The motorcycle diaries The Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Activation Authority held a press conference with the world famous motorcyclist Alex Chacon and his Egyptian peer, Omar Mansour, on the 2014 Cross Egypt Challenge. This November, over 60 adventure riders will participate in the nine-day event, starting on 14 November, discovering the mysteries of Egypt, experiencing a variety of terrains and making lifetime friendships. The new, challenging 2,950 km route starts in Alexandria and reaches Abu Simbel at the opposite end of the Nile Valley via Marsa Allam, crossing the Eastern Desert to do so, before winding back to Cairo to end at the Pyramids. The endurance riders hail from the USA, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Peru, Italy, the Czech Republic, Mexico, India and Portugal as well as Egypt. In a joyful mood, Al-Ahram Establishment launched its first visual art exhibition on Monday. The exhibition, entitled Rhythm, was inaugurated by Minister of Culture Gaber Asfour, Al-Ahram Board Chairman Ahmed Al-Naggar, the dynamo and the main organiser of the event and Executive Editor-in-Chief of Al-Beit magazine Sawsan Murad, Al-Beit Editor-in-Chief Azza Al-Husseini, Director of Al-Ahram Acquisitions department Hisham Nasr, who exerted a great effort in pushing this unique event forward and Yasser Ismail, general director of Al-Beit department of advertisements, renown writer and former editor of Al-Ahram's Nos Al-Donia magazine Sanaa Al-Beissi, together with former Al-Ahram chairman of the board Morsi Atallah. During the opening ceremony, the exhibition honoured two of Egypt's pioneering artists in the 20th century, the internationally acclaimed sculptor Adam Henein, who attended the ceremony, and the late painter Mounir Canaan (1919-1999). The exhibition was jubilantly crowded with visual artists of different generations, art critics, media correspondents, key cultural figures and art lovers. The closing ceremony of the 23rd Arab Music Festival and Conference took place on 9 November at the Cairo Opera House Main Hall with the attendance of a 1,200-strong audience. It featured an Arabic music concert conducted by Emad Ashour while the other part of the concert featured the powerful voice Amal Maher, who was granted the festival shield by Opera House Director Ines Abdel-Dayem. The winners of the Ratiba Al-Hefni musical competitions were also handed their prizes. All concert revenues will be handed to the Long Live Egypt fund. This year the annual Asian Diplomats' Spouses Association (ADSA) Asian Foods and Crafts Bazaar will be held on Saturday 15 November, 9.30 am-2.30 pm, at the Conrad Hotel on the Corniche. Food, crafts and manufactured products will be sold for the benefit of various Egyptian charities. Participant countries include Australia, Brunei, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Entrance tickets are LE10 per person (for school-age children and adults) and raffle tickets are the same price; they can be purchased in advance from the relevant embassies or in person at the entrance. The Housaper Armenian Cultural Association organised an Egyptian-Armenian cultural evening, Nesmahar Sayed reports. According to head of the Committee of the Armenian Cause in Egypt Armen Mazloumian and cultural coordinator Magda Shourba, this event comes among many that will follow on the occasion of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. In his opening speech Ambassador of Armenia Armen Melkonian stressed on the strong ties between Egypt and Armenia. The dinner tables were covered with ribbons of Egyptian and Armenian flags. The Armenian and Egyptian food and the girls dressed in Armenian traditional costumes gave an authentic taste to the event. Among the guests were army spokesman General Brigadier Mohamed Samir, Ambassador Mohamed Fayek, chairman of the National Council for Human Rights, Ambassador Mohamed Shaker, chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, Mahmoud Khalaf, chancellor of Nasser Military Academy, Gamil Matar, political analyst and politician Mahmoud Al-Alaili. Armenian Catholics Bishop Krikor Ocostinos Coussan and Primate of the Diocese of Egypt Ashod Mnatsakanian were also present. A documentary about Armenia was screened and the event ended with Egyptian and Armenian live music. Ambassador of Guatemala Laris Pira gave a reception accompanied by music at his residence in Maadi to honour Guatemalan orchestra conductor Igor Sarmientos and Ecuadorian violinist Khorkhe Saada. Present were artist Farid Fadel and his wife PR expert Mona Zaki, Ecuadorian Ambassador German Espionza, Mexican Ambassador Jorge Alvarez, Argentinean Ambassador Sergio Alberto Baur, Brazilian Ambassador Marco Brando, Chilean Ambassador José Miguel de la Cruz and his Uruguayan counterpart Agustin Espinosa-Lloveras. Members of the Arab community in Moscow and the press attended the opening of Jordanian jewellery designer Lama Hourani's exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the first state museum in Russia. This is Hourani's second important show after her latest in Hong Kong. In the last 15 years she has produced 40 collections. Writer, theatre artist, and scholar Dalia Bassiouni was recently named a finalist for the League of Professional Theatre Women's Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Artist Award. Bassiouni's work was showcased at Kennedy Center's Arabesque Festival in 2009. The recipient of many awards including the Fulbright Arts Grant (USA), and the British Council Chevening Scholarship (UK), Bassiouni received her PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her work on her one-woman show, Solitaire is a multi-media performance sheds light on the changing identity of Arabs in the past decade. Solitaire has been presented in Cairo, Iraq, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Abu Dhabi, and Germany, as well as in several US cities. She teaches theatre at Helwan and Cairo Universities. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, the Faculty of Tourism at the Sixth of October University held a three-day international conference in Hurghada entitled “Therapeutic and Curative Tourism”. The conference discussed the treatment of diseases such as psoriasis and rheumatism by climatotherapy in the Red Sea and Sinai. Present were Red Sea Governor Major-General Ahmed Abdallah, Sixth of October University President Ahmed Attia and Dean of the Faculty of Tourism Adel Hammam.
