Addressing world diplomats, dignitaries, archaeologists and Egyptologists at the opening of the Nubia "Campaign: Yesterday and Today" exhibition at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris Wednesday night, Refaat thanked the international organisation for all its past, present and future contributions to preserve Egypt’s national patrimony.

    In 1959, five years after Egypt launched its giant High Dam project, the Egyptian and the Sudanese Governments requested UNESCO to assist their countries in the protection and rescue of the endangered monuments and sites that were facing the threat of submersion by Nile waters.

    In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to save the Monuments of Nubia.

    This appeal resulted in the excavation and recording of hundreds of sites, the recovery of thousands of objects, and the salvage and relocation of a number of important temples to higher ground, the most famous of them the temple complexes of Abu Simbel and Philae.

    The campaign ended on March 10, 1980 as a complete and spectacular success. The exhibition that opened in Paris yesterday gives a retrospective look at the Nubia Campaign, which began with the 1960 drive to safeguard Nubian monuments and has since seen the opening of the Nubia Museum in Aswan and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Cairo.

    The exhibition, comprised of videos, books and documents, illustrates the enduring and fruitful relationship between UNESCO and Egypt in cultural heritage preservation.