On that day from hundred years ago, there was a boy who should have been playing like the rest of the boys of his age but instead, he was working alongside his father and his clan in very hard conditions.
He was commissioned to bring water to a camp and to serve that camp's local workers and those foreigners with tea as they dug and searched in the rocky valley that looks more like a mountain than the usual valley in your mind for old treasures.
Hussein Abdel Rasoul
His name was Hussein Abdel Rasoul and he was only 12 years old he discovered the first step that led down to King Tutankhamun’s tomb thanks to his water pottery jar according to the legend the rest was a new history by all measures.
They were huge trucks. They are on the other side of the Islamic Museum of Cairo. I could not ignore them so I began to capture their photos on-the-go while I was in the car. “I was not driving and that’s why the quality is not the best”
The big trucks loaded with all sorts of goods
I asked about them and it turned out that there are many shipping companies that transfer goods from Cairo to all governorates.
I know that Ramadan is packing up its bags and is going to leave us within hours but it is never too late to share those couple of photos with you guys.
If you want to have a glimpse of the true spirit of the Holy Month of Ramadan in Egypt, you do not go to upscale neighbourhoods but rather working-class neighbourhoods
If you want to have a glimpse of how local markets celebrate the holy month then there is no better than El-Sayida Zeinab make-shift Ramadan market.
El-Sayida Zeinab's minaret overlooking the make-shift market
This was not the first time to visit the most famous market when it comes to the Ramadan Lanterns but it was the first time for me to visit the market during Ramadan.
I visited it in 2016 just one night before Ramadan and it was a great experience for me breaking a lot of barriers to me as a shy photographer.
Now According to the sellers, the market got fewer visitors and customers during Ramadan than before Ramadan which is logic if you think about it.
A customer checking the lanterns
This is the fourth year for Egypt to ban the import of Chinese-made Ramadan lanterns.
In an attempt to preserve the tradition handmade industry of Ramadan lanterns, the government issued a ministerial decree in 2015 to ban the Chinese plastic Ramadan lanterns.
The building , officially known as No.54 in the street was demolished as part of the governmental plan to revamp Maspero triangle area but before it was demolished , I was lucky enough to document some of its last moments and to know more about its history or rather its people.
Specifically the shop owners who owned shops in the buildings , most of them spent half of their lives in that buildings maintaining their shops for more than five decades and for that they tried to fight the battle till the end.
It was a lost battle in times where no mainstream media or social media can raise their concerns and screams to the officials.
Here is in my very bad and shaky video, I focused on two stories: the story of S. Hinhayat Clock shop and the story of Hajj Hosni, the mannequin maker.
P.S: I know it is not the best video or audio recording or editing but I hope you like it and share it.
Building No.54 was originally built in 1906 in “Avenue Boulaq” or “Boulaq street” in Boulaq Abu Ela district.
Despite Maspero Triangle is portrayed in the mainstream media now as low-income shanty town area “Which is partially true”, the area had several European Neo-Classical buildings especially in the area adjacent to Avenue Boulaq.
Once I spoke with a taxi driver who was raised there and he told me that those buildings were owned by foreigners who left Egypt after the 1952 Coup.
I think due to the fact that the Old Italian Consulate is located there, there were many foreigners or rather Italians who lived in the area.
An interesting fact that that Italian Consulate complex which included a school in the past was turned in to prison for foreigners or Italians by the British occupation during the World War II.
Back to our building, in 1907 a Bulgarian Jew watchmaker called Solomon Hinhayat inaugurated his clock shop in Boulaq street at Building No.54 according to shop’s last shopkeeper and owner Essam Solomon.
Solomon Hinhayat in the last days of his shop
Later that street was renamed Fouad street named after Egypt’s King Fouad I and during that era, it became one of Downtown Cairo’s busiest and commercial street.
This is a very belated Happy Sham El-Nassim to all dear Egyptians from Egyptian Chronicles.
It is belated thanks to TEData or WE or whatever it calls itself’s bad internet connections.
Here is a small teaser of another short visit to Egypt’s annual Spring Flowers Fair 2019.
It was a short visit during the last day in the constitutional amendments referendum.
From the Spring Flowers Fair 2019
And it is not officially the oldest spring day celebrated in Egypt except when you hear this song.
As Egyptians , we like to brag all the time about we are the oldest nation with a recorded civilization in the globe with 3000 B.C history or even 7000 B.C history and yet all that we are currently doing in Egypt now is watching how our history, our heritage is being demolished in front of our eyes for the sake of so-called modernism.
