February 27, 2006

Hats of to the Egyptian Indiana Jones

 

Zahi Hawass

Chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities

 

The Pharaohs keep lobbing them over and he just keep knocking them out of the park. Its what he does.

The man just uncovered another ancient Pharaohs temple the size of a small city in downtown Cairo. A Sun Temple; of course you would think the district they found it in, Ain Shams (literally meaning “eye of the sun”), was a hint.

CAIRO, Egypt - Archaeologists discovered a pharaonic sun temple with large statues believed to be of King Ramses II under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo, Egypt's antiquities chief said Sunday.

The partially uncovered site is the largest sun temple ever found in the capital's Aim Shams and Matariya districts, where the ancient city of Heliopolis — the center of pharaonic sun worship — was located, Zahi Hawass told The Associated Press.

Among the artifacts was a pink granite statue weighing 4 to 5 tons whose features "resemble those of Ramses II," said Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Also found was a 5-foot-high statue of a seated figure with hieroglyphics that include three cartouches with the name of Ramses II, and a 3-ton head of royal statue, the council said in a statement.

King Ramses II, who ruled Egypt for 66 years from 1270 to 1213 B.C., had erected monuments up and down the Nile with records of his achievements, as well as building temples — including Abu Simbel, erected near what is now Egypt's southern border.

Also more than noteworthy, he is also the man who coordinated the effort to build a 3D model of what King Tut looked like.

 

 

One of my best friends, the man that made the excellent rendering above and runs this company that makes them (primarily for dental and medical purposes), also tells me that Mr. Hawass is also an incredibly delightful man.

Mr. Hawass you are my nominee for the Egyptian of the Year Award!

Now all we need to do is start living up to what our forefathers left us. Maybe even leave our great great grandchildren something to be as proud of. (BTW I am an architect so if anyone needs me….;)


Posted by Karim Elsahy at 11:09:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (9) |
Comments
1 - Karim,
What pisses me off usually about this guy is how he completely eclipses everyone that works with him, intentionally I believe. Whenever something noteworthy is discovered its Mr. Hawas and NO one else gets mentioned. Its as if he's literally an Indiana Johns!

Its the "Individual" mentality of Egyptian achievement. Egypt is ruled, as an example, by Mubarak, as if everyone else (prime minister, ministers, and all the other bureaucrats are just shadows that are lucky to bath in the light emanating from him!)

I remember 3 years ago when the Discovery Channel was making a documentary about the sealed rooms in the "Khufu" Pyramid there were a lot of complains about this specific aspect of Mr. Hawas's personality.

I don't know, you might know him better, and I could be completely wrong. It's just a feeling, or maybe because its something so familiar in the Egyptian psych that its just expected (unjustly in some cases).

AT (Comment this)

Written by: AhmedT at 2006/02/27 - 12:41:28
2 - No Ahmed actually I don’t know him. I guess I was just more in the mood of focusing on something nonpolitical for a sec; you know how frustrating this stuff can get.

As I said, my friend thinks he’s great and said nothing of him being a credit hog; actually he took my friend around celebrating him for his work. That said, my pick may have been a Monday morning mood thing without to much thought. I’ll leave it to you to make a better nomination. (Comment this)

Written by: Karim Elsahy at 2006/02/27 - 13:05:35
3 - He is the boss of the Antiquity Office. How many other bosses do you know that take much of the glory for the work his staff does? This is not an uncommon thing and is not unique to any one country. I would wager that away from the cameras he is a good boss that cares about his staff. (Comment this)

Written by: goesh at 2006/02/27 - 16:05:42
4 - Zahi Hawass really fancies himself. Why on earth does he wear that stetson hat is a mystery to me.
The guy might know about his subject but you never hear of anyone else in that supreme council of antiquities, do you? Everything that is discovered, & many are by sheer luck, has to involve him one way or another, i have not seen another egyptian name alongside zahi hawasss ever to the extent i feel he is superman who works alone, a modern day real indiana jones that is only missing the whip. (Comment this)

Written by: Alienkain at 2006/02/27 - 16:30:50
5 - Oh by the way, someone i trust had met hawass on several occasions in meetings at work & says he isnt that pleasant, coming from someone who is usually carefree means in my dictionary almost odious.
When someone dominates an office that much, when we only see him & no one else, nor do we read about others, it only proves he is dictatorial savouring fame & leaping to the spotlights at every chance. (Comment this)

Written by: Alienkain at 2006/02/27 - 16:37:09
6 - I could not believe TIME listed Zahi Hawass in their list of 100 people who shape our world unless it was in the catagory of Supreme Self-promoter. He is a charlatan, who is more concerned with his own stardom than guarding Egypt's antiquities. For a live Fox TV spectacular, as always starring himself, (with his friend as the recommended services provider for the big budget shoot) he supposedly opened a tomb for the first time live on US primetime. However Hawass stuffed the mummy in the tomb prior to the show and it was obvious even to my 10-year-old that the mummy did not fit the tomb. Hawass could not have possibly identified it as a female of a certain age in seconds as he did, paintbrush in hand, to the wide-eyed amazement of the gullible. The Egyptian government loves him because they see him as a supreme promoter of tourism to Egypt. Serious archaeologists must suck up to him or they don't get permits. Had Time's reporter looked a little deeper she would have discovered the other side to this "guardian". He will eventually be outed as the petty, vindictive, arrogant, fake, corrupt self-promoter that he is. (Comment this)

Written by: witheld for fear of reprisal at 2006/05/13 - 16:17:39
7 - I do marketing for a travel company that specializes in Egypt. We feel fortunate to have Zahi Hawass join many of our group departures to Egypt. The comment about promoting tourism is right. We have many travelers join our trips particularly because they want to interact with him. That's a lot of money being spent on traveling and services in Egypt. We just announced a tour to departe October of 2007 and already the trip is half full. He offers that name recognition and people want to experience the antiquities in person as a result. (Comment this)

Written by: Cemantha Crain at 2006/05/16 - 12:07:00
8 - Check out this introduction article on Cairo :
http://www.articleworld.org/cairo
Content :
1 Geography
2 Districts
3 Infrastructure
4 Famous Cairenes (Comment this)

Written by: cairo at 2006/05/16 - 17:35:56
9 - goesh,I have been in his anteroom and heard him shout at a female subordinate, telling her he would break her in two and smash her if she ever did anything he did not agre with

Care for his staff????? care for himself more like (Comment this)

Written by: Anonymous at 2007/12/02 - 09:15:38 in reply to: 3
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