Some fascinating news from Egypt that has not yet reached the popular press, sent to us by Eugene Cruz-Uribe after a recent trip to Egypt. Surely this April 1 will become significant in the annals of Egyptology. (Long, but very interesting)

In Kharga Oasis the reconstruction of Hibis temple has taken a
new twist. A group of German engineers recently visited the site of
the partially dismantled Hibis temple at the behest of the SCA. Their
initial report praised the fortitude that the contractors, Osman Ahmed
Osman ("The Arab Contractor"), have endured in their 2 year hiatus in
work on the site. In a controversial move in 2001 Zahi Hawass had
ordered all work on the site halted leaving the Osman engineers with
little to do but watch the paint dry. Plans for reconstruction of the
dismantled temple bits are going to move forward once special stone
adhesive imported from Europe is acquired. "We can make the glue
very quickly", the German engineers were reported to have said. It
was hinted that this stone adhesive will become the standard for
use in reconstructing all the major monuments in the Nile Valley.
The SCA is using the oasis site as a test ground for the adhesive
out of sight of the interference of tourists in the valley. The
contractor, Osman Ahmed Osman, is heard to have the inside
track on the multi-million dollar contracts that may be awarded.

In Luxor the Egyptological community is abuzz with the recent
announcements concerning the discovery of additional colossi at
the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III. "We have uncovered 12
additional colossi in and around the site", says Hourig Sourouzian,
the head of the archaeological team. "Several were found in the
tourist shops along the road and we spent a great deal of time
in negotiations with the owners to get them back." Once the
colossi are re-erected there are plans to make the site a large
open air museum. The SCA is planning on charging an entrance
fee of 40 L.E. and have begun erecting 10 meter screens so
tourists cannot take photographs of the site while it is under
excavations.

Also in Luxor, with the appearance of volume 3 of the Khonsu
Temple series (Graffiti from the Roof) Chicago House Director
Ray Johnson has announced that the Chicago House team will
return to Khonsu temple in the near future to finish the epigraphic
work on that temple. The reason for this sudden change in
direction for the American team was explained as a reaction to
the appearance of a recent volume by a German scholar on
the sanctuary of the Khonsu complex. "How can they possibly do
a final publication if we haven't done the epigraphy yet?", one
Chicago House staff member was heard to say. Ray Johnson
stated that he has put the Khonsu temple on the schedule for the
2017-18 field season. "This will allow us time to finish a couple
of other minor projects first," he said.

In the Valley of the Kings there have been a number of activities.
An Italian photographer has been contracted by the SCA to
photograph the tomb of Sety I. The photographer, Sandro Vannini
of Viterbo, Italy (www.sandrovannini.com), will use new digital
photographic methods to produce a children' s pop-up volume.
"We hope they will be all the rage," he noted. Zahi Hawass, Director
General of the SCA, is sponsoring the project and has reluctantly
agreed to write the forward to the volumes for a small honorarium.
"I do so love kids," he said.

Also in the Valley the American team lead by Otto Schaden working
on the tomb of Amenmesse (KV 10) reported the discovery of a
bunch of dirt. "It's very nice dirt", he was quoted as saying. The
team was allowed to move the dirt from the front of the tomb and
deposit it in the open pits left by the now closed British expedition
to the Valley. This immediately caused a firestorm of controversy
with the team of Kent Weeks (American University in Cairo and
author of the best selling forthcoming volume on the KV Maps).
"Now where are we supposed to put the dirt from our excavations?",
Prof. Weeks stated. Rumors have it that negotiations are under way
to allow him to use the tomb of Merneptah as a temporary storage
facility. "It is a big tomb," said an unnamed SCA gaffir from the
valley. The other possibility heard by this reporter would be to
allow the balloon operators to ferry in tourists directly to the valley
and take out the debris on their return trip. "This would be a very
good use of available resources," said Mohammed Mustafa, owner
of Air Balloon Tours in Luxor.

