The National Democratic Party's announcement a month ago that Egypt is seeking to revive its nuclear programme and means to build a large power station neighbouring the Graeco-Roman site of Tel Al-Dabaa on the Alexandria-Marsa-Matrouh road caught the headlines of newspapers and sparked uproar among archaeologists who feared the construction would destroy a major archaeological site.

Conflict also arose between the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the Ministry of Electricity which will lead the construction process. The press has weighed in daily to offer a plethora of contradictory opinions, leaving the public confused as to the genuine issues. Rumours have spread that the conflict has been deliberately created by the SCA and the ministries of tourism and construction in an attempt to ensure another location is found for the nuclear station and Tel Al-Dabaa is left free for abuse by a mega tourist project like the huge complex at Marina Al-Alamein.

Last Monday, however, a committee of SCA experts and Ministry of Electricity officials embarked on an inspection tour of the 70 sq km site of Tel Al-Dabaa and finally came up with concrete ideas to suit all parties...

I believe Tel Al-Dabaa = Tell el-Dab'a = Tel Ed-Daba = Tel el-Daba = Tell el-Daba'a etc. Which is ancient Avaris excavated by Manfred Bietak from the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Cairo. Many thanks to Aayko Eyma for clarifying that I was mistaken in my belief that this article referred to Avaris, as the site in question is on the Western side of the Nile..

Ancient site to go nuclear, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 825, December 21 - 27, 2006.

Don't judge this book by its faded cover. It is rich in content and casts fascinating revelations on the reign of Abbas Hilmi II the last khedive of Egypt before the 1919 Revolution. It is an era which has been largely neglected, merely alluded to by Western historians from the imperialist point of view, and by Egyptians from a nationalist, Nasserist perspective.

Here, at last, is a fascinating insight into a period of renewal during his reign (1892-1914). Egypt's economic debt had been paid off. The price of cotton was good. Industrialisation had begun. The stock exchange was being created, and there was a revival of political awareness with some 30 magazine and newspaper titles running off the press. This was a lively time in the nation's history both economically and culturally for Egyptians and the large foreign community, with first class singers and entertainers, fine arts and architecture, and an interest in Egyptology.

It was Abbas Hilmi II who unveiled the statue of the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, the celebrated founder and preserver of Egypt's monuments, in the garden of the newly constructed Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square in 1904, where newly discovered objects on display included the ceremonial palette of Narmer, discovered by Quibell in 1894, and a horde of royal mummies excavated by Loret from the tomb of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the Kings between 1897 and 1899...

, Abbas Hilmi II translated by Amira Sonbol, Ithaca Press, 1998, pp. 352, hardback.

The Last Khedive of Egypt: Memoirs of Abbas Hilmi II, Abbas Hilmi II translated by Amira Sonbol, American University in Cairo Press, 2006, pp. 404, paperback, ISBN-13: 9789774249945.

A royal perspective, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 824, December 14 - 20, 2006.

The Coptic monastery known as Deir Al-Surian, or the Monastery of the Syrians, contains more than 3,000 books as well as a vast number of texts in Syriac, Aramaic (the language of Christ), Coptic, Arabic and Ethiopic. They date upwards from the fifth century and today, as a result of the revival in Coptic monasticism in recent years, a new generation of educated monks are anxious to safeguard this heritage. Both Syrian and Coptic monks are engaged in their conservation, as well as restoration of the monastery itself.

Collaborating with them on what is known as the Deir Al-Surian Library Project is the Levantine Foundation. The aim is twofold: to salvage old manuscripts which, after surviving a century and a half in a living community, are in danger of being lost, and to conserve the remaining literary inheritance of more than 1,000 Syriac manuscripts for future generations.

The project is moving ahead and members of the conservation team, with the help of volunteers and on a shoe-string budget, are surveying, restoring, cataloguing and storing the Syriac texts in a suitable environment. A digital photographic record of each manuscript will eventually be made to facilitate access for scholars, and appropriate storage for the manuscripts and facilities for visiting scholars is also planned...

Troves of scholarship, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 824, December 14 - 20, 2006.

Plans for a grand exhibition of the teenage pharaoh’s treasures at the venue have been thrown into doubt because Egyptian officials will not allow the artefacts to be displayed next to a proposed casino.

The dome’s owner is hoping to be granted a licence for Britain’s first Las Vegas-style gambling venue next month.

However, Cairo’s most senior antiquities official has described such a move as a “disaster”, claiming this weekend that it would “insult the dignity” of Tutankhamun.

“If there is a casino in the dome, I will not send the exhibits to London,” declared Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities...

King Tut hit by the curse of the dome, Dipesh Gadher, The Times, UK, December 24, 2006.

I have just come back from spending Christmas in Egypt. Flew out on Tuesday 19th and returned Yesterday Tuesday 26th. Actually we arrived after midnight at Gatwick (London) airport in the UK and then faced a two-and-a-half hour drive home, finally getting in at 3AM GMT (this morning) which I'm sure you know is 5AM Egyptian time! Not much sleep on the aeroplane either!

My wife wanted a holiday somewhere hot for Christmas and we 'killed two birds with one stone' by going to the Red Sea resort of Safaga and stayed at the Holiday Inn Safaga Palace.

I managed to arrange a day trip to Luxor to see some of the sights and sites. This was my wife and children's first trip to Egypt and the second one for me as I had been to Cairo and Luxor in '97.

Anyway, more of this later. I shall attempt to catch up with the posts from last week over the coming days.

Merry Christmas!

Mark.