LAST evening evening in the Egyptian Museum garden, Egypt celebrated World Heritage Day for the third consecutive year. It was a beautiful evening as the Cairo Opera Symphony Orchestra played classical melodies in front of French archaeologist Auguste Mariette's mausoleum. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary-General Zahi Hawass, and renowned actor Omar Sharif were seated along with Egyptian actresses Nadia Lutfi and Layla Elwi. Archaeologists, restorers and curators, prominent cultural figures, foreign and Egyptian journalists and television presenters also attended. The idea of holding an "International Day for Monuments and Sites" to be celebrated simultaneously throughout the world was first mooted on 18 April 1982 at a symposium organised by the International Council of Monuments and Sites in Tunisia. The project was approved by the executive committee, who provided practical suggestions to the various national committees on how to organise the day. The idea was also approved by the UNESCO General Conference, which passed a resolution at its 22nd session in November 1983 recommending that member states examine the possibility of declaring 18 April each year "International Monuments and Sites Day". This is now traditionally called World Heritage Day, and is celebrated worldwide. This year in Egypt Hosni honoured former culture minister Tharwat Okasha and renowned writer Neamat Fouad for their devotion to archaeology and all their efforts to enhance, protect and preserve Egypt's heritage. During the event Hawass said the era of President Hosni Mubarak had witnessed several crucial decisions related to archaeology. The first was the halting of the Cairo Ring Road, which was scheduled to pass over the Giza Plateau. On the fringe of the events, the culture minister opened a photographic exhibition in the museum's millennium hall. The photographs featured the Saqqara necropolis during the 19th and 20th centuries as well as the famous archaeologists who worked there such as Mariette, Selim Hassan, Sayed Tawfiq and Jean Philip Lauer.
