Cut-price flights to Egypt from UK's Doncaster airport have been announced only days before the airport opens for business, said the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism.

According to EMOT, South Yorkshire tourists will be able to jet off to the land of the Pharaohs, with weekly direct flights leaving the €80m Robin Hood Airport, at the former RAF Finningley site, every Sunday, starting in November.

"Sun seekers will fly directly to the holiday resort of Sharm El Sheikh", EMOT said.   " Thomson will operate the service."

"We are ready and waiting to open our doors for the first flights on April 28," airport managing director David Ryall said...

[More]   TravelVideo.TV, Canada, Apr 27, 2005.

by Zahi Hawass

I was 33 years old and an Inspector of Antiquities.   After years of working at several sites throughout Egypt, I finally became the chief inspector at the Giza Pyramids.   I decided to continue my studies in Egyptology in the United States.   At first, I did not want to receive a fellowship from an American university.   However, I saw a newspaper advertisement to the effect that the Fulbright Commission in Cairo was offering a fellowship for two years to study in the field of science or humanities.   I applied, writing a proposal that stated that it was important for an Egyptian to receive good training in the US, and then to return to Egypt and help protect Egypt's heritage by improving sites and museums and training young people, as well as establishing rules and regulations to protect the monuments and modernise the facilities.   I further suggested they needed to give this fellowship to someone who would use it to benefit Egypt.

The committee was chosen to select the most deserving applicant.   The candidates were from Egypt and America.   I was awarded the Fulbright scholarship to continue my studies, and applied to a few universities in US.   After much thought I decided to attend the University of Pennsylvania for my doctorate studies, since they have an excellent archaeology programme...

[More]   Al-Ahram, Issue No. 740, 28 April - 4 May 2005.

The Coptic Museum is approaching the last stage of structural restoration prior to its official re-opening this year as a state-of-the-art museum.   Jill Kamil looks into what's going on.

It was no easy matter to gain access to a building that was being restored -- or transformed, rather -- and even more difficult to find someone able, or willing, to talk about progress, plans and deadlines.   The Coptic Museum has been off-limits to visitors for a long while now, and with rumour circulating that some galleries would re-open this year, Al-Ahram Weekly sent a team to investigate...

[More]   Al-Ahram, Issue No. 740, 28 April - 4 May 2005.

The temple of Serabit el-Khadem, 55 kilometres southeast Abu Zneima is the only surviving pharaonic temple in Sinai.   In order to place the area on the tourist chart the Supreme Council of Antiquities has launched a huge project to upgrade the area, which is associated with Safari Tourism and is surrounded by turquoise mines exploited since the Pharaonic period.   The total cost of the project is estimated at LE 10 million.

The temple, which belongs to the 12th dynasty, is situated on a sandstone plateau about 1200 metres above sea level.   The temple was established for the worship of goddess Hathor in her respect as the lady of turquoise.

The temple comprises a main chapel and several rooms, while the surrounding areas embrace rock-cut and freestanding stelae dedicated by mining expeditions to Hathor.

In the vicinity of the temple, there are turquoise mines that were exploited since the early 12th dynasty till the 20th dynasty.

Petrie was the first archaeologist to examine the site in 1905 and found an old Kingdom hill-top miners' settlement.   Archaeological missions, the most important of which was a French team, examined the temple, but the missions were most interested in the turquoise mines.

The first restoration of the temple took place in 1987.   Further restoration of the inscriptions and stelae was maintained periodically.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 28, 2005.

The Russian Institute for Alexandrian Studies is currently engaged in drawing a map of old Alexandria, the city that was planned by the Greek architect Deinocrates.

According to Dr Ezzat Qadous, a professor of Greek Archaeology and dean of the Faculty of Tourism at Alexandria University, the projected chart is an attempt to revive and modernise the old chart drawn by archaeologist Mahmoud Pasha Falaki, which defined many streets and quarters.

Dr Qadous explains how the idea of establishing the city of Alexandria tantalised Alexander the Great when he noticed a piece of land separating the Mediterranean from [Mareotis](1) Lake.   He assigned Deinocrates to plan the city, which was named after the great leader.