On Monday, I was hit by the news that the ancient “Perfumers agency” which was built originally from 900 years ago by the orders of Middle Cairo district because it allegedly imposes a danger on the public.
The Perfumers agency after it was demolished "Facebook"
Shamefully Egypt’s ministry of antiquities said that it was not a monument and was not registered as one and that Cairo governorate issued a demolishment order due to safety reasons.
The ministry's officials now say that the only thing ancient in the place was the facade !!
Here are couple of photos of the Great Al-Sayeda Zeinab Mosque on the Mawlid Nabawy or Moulid eve “as we say it in our Egyptian Arabic accent”.
I wanted to snap photos on Tuesday for Al-Sayeda Zeinab’s famous seasonal market beside her famous mosque and shrine but I realized that I was too late and I could not go it on the Moulid’s eve because it is the climax of celebration.
Al-Sayeda Zeinab Mosque on the eve of Moulid
Luckily I snapped a couple of photos for the great Mosque and Shrine for Al-Sayeda Zeinab “Lady Zeinab”, the grand-daughter of Prophet Mohamed “Peace upon them” in the heart of Cairo.
The old mosque which was renovated in 1940 by orders of King Farouk was beautifully decorated with green lights "Sufism plays a role here" for the religious occasion.
The mosque receives many visitors on such occasions
Wikipedia says inaccurately that the mosque was demolished and rebuilt in 1940 but according to an old photo I found that dates to 1890, the mosque had the same façade.
Happy Mawlid Nabawy from Egypt to the Whole Muslim world.
Tonight, a billion and a half Muslim celebrate the anniversary of Prophet Mohamed “PBUH” ‘s birthday according to the Hijri Date “Rabi’ I 12, 1440”.
Egyptian Chronicles wish that this anniversary will bring so much peace and stability to all people especially in places like Yemen, Syria, Rohingya, Uyghurs and Palestine where they cannot truly celebrate this beautiful occasion, which is equal like Christmas Eve.
Here is a photo I captured Monday night at famous Siyada Zeinab Quarter where Egyptians buy the famous “Halawat Al-Moulid” aka “The Mawlid sweets” at very ate time.
Buying Mawlid sweets in the streets of Cairo
By the way, due to economic reasons and the high prices of Mawlid sweets “The prices are higher from a year to another”, mothers began to share recipes on how to do it at home using nuts, peanuts and other stuff with caramel.
Mawlid Sweets go back to to the Fatimids era and I feel happy when I find it continues year after year whether we got caramel coated peanuts or marshmallows.
Yes a modern Mawlid doll with Nutella Maltesers and marshmallows "Islam Salheen"
Last Saturday, Egypt’s ministry of antiquities announced seven new tomb discoveries at Saqqara area. It is a huge announcement.
Three of the tombs belong to the New Kingdom era while the rest four tombs belong to the Old Kingdom.
Very beautiful artifacts were found at those tombs.
Now interestingly those three New Kingdom tombs were used at cat necropolis.
I know I have not been blogging actively as I am currently torn between work, flu and cold and following the Jamal Khashoggi’s sad saga and its developments. I find extreme angry and depressed.
Nevertheless here I am trying to blog what annoys me and what cheers me nowadays in my country Egypt.
From a couple of days ago, I read a news that bothered me a lot.
Some local Facebook news page in Alexandria spoke about how people spotted the army’s military police inside the perimeter of the historical and famous Aziza Fahmy palace.
The page showed photos for the army’s vehicles outside the palace claiming that its fences were being demolished.
It was said that the Armed Forces Engineering authority was allegedly building a huge hotel complex on the land of the palace.
Some concerned citizens include myself fear that the palace which was built in 1905 for Egyptian socialite Aziza Fahmy of the Fahmy clan is going to be demolished.
All the surviving palaces of Fahmy clan "owned by ladies" are pieces of arts in their own way. Journalist Nabil Abu Shal says that the Palace won’t be demolished and that it will be “embraced” by the armed forces owned-Tolip hotel “yes, this is its correct spelling, there is a hotel chain owned by army called Tolip”
According to architect Hussein Mahran , this alleged design is not the final nor the official one. He also added in a comment on Twitter that the design and drafting technique were very outdated and there were several proposals for that plot since the 1990s.
Now judging from that photo I took in May 2016, I do not know how the army’s engineering corps will build that alleged hotel considering the space around the palace is not that big !?
Aziza Fahmy palace in real life
It is not that big !!
Yes, it is the third biggest historical palace in Alexandria if you take into consideration its garden but still, it is not that big to host such hotel as it appears in that alleged design.
