinary, Ramadan and his workers Husein and Mohamed.
For non-building work – thanks to Dr Boutros Wadieh for translations, printing and computer wizardry and to artists Golo and Mohamed Abd el Melek.

and
One afternoon in April 1997 a talented young Qurnawi, the cousin of my Arabic teacher, who works as a restorer and draughtsman for Swiss and German archaeologists, showed me a very faded and worn photocopy of an old illustration of a house that I now know was built about 1817 by Henry Salt for his man Yanni. It stands next to his father’s house in Qurna. This one picture started the search for the true history of this threatened community.
On April 6th 2001 the same young man master-minded the erection of the large ‘swaan’ (coloured tent), the musicians, seating, food, drink - everything. At all stages of this project Abdu Osman Taia Daramalli has encouraged, enabled, organized and given his time generously and freely to a project which he believed was important to his village. Through him, his family, friends and the wider community supported it too. Without him it would not have worked. Thank you, Abdu.

World Premier – April 6th 2001

What a very good day! We were delighted that Dr Michelle Brown, the Curator of Manuscripts at The British Library, was able to come, together with her husband Cecil and Mr Greg Hayman, Senior Press Officer. From Luxor there was the Deputy Governor of Luxor City Council and senior officers from Tourism and Press Offices. Mohamed el Bialy, Director General, Ibrahim Solomon, Senior Inspector and colleagues from the West Bank Antiquities Office came, as did American, Polish, Hungarian, German and French archaeologists. There were also a large number of ordinary local people, young and old, Egyptian and foreign, two journalists and a few tourists. A very mixed bunch we were!
The only regret was that Steve and colleagues who designed and produced the panels, which look so wonderful, could not be there to meet the home team, join in the party and see the exhibition up and being so appreciated.

Qurna Discovery
Life on the Theban Hills 1826
The remarkable drawings of Robert Hay

It isn’t called Tomb Raiders or Village of the Mummy Pits. After lots of suggestions and much debate we went for Qurna Discovery..
It is open 6 days a week – closed Tuesdays which is market day.
Open hours 7-12am and 2-5pm. Entry Free.
The Guardian is Mohamed Osman Taia Daramalli (Abdu’s youngest brother) who comes from a long established family who lives just by the tomb of Nakht and farms land just east of the Ramesseum.
In the first month we had over 170 visitors, plus the 200 or so on the opening day. Everyone who comes appears to enjoy it and we have many heartening comments in the Visitors Book in umpteen languages. There is a fulsome tribute from the Director General for Antiquities for the West Bank in both Arabic and English.

Local people are fascinated by it, keen to see their village so long ago, proud that it was recorded and delighted that it is appreciated. An American professor of anthropology visiting for the first time for many years, phoned me from the States to say how much she had liked it, and was particularly struck by the buzz of excitement and confidence it had given the Qurnawi she met.
It certainly needs more visitors, and Mohamed would like to see more faces, so please pass the word on to friends and organizations. 80 hotels, restaurants and tour companies in Luxor have posters and fliers – but work is still needed on east and west banks.

There is now a major publicity job to be done, in Egypt and abroad, so that people – tour guides, travel firms and individuals – know that it exists, when it is open and that it is Free to all. It is a place of no hassle and no hard sell – a welcome little haven as well as a fascinating exhibition. Any help with promotion and ideas gratefully received.

Financial reality strikes.

Without the generous support of The Imaginative Traveller the exhibition would probably never have got off the ground. But with their donation in the bank, together with another £1,500, it had to be finished, up and running – it could not lose momentum or I would lose energy, enthusiasm and probably all my hair. Faiza Hassan, who I first met in Cairo in 1998, got it right when she wrote in al Ahram Weekly; “I had thought at the time that this project would go the way of many others, its organizers losing momentum somewhere along the line, defeated by the infinite number of bureaucratic hurdles placed in the way of any creative endeavour. Yet there she was, busily presiding over the opening ceremony …” That was me, and it is finished and open. But we have had to borrow to finish it. Costs went up and donations have not kept pace. The project still needs over £4,000 to pay for itself and a further £2,000 to pay me a fee. A detailed financial statement is available, but here is a rough breakdown:

Press coverage

Faiza Hassan, who came to the Premier, wrote a two page article on Qurna for Al Ahram Weekly.You can read it on their website at: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly
Middle East Times, April 14th-20th, nearly half page article. The Kentish Gazette wrote an article. Al Hayat, published in the UK, plans to write something, and Aramco World is also doing a story. Radio Kent is chasing me for an interview. Not bad. But Qurna Discovery needs more coverage.

And for our next trick…

So what is next?

Hay’s Theban Panoramas is really just one part of a larger and on-going Qurna History Project (details on request). There is much oral history collection to be done, photo archives and collections to be trawled, Arabic libraries to be investigated by someone – and the long awaited book must be written

The germ of another odd little idea …

On the night of May 5-6th elderly Hajja Nefiisa died. She was the last of the three daughters of an important local figure of the early 20th century, Omar Lazim, who had inherited the house Henry Salt built for Yanni. For many years Hajja Nefiisa has lived in the now very ruinous buildings alone with her goats. It is a large important group of empty buildings with a pivotal connection to Egyptology, archaeology, historical collection and record in this World Heritage Site. It is possible that some of its walls re-used those of a Coptic building. It would make a fine place to display examples of all the early archaeology/Egyptology work on the Necropolis, or a Local History Study Centre, or a Qurna community resource centre. Ideas and practical suggestions by e-mail or on the usual post-card please.

This news report was written and produced by
Caroline Simpson 020 8881 9386
Caroline@forbury.demon.co.uk
Please send all donations to:
9 Whittington Road, Bounds Green, London N22 8YS.
Cheques payable to Hay’s Theban Panoramas