The whole of Sayeda Zeinab is built up on hallmarks and blessings. Spreading out from the district's heart — the Mosque of Sayeda Zeinab, the granddaughter of Prophet Mohamed — holy domes mark the horizon. As one treads further and further into the district's avenues and hamlets, an extraordinary tranquillity builds up. Ancient mansions, mosques and sabils (fresh water outlets) are stitched to legends and sketches of people that once seemed larger than life. Despite their mortality, they remain the eternal heroes of the district's social history. All in all, the area provides a panorama of architectural magnificence with value placed on the notion of space, of relics from eras that time has washed away.

We start our walk at Sayeda Zeinab Mosque, the district's centre and the place it was named after. According to Soad Maher Mohamed of the High Council of Islamic Affairs, Mosques and Saints of Egypt, the mosque constitutes the centre of the square of what was once called Qantaret Al-Sebaa, or the Lion's Barrages. The name is derived from the lion prints that were Al-Zaher Beibaras's motif, marking his barrages topping the little Nile branch, dispensed for expansion purposes of the square. However, in 1898, during renovations and expansions, the front side of the mosque was first discovered...

On the holy trail, Amira El-Noshokaty, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 806, August 03 - 09, 2006.

It took eight hours for a replica of the 125-tonne red granite statue of Ramses II to make its overnight journey from Tahrir Square to the planned Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza plateau. The move was a rehearsal run for the move later this month of the real statue, which is still at Cairo's main train station. Nevine El-Aref joined the accompanying motorcade.

In the central plaza of Tahrir Square two gigantic red vehicles decorated with four Egyptian flags and carrying the replica of Ramses II's statue were ready to leave. At 2:15 sharp, the 64-year old driver Am Ahmed El-Gharabawi took the fake Ramses on a 30-km ride to what will be its new home at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking Giza plateau.

Police officers cleared the way for the 'royal' cavalcade to pass as hundreds of thousands of people crowded the square to watch and photograph the rehearsal. Heavy security was in force and police stood on both sides of the truck, leading some of the onlookers to think it was the actual colossus that was being moved. Buses transporting engineers and archaeologists accompanied the truck to study the possible risks that might be encountered when the authentic statue is transported. There were other buses for journalists and photographers...

Dry run for the big day, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 806, August 03 - 09, 2006.

New figures released by the Egyptian Tourism Authority have revealed that more Americans are picking Egypt as their travel destination. As a result, American visits are now on pace to eclipse the record-setting year of 2000.

According to the ETA’s newly released figures, there were 118,044 American visits during the first six months of 2006, surpassing last year's total by 20.1 percent and the record-setting 2000 number of 114,468 by 3 percent.

The record-setting performance was bolstered in June 2006 when there were 19,656 American visits, a 16.6 percent increase over the same period in 2005, ETA added...

Americans travelling to Egypt more than ever, Nelson Alcantara, TravelVideo.TC, Ontario, Canada, August 03, 2006.

Oxford University researchers have used full-body scanning, usually used for medical reasons, to look at a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy from the University’s Ashmolean Museum.

On the 29 July [2006], the researchers put the mummy through a CT scanner at the MRI unit of the John Radcliffe hospital to find out what was under the bandages. The scanner is usually used to produce medical images of patients. They then created a 3D image of what the mummy looks like from the scans.

The Egyptian mummy is around three feet long and is a child. Little was known about it before the scans, but afterwards the radiographers could see that it was male (the penis is still preserved), aged between four and seven. Further analysis will enable them to find out more about its state of health and the cause of death...

I posted these yesterday but they went down a back-hole! Anyway, I'm not sure there is anything new in these two. The one from the Oxford Mail is the longer story of the two.

2,000-year-old mummy goes through 21st-century scanner, PhysOrg, USA, August 01, 2006.

cf. Secrets of the mummy revealed, Ellie Simmonds, Oxford Mail, UK, July 31, 2006.