Dr Qadous said that Al Falaki's chart showed the city to be five kilometres long with 11 main streets that crossed the city vertically and seven horizontal ones.   The apparent balance of length and crosswise streets amazed Dr Qadous.   The black and grey stones used for paving streets were all alike in dimensions about 20 cm thick, 30 cm wide and 50 cm long.   Some of the stones are still in place, especially in the Shallalat area.

According to Al Falaki's chart, Faros isle was detached from the land, however there was a road linking the isle and the shore.   Today, Faros (Al Manshia area) is part and parcel of modern Alexandria.

The chart also displayed a harbour known as the eastern harbour.   Royal palaces occupied a distance of 2300 metres.   The amphitheatre was an essential feature of the city built following the Greek style, and it became a cultural centre.   The chart determined the place of the apostases, storehouses containing commodities to be sold in the market.   Among the important landmarks of old Alexandria was the museum, or the house of muses, which included a park, a meeting hall and a dining hall.   The director of the place was a priest appointed by the king.   The gymnasium was also one of the most beautiful places in Alexandria, with a 200 metre-long roofed lobby with gardens and an arbitration room in the middle.

The nucleus of the old city, according to Falaki's chart, was the Rhakotis quarter inhabited by the Egyptians.   The largest quarter and the least dwelt-in was that of The Racing Square, situated in the eastern part of the city.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 28, 2005.

(1)   The article originally named the lake Marriut, I have substituted the Ancient Greek name.   A quick search on the web also throws up the following spellings for the modern name - Mariot, Mariut, and Mariout.

By Hassan Saadallah

A team of archaeologists excavating the Khufu (Cheops) site in the Western Desert uncovered 26 seals belonging to King Cheops.   The seals, each 3.2 x 4.3 cm, are made of a special formula of clay, soft sand and limestone.   Among the find was a collection of pots bearing the stamp of Cheops.

Initial examination of the find revealed that the seals belonged to one of the missions sent by Cheops to collect mefat, a red metallic powder used in painting.   The powder was needed for ornamenting the pyramidal complex of the fourth dynasty and its funerary annexes.   The seals affirmed the official nature of the mission dispatched to the desert area.

According to a hieroglyphic text on one of the pots one of the dispatched missions comprised 400 men accompanied by an administrative staff to supervise the provision of food.

Members of the team unearthed a number of leather bags filled with mefat gathered from surrounding areas which were most probably hidden away from playful hands.   The site of Khufu also contained stone tools dating back to pre-historic times (6000-5000 BC) such as knives and arrowheads.

King Cheops was known to despatch several missions to copper and turquoise mines in Sinai.   He also sent vessels to Phoenicia (Lebanon) to get cedar wood and liked to make use of diorite found at Abu Simbel.

About king Cheops, Dr Zahi Hawass writes in his latest book, published this week, The Giza Plateau Through Ages, that Cheops will always be remembered as the builder of the greatest structure on earth: the Giza pyramid of that name.   Its splendour is not only attributed to its gigantic nature but also to its amazing interior planning.

Hawass' book includes a chapter on the opinion of Greek and Roman travellers from Herodotus to [Strabo] about the Giza Pyramids.   Hawass reviews important finds in Giza beginning 1821 at the hands of Mariette and Petrie up until the present time.

The last chapter of the book is dedicated to research relating to the pyramid by the Italian Maragioglio, who worked from 1963 up until the 1990s when a French team dealt with air pollution inside the king's room.   The most recent of the pollution studies was conducted in 2002 using a robot.   It revealed more secret doors within the pyramid.   The book includes a collection of photographs of the Pyramid Plateau from 1890 to 1925.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, April 28, 2005.

During the 56th annual meeting of the "American Research Center in Egypt" in Cambridge Saturday, Boston University archaeology professor Kathryn Bard and project co-director Rodolfo Fattovich presented evidence of ancient Egyptian sea-faring expeditions about 4,000 years ago to the southern Red Sea.

A team of researchers - led by the two archaeologists - found pieces from several ancient Egyptian sea-faring boats off the coast of the Red Sea during a joint project with Italy's University of Naples "L'Orientale" last December, Bard said.   The facts included two cedar steering oars, the first whole pieces of a pharaonic sea-faring ship ever recovered...

[More]   The Daily Free Press, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA, April 27, 2005.