A new book on the market inspires Jill Kamil to offer an original perspective on tourism development in Egypt, and outline an unusual and original expedition Religion and Tourism: Crossroads, Destinations and Encounters by Michael Stausberg attracted my attention in the bookstore, largely because its attractive cover features tourists milling around the colonnade of Luxor Temple. Turning to the back cover to read the blurb, I read that one reviewer described the book as "an insightful read and refreshingly compelling overview of the crossover between religion and tourism from a religious studies perspective". A second review was equally flattering, describing the book as "a rigorous, rich and thoughtful volume". The concept of linking vacations and religion is by no means new. After all, the word "holiday" comes from "holy day", which for centuries was the only time the average person had a day off work. So, filled with interest and curiosity, I turned to the Contents page, then to the Index to look up "Egypt", and found to my astonishment that of a total of 292 pages of small print -- no photographs, maps or illustrations -- Egypt featured on a mere ten pages. Most peculiar! If Egypt is a tourist destination important enough to warrant the cover photograph, and has the largest single collection of religiously-related monuments in the world, then why such meagre coverage? I bought the book to find out. Let me say at the outset that Religion and Tourism does not make for an easy read, and its purpose is not easy to gauge. Stausberg argues, uniquely, that tourism should be a major focus of research within religious studies, and outlines the significance of tourism as a major arena of religious encounters in the contemporary world. He also explores the dynamic interaction between religion and tourism -- not only in the ancient world but also in the modern -- discusses tour guides, guidebooks, religious souvenirs, religious theme parks, and even "wellness" and "spa" tourism. He even explores the relationship between tourism and pilgrimage, and considers such questions as what happens to religious performances, places and festivals that function as tourist destinations -- all parameters into which Egypt fits. So why did it not feature more strongly? I decided to read it a second time, more carefully. It is clear that Michael Stausberg, Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen, Norway, has done great deal of research into the tourist industry worldwide, and I was forced to conclude that if Egypt featured on less than a dozen pages of the book, it was because it did not deserve more extensive coverage. That observation (reached reluctantly) encouraged me to consider what could, or should be done in order to qualify the country for more substantial inclusion in any updates of the book; or for inclusion in forthcoming publications on the subject of religion and tourism which, in Stausberg's words, is "a fixture in both ancient and modern cultures". Unfortunately, Egypt is disposed to market its tourism product (a mainstay of the economy, by the way), in terms of diversity: cultural tourism (pharaonic, Coptic, and Islamic antiquities); museums (national, provincial, "outdoor museums", and specialist museums -- for mummies, jewellery, tapestries and so on); recreational or leisure tourism (sun, sand and sea, coral reefs, sailing and wind surfing),;health tourism (the benefits of sand and mud baths in selective places); and adventure tourism (desert and oases excursions). The idea is to attract as many tourists to the country as possible and to facilitate speedy transportation from one destination to another, leaving it to tourist agencies to determine itineraries. The agencies work in collaboration with the Egyptian Travel Agents Association, whose boards of directors comprise managers and chairmen of hotels and luxury resorts whose aim is to sell their particular product --accommodation. Tourism in Egypt fluctuates in response to political or social upheaval, and it dropped markedly following the events of January/February 2011. After the downfall of President Mubarak, a high-level meeting took place in early June, attended by Taleb Al-Rifai, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organisation; Tourism Minister Mounir Abdel-Nour; and Prime Minister Essam Sharef. The discussions were geared towards promoting the same old "package deals" to the most popular destinations, where tourists would be guided to "the largest", the "oldest", and "the most unique" monuments in the world. What reports of the gathering in the local media made clear, however, was that the prime concern was hotel occupancy and reviving strategies so that Egyptian stakeholders could pick up steam from participation in major global events and travel fairs, where Egypt tends to display the usual range of "Egyptomania" products. The participants spoke, as usual, of inviting influential travel writers and journalists from major newspapers and magazines to visit Egypt to help promote tourism, and, as to be expected, stressing that Egypt is a "safe" destination. Abdel-Nour noted with pride that the Ministry of Tourism had produced promotional TV films for international audiences and events, with top priorities being given to Arab markets. In other words, Egypt's tourism industry in this post-revolutionary stage is trying to sell their already well-known product to an existing client��le: Arabs come to Egypt for two reasons -- for the "High Life" of modern Cairo, and to escape the summer heat in their own countries. Europeans who clock into inexpensive package deals come for recreational tourism -- with culture as a mere sidebar. Russians come for sunshine, not culture, while Japanese tourists flit through the country, cameras in hand, just long enough to take a shot of each other at every well known destination and beside every famous monument. What is clear from Stausberg's book, however, is that