IN an exhibition and seminar held in the Italian Institute in Cairo in co-operation with the New Valley Governorate earlier this week, a new image for what we can call ‘The Other Egypt'was suggested. The four-day exhibition that started on Monday showcased the arts, handcrafts, traditional clothes and food industries in the New Valley Governorate. They seem very different from their traditional counterparts in the Nile Valley, but what was really interesting is that the tourism in the New Valley is also very different from that in the Nile Valley. The New Valley is the biggest governorate in Egypt, covering an area of 458,000sqkm, about one-fifth of the total surface area of Egypt. It extends in the north as far as Mersa Matrouh, in the south as far as Sudan and in the west as far as Libya. In the east it is coterminous with the governorates of Assiut, Qena and Aswan. The area has many attractions, including archaeological and ancient ruins and the primitive life of different Egyptian tribes in the governorate oases; Bahariya, Dakhla, Farafra and Kharga. But 90 per cent of the New Valley area consists of sand dunes, hills, plateaux and heights which are ideal for environmental and adventure tourism. The New Valley has vast deserts that attract tourists, who crave for adventure and long safaris. Until recently, very few people had shown any interest in these vast areas of desert, but now tourists are flocking from afar to erect their tents in the desert and admire the crescent-shaped, sifting sands and rocks shaped like natural pyramids, sphinxes and camels. One of the first people to be attracted were the Italians who love to explore the desert and have also launched projects to help protect and develop such areas. Within the Egyptian-Italian environmental co-operation programme, a crosscutting and comprehensive approach to the overall environmental sector has been adopted in many different fields: sustainable agriculture and tourism, conservation of the cultural heritage, environmental legislation, water resources and solid waste management. In his inaugural speech at the seminar, Ahmed Mokhtar, the Governor of the New Valley, said that co-operation with the Italian Government was very fruitful. "They were the first to show interest in what we can call 'The Other Egypt', different from the ordinary image of Egypt as the country of ancient monuments and sunny beaches," added Mokhtar, who explained that we still need to exert more effort to show off this magnificent side of Egypt. Italian Ambassador to Cairo Claudio Pacifico expressed his delight at what has been achieved in the New Valley, adding that nearly one million Italian tourists come to Egypt every year, many of whom gravitate to the desert. The New Valley Cultural Week was not the first to be held at the Italian Institute, as there was also one in 2006, while in 2008 a conference on the potentials of the New Valley was held in Milan. Now the Italian commitment in the New Valley is mainly focusing on enhancing the spectacular White Desert National Park and the remote Gilf el-Kibir National Park. Wael Abed, a member of the Egyptian Geographic Society, described the Western Desert as a peculiar and practical location with diverse and extraterrestrial landscape. "It changes its nature every 50km. Some parts look like Mars. Some forms only exist on the Moon," he said, describing the potential of these deserts, whose cultural history is far older than that of the Pyramids and other famous monuments. "The history there is ancient. It's rich in caves with drawings made more than 13,000 years ago. These deserts haven't changed for millennia."