Also, what is in the future for that free public beach in front of the palace and its garden?
Seen in Cairo: Downtown Cairo always amazes you every time you go there with its beautiful buildings and distinguished architectural styles.
That building near Opera square caught my attention with its windows.
I do not know what exact style it is but I feel it is a mix of gothic and Venetian architectural style.
I bet its designer was Italian.
It turned out that he was studying unofficially mathematics in CU's Faculty of Sciences from 2009 and 2012 in parallel of his study in the AUC as well as studying for the preparatory degree in the Egyptian basic education system.
Among his professors and teachers besides Dr. Hany El-Hosseini is Dr. Laila Soueif "Yes, the famous political activist". In 2012, a French professor met Omar Mohsen while he was attended one of the summer camps for students like him, something like a camp for brilliant students and was impressed with his talent and thinking.
Happy New Hijri year 1440 and Happy New Ancient Egyptian/Coptic Year 6260 from Egyptian Chronicles to the Whole World.
On Tuesday Egypt celebrates the start of the Coptic new year or Nayrouz as well the Hijiri new year on the same day.
It is a coincidence that has only occurred 66 times according to historians and experts.
Tuesday is the first day of Muharram 1440 and is also the first day of Thout 6260
Amazingly, Jews around the globe as well as in Egypt celebrated the beginning of the new Jewish year or Rosh Hashanah 5779 on Sunday.
Interesting coincidence, I hope that those new years will be better than the previous ones for all of us.
Now on that occasion especially having the start new Hijiri year and the new ancient Egyptian/Coptic year on the same day, I decided to share with you those very few photos I took in a very short trip to Luxor temple in February 2012.
The famous Luxor temple or Luxor temples complex is not your usual ancient Egyptian temple or temples complex it is very unique ancient Egyptian temple complex or unique Egyptian religious complex.
The Luxor temples complex contain the original ancient Egyptian religious temples dedicated to the coronation of Kings and Queens, a Christian chapel and a mosque dedicated to a Sufi Sheikh.
When I saw Luxor temple, I felt that it represented Egypt religiously in a historic way.
The Luxor Temple
We got that beautiful ancient Egyptian temple complex built during the New Kingdom era where it was dedicated to the Theban Triad of the Cult of Royal Ka, Amun, Mut and Khonsu. The Royal Ka refers to the Royal spirit of the King who is a demigod.
It is sanctuary dedicated to the Kings and their coronation as well their achievements.
Time goes on and Christianity spread in Egypt replacing that the Theban triad with the Holy Trinity and parts of Luxor temples complex began to disappear under rubble, sand, dust and mud.
Other parts of were open and a new Church with its paintings replaced the ancient Egyptian inscriptions according to mainstream Egyptology.
The Church was located at the hypostyle hall in the temples complex
The tenth of September has become a World day to raise awareness worldwide against suicide since 2003. It is the World Suicide Prevention Day “WSPD” and I think this year we feel its importance in Egypt, at least in Cairo.
The World Health Organization “WHO” and the International Association For Suicide Prevention “IASP” aim from that day would provide worldwide an action to prevent suicide.
Recently we were hit by a wave of suicide cases in Cairo and Giza. In the past month and a half , Egypt has recorded 7 cases of people’s suicide at Metro station.
Young people throwing themselves in front of Metro trains to end their lives shockingly. Six of the cases was for young men while only one case was for a young girl who was only 20 years old.
There is no official number of people who commit suicide in Egypt.
It is another taboo like the number of Christians in the country I suppose.
I found in WHO data that the suicide mortality rate in Egypt is 4 cases per 100,000 people in 2016.
Yemen and Sudan had got the highest suicide mortality rate in the Eastern Mediterranean region according to the WHO with 8.5 and 8.1 per 100,000 people respectively.
Suicide Mortality rate by WHO in 2016
"Zoom in"
I think you know why Yemen has had a very high suicide rate.
That war does not only kill people but it also forces them to kill themselves !!
According to the Egyptian Coordination for Human Rights NGO that from January to August 2018, 150 cases of suicide for young adults between 20-35 years old have been recorded.
I found that number in a report about recent metro suicide cases in DW.
I can’t find that study on the NGO’s FB as its website is down but it did publish annually about suicide cases in Egypt.
The only official reaction we got from the government we got from the minister of transportation and not the minister of health interestingly.
New Alamein presidential palace under construction
Seen in Egypt's North Coast: The new Alamein presidential palace being constructed at the new city by the Egyptian government through private construction companies.