a vast number of today's tourists are not looking for more of the same, but are in search of unique travel experiences. One of these trends is a cross between tourism and religion in a vibrant or unusual cultural heritage setting. With this in mind, I decided to put on my thinking cap and consider how Egypt could offer tourists something new; something original and exciting enough to draw them back -- not to repeat the age-old excursions that have been going on since Thomas Cook dreamed up package tours, but something that provides a refreshing "crossover between religion and tourism from a religious studies perspective", and at the same time from a historical perspective. Let me present a case for Esna. But before I do, you might wonder what motivates me to suggest this relatively undistinguished site in Upper Egypt, with its single Graeco-Roman temple, compared with others that can boast an abundance of monuments from different periods. One reason is that Esna deserves more attention than it gets. Cruise vessels that dock there so visitors can see the Temple of Khnum allow them less than an hour to disembark, walk 200 metres to the monument (which is located in the middle of the town and is threatened by water seepage), view the reliefs, purchase a few "touristy trinkets" from stalls lined along the route, and rapidly make their way back to the river and sail off to visit the largest and best-preserved Graeco-Roman temple, that of Horus at Edfu. The visit is so rushed that they are given insufficient to time to gauge the historical importance of the temple or its religious and political significance, nor do they have an opportunity to visit the ancient tombs, or the most important of several monasteries and churches built in the neighbourhood which relate directly to the temple reliefs. Esna, the site of ancient Seni, was a strategically important centre for local commerce in ancient times, a Nile terminal for one of the caravan routes leading to Nubia and the Sudan with open-air markets and kiosks. Its importance dates to the great and prosperous Eighteenth Dynasty, when it became the point from which Tuthmosis II led his army into Nubia. Only in Ptolemaic times, however, did the area (named Latopolis after the lates fish which was held sacred) become sufficiently important to justify building a small temple over some of the ancient ruins. The fa��ade faces the Nile and is decorated with later Roman reliefs. Votive inscriptions for emperors Claudius (AD 41 �ê" 54) and Vespasian (AD 69 �ê" 79) appear on each side of the sun-disk on the architrave over the entrance; the latter is referred to not as Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, but as "Lord of Rome the Capital". In her classic A Thousand Miles up the Nile, the late 19th-century traveller Amelia Edwards described the Temple of Khnum as already "buried to the chin in the accumulated rubbish of a score of centuries". It was first excavated by Mohamed Ali in 1842 -- not, let it be said, in the spirit of archaeological concern, but rather in order to enlarge its storage space and provide a safe underground magazine for gunpowder -- and later cleared and restored by the French scholar Auguste Mariette. It was described by early travellers in terms of reverence and admiration, as "without question one of the most beautiful in Egypt", and "second only to Jerusalem in the number of Christians that suffered martyrdom". The ceremonial entrance that once linked the quay with the temple has entirely disappeared, but a flight of stairs leads down to the hypostyle hall, where 24 columns, in 4 rows of six each, stand close together beneath huge capitals formed either of flowers or bunches of plants. This chamber symbolised "the beginnings" as envisioned by the ancient Egyptians. The floor represents the water, the primordial marsh from which plants grow. The columns support the roof with elaborately carved capitals, no two alike, featuring feathery fronds of papyrus, lotus umbels and buds, and, on two of them, bunches of grapes. The lofty cornice that juts above our heads is the sky. An inscription on one of the columns describes Khnum as a cosmic god who "raised the sky upon its four pillars, and uplifted it from eternity". This ram-headed deity was believed to have fashioned gods and all living creatures on a potter's wheel from Nile clay, and among the capitals are frogs and insects. The remaining part of the temple is of harmonious proportions and heavily inscribed with details of festivals that took place throughout the year, set out in the form of a calendar. Two that took place at Esna, depicted on the columns, are the cosmic creation of the goddess Neith of Sais and the victory of the god over rebellious mankind. A pair of cryptographic hymns are inscribed: one to Khnum, written with hieroglyphics of rams, the other with crocodiles, sacred to the area. The reliefs on the rear wall, which date from Ptolemaic times, are more delicately executed than those of the Roman period, but the latter renders the temple of historic interest because it is adorned with reliefs of various emperors, wearing pharaonic garb, paying homage to local gods, laying foundation stones and consecrating the building. In one scene the emperor is depicted as Horus, and he joins the ram-headed god Khnum in drawing in a net-full of waterfowl and fishes -- in the net some of Egypt's enemies have been caught along with the river creatures. The emperors are cited by name and include Claudius, Vespasian, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and Trajan Decius (AD 249 �ê" 251),the last Roman name to appear in a Pharaonic cartouche, the symbol of Egyptian royalty. The reign of Septimius Severus marked the first of the great persecutions. The emperor believed he wielded divine power no less than did the pharaohs, and redecorated temples with reliefs of himself and his wife Julia making offerings to the gods. Concerned about the spread