My 7th article in Ahram Online: Egypt’s Pharaonic Temples Abroad

Another article of mine was published by Ahram Online, this time about four Pharaonic temples, namely Dendur, Taffeh, Ellesiya and Debod.

What do New York, Madrid, Leiden and Turin have in common?

As strange as it sounds, all four cities have pharaonic temples. While some Egyptians like to think of these temples as ‘cultural ambassadors’ abroad, others tend to feel uneasy about the fact that Egyptian heritage could be ‘gifted’ without the stakeholders (Egyptians) being consulted.

Here is the full article:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/46243.aspx

My 5th article in Ahram Online: Debod, the Pharaonic Temple in Madrid

Sacredness, is it site-specific? Is it lost when the geo-cultural context is altered?
The Temple of Debod may provide an answer. The setting is a perfect one from an aesthetic viewpoint: the temple dominates a beautiful park, surrounded by an artificial pond in an attempt to recreate –in part- the original context. A closer look reveals that it is not that perfect from a conservation perspective, because –unlike other Pharaonic temples outside Egypt- Debod is set in the open, subject to Madrid’s polluted air and extreme weather conditions.
Why Madrid then? What brought the Temple to Spain in the first place? The answer takes us back to Egypt of the 1960s, and to the epic UNESCO Campaign to save the Monuments of Nubia from being lost forever.

Read my full article at:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/40533.aspx