Overlooking the Mediterranean sea, the new city is being proposed as the new summer capital of Egypt replacing Alexandria which played that role whether officially before 1952 or unofficially afterward.
Construction started in New Alamein in 2017 but officially pre-inaugurated "if that description is right" in May 2018 by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
According to the official statements, the 48-Thousand-Feddans citywill cost LE 2 billion and it is planned to host more than 3-million people in its early stages.
Menna Goubran "L" with her friend media figure
Sally Abdel Salem last Cairo in her first public appearance
Tarek Saeed who made headlines last week with his beach wedding to socialite Menna Hussein Fahmy “Nobody spoke about her Wedding Tankini dress” dared and questioned what Menna Goubran in clear double standards.
I am angry and furious.
Anyhow just as I am wondering what Goubran will do, it seems that the girl who avoided publicity as much as she can “unlike Soliman” got to herself the most unexpected strongest ally in her back at the perfect time.
Sorry for the shocking the headline but honestly I can’t think about anything better than this headline.
On the first day of Eid Al-Adha, the hashtag “#I_support_Menna_Gobran” led the top Twitter trends with over one thousand tweets in no time in Egypt. Many Egyptian tweeps expressed their support to a young lady called Menna Gobran as well their anger and disgust for what happened to her in those two weeks because of sexual harassment.
The story of Menna Gobran started on 15 August when she uploaded a video that she recorded earlier while waiting for her work’s bus in a busy street in New Cairo.
That video titled “Does this happen in the Fifth Settlement too ??” showed a part of a conversation with a man who was reportedly sexually harassing her from his car.
The video showed him coming off his Dodge pick up track “it is expensive in Egypt” asking Gobran if she wanted to drink coffee at “On the Run”Convenience store in Exxon Mobile fuel station where she was standing.
Filming him, she said no and he said “I am so sorry” in a very bad tacky artificial accent and as he went back to his car, she filmed its license plate.
Recently Egyptian girls film or photograph the license plates of sexual harassers in the streets to mark them and also to expose them socially on social media to fight back the sexual harassment epidemic in the country.
There is currently a complete reshuffle that is taking place in the Media City West of Cairo where once-successful TV channels have been shut down and once-famous TV hosts are forced to stay in their homes.
It is a reshuffle that nobody has cared to speak about or discuss or even follow. It started to happen in July during Ramadan and the World Cup.
Then as soon as the holy month ended and the World Cup was over, that media reshuffle began to began to be louder.
From Left to Right: Azmy Meghad, Amr El-Llissy and Tamer Abdel Moneim
On 27 July, Egyptian Media announced that it was restructuring ONTV Network and that it would close down ON Live, the Network News channel while launching a second sports TV channel.
In its statement about the decision, Egyptian Media said that it launched ON Sports 2 to serve the State’s policies to support youth and sports.
The Company also claimed that it saw it was best to close down ON Live giving no real or understandable reason behind that decision. “Its main audience from 25 January revolution supporters no longer watch it because their favorite stars like Liliane Daoud or even Amr Khafagy are not there and are not welcomed anymore”
That decision was accompanied with many layoffs among the network’s staff.
Unfortunately, the closure of ON Live meant for the Egyptian Media removing the channel’s archives on its YouTube channel.
I feel sad that ON Live archives documenting the 25th January revolution have been removed from YouTube.
Thankfully some friends at ONTV have got backup archives and hopefully, they will upload them once again when they are needed.
ON E, the network’s main TV channel also lost several top TV hosts above them Amr Adib who signed a new contract with Saudi-owned MBC.
Akhbar Al Youm press corporation is celebrating the return of its CEO and Journalist Yasser Rizk from abroad after having some surgery. Rizk is known to be among the very close journalists to the Egyptian Presidency and current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi himself as well the army.
The state-owned press corporation had banners with his face with the cheesiest slogans ever all over its buildings in Downtown Cairo and even hired a DJ blasting songs since early morning.
When famous Journalist and Akhbar Al Youm founder Mostafa Amin was exonerated of espionage charges and was released from jail in 1974, he was not received like that !!!!!
That cat is among the famous cats of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo
One more photo to celebrate the International Cat day and a throwback to my visits to the Egyptian Museum of Cairo.
This was one of its famous cats wandering freely in its corridors and garden.
Despite many will dislike having cats like that wondering freely in Egypt’s most important museum yet I can’t keep thinking that those cats were once worshipped by our Ancient Egyptian ancestors and the museum got tons of cat statues and mummified cats there.