of Christianity, he decreed that municipal councils should be set up in all the nome capitals. The already dissatisfied population, overtaxed and hard-pressed to meet the demand for grain, rebelled, and frequently deserted when called up for military service. The produce of the vineyards, palm groves and fig plantations were also taxed, and even the land used for garden produce was subject to imposition. Hunting and fishing licences swelled the resources of the Roman state, and Egyptians even had to pay for the right to go fowling in the marshes or fishing in the lakes, activities that their ancestors had pursued freely for several thousands of years. The Upper Egyptians never submitted lightly to Roman rule. As early as 29 BC, at the start of the Augustus's reign and Rome's dominion over Egypt, there was insurrection in Thebes against tax collectors. The repercussions were drastic. Within five days, five neighbouring towns had been totally razed in retaliation. It is not surprising, then, that so many Egyptians found it expedient to court the new rulers rather than confront them, and permit their artists to depict them on temple walls in the manner of the ancient pharaohs, honouring the gods and defeating traditional enemies. But Egypt was, in reality, bereft of leadership. There was no pharaoh whose legitimacy was recognised. The people laboured, but reaped only scant reward. Under such adverse conditions, many Nile Valley dwellers sought refuge in the desert, in ancient tombs, or in the caves that pitted the mountain ranges flanking the river. Thousands of "anchorites" (derived from the Greek word to "retire" or "withdraw") either lived alone or in small groups, isolated from one another. Slowly individual aesthetics started to draw together. In a world of want and violence, Christianity flourished, and the new faith came to symbolise resistance to the foreign rulers. When Decius became emperor in AD 249 he set up official village committees charged with identifying Christians. In order to test their faith and prove that they did not belong to the outlawed cult, they were obliged to join in traditional pharaonic rites and sacrifice to the gods. In return for these acts, they were provided with formal papyrus certificates of their religious correctness. Surviving texts bear such declarations as: "I have in your presence sacrificed and made libations and tasted the offerings, along with my wife, my sons and my daughter, acting through me, and I request you to certify my statement." But for every individual who submitted to this command, there were many who refused. Self-professed Christians were routinely tortured or killed, and many, fearing for their safety, submitted false certificates. The Coptic Synaxarium, a compilation of the lives of saints, martyrs and religious heroes, is full of stories of suffering by those willing to die rather than abjure their faith. In and around Esna, hermits took refuge in ancient tombs, in isolated caves near the edge of both Eastern and Western deserts, and sometimes in a communal settlement. So here we have, at Esna, a temple and a monastery, the Monastery of the Three Thousand Six Hundred Martyrs (Deir Manaos wa al-Shohadaa) at the foot of the limestone plateau. The temple depicts Roman emperors and lies some nine metres below ground level. It is seriously threatened by waste water seepage, and for some dozen years now discussions have been taking place on the feasibility of dismantling and relocating the temple. So far nothing has been done, but imagine if it were re-located to the edge of the desert near to the monastery of the martyrs -- a monastery honouring those persecuted by the Romans depicted in the temple of Khnum. Together they would provide a unique opportunity to visit monuments that stand at the crossroads of history; that represent merging cultures, a perfect exemplar of a new encounter between religion and tourism. The monastery is well worth a visit. The older of the two churches in the large complex was built in the 1930s and houses the remains of the saints and martyrs. It was erected around the three ancient rock-hewn sanctuaries, which probably appear little different today from when they were first carved out some seven centuries ago. Evidence of earlier wall paintings can be made out beneath a layer of plaster on the sanctuary walls. There is also a holy spot: in front of the altar in the old church stands a metre-high granite column marking the place where Egyptians were beheaded. The monastery, by the way, provides accommodation for thousands of pilgrims annually, and (like other monasteries throughout the country) welcomes overnight visitors. The two monuments, temple and monastery, could be developed into a singular destination at Esna. They tangibly demonstrate the co-existence of two distinct yet overlapping cultures at a crucial period of Egyptian history; the juxtaposition of Roman persecution and Christian faith. Together they could be classified as a religious destination as important as others described by Stausberg in his Religion and Tourism. And, since Stausberg makes clear in his book that modern-day tourists expect to combine culture/religious tourism with leisure, let me add that there is a good road across the Eastern Desert to Quseir , a major seaside destination on the Red Sea with a choice of hotels and beach resorts, and with facilities for snorkelling and skin diving. Quseir itself has the advantage of being an important historical location. The Fort, built in 1571 after Ottoman Turks conquered Egypt, has recently been restored and is open to the public. Cannons once again point seawards from their original gun ports, the viewing platform commissioned by Napoleon has been restored, and a Visitors' Centre displays the local history, archaeology and culture of the surrounding region. Two hours north of Quseir by road is Hurghada Airport from where visitors could fly back to Cairo in an hour.
