LUXOR: Built on tourism, Egypt’s most famous ancient city is in the process of getting a make over, and not everyone is pleased with the government’s actions. The plan is to create an open-air museum on the city’s West Bank, home to such renowned monuments as Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple and the Valley of the Kings. It will be a haven for tourists who will be alone with the ancient structures. The catch, however, is that thousands of Egyptians currently live on the West Bank of Luxor. The Supreme Council of Luxor argued that the process of moving people living among the ancient sites has been “smooth and without problems.†In fact, one official said that some people have already been moved from the West Bank “and have begun to live normal lives without problems on the East Bank.†The Supreme Council of Luxor, said that the relocation of residents from the West Bank will make Luxor “become the first and largest open air museum in the world.†The project to make the West Bank an open-air museum is part of an overall endeavor to make Luxor a modern tourist site. It will cost the Egyptian government 1.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($200 million) for all renovations, including restructuring famed temples Karnak and Luxor as well as creating a new bazaar for shopping opportunities. This project, the council argues, will only help “to increase tourism†in what they argued was “a manner that respects Egyptian heritage and its past†without infringing on the residents of Luxor. “Tourism is the main investment in Luxor, because the city of Luxor contains one third of the world’s archeological sites as well as being blessed with a temperate climate all year round,†the council said. Statistics for the West Bank of Luxor were unavailable, although the council did admit that thousands of people will be forced out of their homes for the open-air museum project. For Mahmoud Hassan, the so-called relocation project has left him and his family in doldrums. Earlier this year, Hassan’s family lived quietly in a building they owned on the West Bank, but when the government came in to compensate and move them, the situation became sticky. “They just gave us a notice and we had to leave. We knew it was coming so it wasn’t like it was a big shock,†Hassan retells at his supermarket along the East Bank’s pristine promenade where tourists bustle in and out. The council refused to comment on individual situations, arguing that “full compensation is being given to residents on the West Bank in the relocation process.†Now, his family, parents and extended family together, live in one apartment offered by the government as compensation for his family’s building. This form of discrimination by the government needs to change, Hassan says. “My wife and I had our own apartment just for ourselves living in a building owned by my family, now we share one large flat with people who used to have their own space. Life is not comfortable.†Hassan believes the move toward a return to the ancient make-up of the city will increase tourism and his income, but the manner he and his family was treated needs to be reexamined. “Foreigners don’t understand that this sort of thing goes on here,†he begins, “and that is okay, but the government should not put tourism first in this country. Everything is becoming more expensive and I now have to look for a new flat because the government took away the one I had lived in for so long. What tourists see is an ancient city inhabited by the descendants of the great builders of civilization. The every day tribulations of local Egyptians is masked in the hustle to acquire trinkets that will be a nostalgic reminder of a vacation spent in Egypt’s distant past. For Hassan and his family, the struggle to create a new life remains constant. “They want to show tourists that Egypt is not a 3rd world country by getting rid of all the people on the West Bank, but at what cost?†The idea of recreating the ancient past in a manner identical to the Pharaoh’s is inspiring, even bold, Egyptians living in Luxor hope that during this process the government will remember who the more important Egyptians are today. BM