Ted Brock, associate on Kent Weeks' Theban Mapping Project,
was "shocked" to discover that there were Demotic graffiti written
on the walls of some of the royal tombs. "It is amazing how careless
and insensitive those Demots were," he was heard to say. Eugene
Cruz-Uribe (Northern Arizona University and a noted Demotic
graffiti scholar), confirmed the existence of these Demotic graffiti.
"It never ceases to amaze me how so many useful Greek graffiti
were pushed out by those Demotic scribes." Reports that
Cruz-Uribe was going to head an international expedition to record
the 50 or so graffiti were not confirmed. "We have to build a dig
house first," was all Cruz-Uribe would say.

In Aswan the local tourism officials have announced plans to
dismantle the small temple to Isis found within the city. This is
part of a larger regional Aswan plan to consolidate all of the
monuments on one or two or three or four conveniently placed
islands in the Nile. "We have a lot of unemployed ferry boat
drivers and this would be a boon to the local economy,"
one tourism official was quoted as saying. In a separate
announcement, ferry officials have posted a standard fee for
foreign archaeologists who wish to use a ferry boat to visit
any of the archaeological islands. Fees are set at a standard
400 L.E. "There have been reports of severe emotional
trauma by certain ferry boat drivers who are forced to
wait 5, 6 and even 7 hours waiting for these archaeologists
to view the sites. What can take them so long?" stated
Mohammed Mustafa, the head of the ferry boat drivers union.

In middle Egypt, Samir Anis, director of the Minya office of the
SCA, has opened negotiations with the Tourism and Security
Police from Assyut province to take over control of all of
the SCA operations and oversight of foreign expeditions in the
area. "It was just becoming too much of a hassle to fill out
all of the forms." Mohammed Mustafa, chief of Security and
Tourism Police welcomed the opportunity. "We have always
tried to work closely with the SCA officials. This agreement
will remove one more bureaucratic layer from the process
and make it much easier for foreign archaeologists to do their
work." Details of the agreement are not known but are
rumored to include the proviso that any foreign mission
working in Middle Egypt will need to be housed in Assyut and
must pay the wages of the drivers of the security vehicles and
pay for the gasoline used on each security vehicle accompanying
the archaeologists. "With all of the government cutbacks, our
budgets are strained to the breaking point," quoted an
unnamed Security official. "Plus, it's only fair."

In Cairo the site for the new Cairo Museum and Theme Park on the
Giza plateau has been finalized. Groundbreaking is scheduled for
the end of July of one of these years. The hold up on this vital
project has been interference from the Egyptian highways
department. Mohmmaed Mustafa, Director General, was
quoted as saying, "They [the SCA officials] had drastically
under-estimated the number of exit ramps needed for this
project. We finally have an agreement where 4 exit ramps
and 2 entrance ramps will be built on the new Cairo - Giza
ring road." No date for construction has been announced.

In a surprise move, Zahi Hawass has announced that he is offering
to give the Sphinx to the British Museum. This move will reunite
the long separated beard of the Sphinx with the remainder of
the monument. There is an expectation that the British Museum
will have to pay freight charges to move the blocks to London.
"I heard they were giving the Elgin Marbles back to Greece
and they will have this big exhibition space vacant. I thought
this would be a nice gesture on the part of the Egyptian people."
British Museum officials had no comment, but Tony Blair,
Prime Minister, was quoted outside of 10 Downing Street as
saying, "I can finally get to see that bloody thing up close."

Lastly, in a very surprise announcement Zahi Hawass also
announced that he plans on stepping down next year as
head of the SCA. He is recommending that the next
Director General of the SCA be a foreigner. "Having a
foreigner as Director will recreate the golden years of Egyptology.
Things were so good back then." Dr. Hawass says he plans to
relax and write a few more books during his retirement, but does
not discourage talk that he is in line to be the next Minister of
Culture.