Saturday 31 January 2015

Goodbye Dr Mansour

I tried to get in touch with Mansour Boraik to discuss a few issues in Luxor and to ask his advice who I could talk to in Cairo.


1) the tickets for the Mut temple and Deir el-Shelwit have been printed in
dollars and you can't buy them with Egyptian pounds. Why would non American
tourists have dollars and indeed why would Americans bring dollars on a
tour. British, French, German tourists won't have dollars. And what about
people that live here.
2) Since you left we haven't had a single lecture. Nobody cares about
Egyptology, helping tourism or spreading knowledge.
3) Sometimes you are allowed to climb the hills and sometimes you aren't,
nobody knows when it changes, who to ask permission of. The donkey ride over
the ridge is hugely popular. Why is this being stopped
4) Tombs are being announced that they will open but no dates are given so
they can plan. Nefertari, Amenhotep Huy etc have all been in the press.
5) Sphinx Alley has become a rubbish dump
6) The dewatering project has stopped working. I have been told both Karnak
and the west bank are no longer working.





He replied immediately with such sad news for Egyptology but good news for Mansour. He has gone to work in the Emmirates, he has a good team and is working on a dig there. I am totally gutted, I almost burst into tears. He was such a force for good in Luxor.


I wish him the very very best in his future career but I shall miss him so much.

2 comments:

Farley Flavors said...

Seriously? You have to bring American dollars to Luxor to visit the Mut precinct and Deir el-Shelwit?! Living in Luxor I'm sure you've experienced a lot of illogical decisions, Jane, but surely this one takes first prize?

Jane Akshar said...

Dr Mansour gave me the phone number of Dr Mostafa Amin and I have contacted him. He asked me to email and fax details. I am hoping he will send someone to investigate everything.