Al-Qurna Reveals its Treasures

* Al-Quarana witnesses the second biggest displacement in Egypt af-ter that of Nubians in the 1960s.

* Egypt establishes the New Qurna over an area of 286 feddans to ab-sorb 3200 families or about 20,000 persons.

* The project aims at discovering thousands of pharoanic tombs and reviving the Rams Road.
President Hosin Mubarak inaugurated the New Qurna city at the West land on January 15, 2007. The new city was built to absorb 3200 families of the residents of old Qurna and the slums built above the pharoanic tombs in the West Bank.

On December 2nd, 2006, Al Qurna city, west of Luxor, witnessed the second biggest displacement opera-tion in Egypt after the displacement of Nubia residents in the 1960s of the last century. The new city consists of housing units, 80m2 each sur-rounded by 100 m2 open space with total costs of L.E 185 million.

Dr. Samir Farag, Chief of the Supreme Council of Luxor says that what happened is a miracle that became the talk of the whole world. Some 286 feddans have been specified to establish the new city that consists of 700 houses and 3200 pieces of land given to the residents of Old Qurna for free as a compensation for leving their homes to start ex-cavation work.

Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, revealed his great happiness for Luxor's restoration to its civilizational, as one of the most important cities that has a heritage not only in Egypt, but also in the whole world. He added that the implemented projects in this city repre-sent a complementary example of cooperation among all ministries to carry on any outlined plan.

He also mentioned that Dr. Samir Farag succeeded in employing efforts of all authorities concerned to imple-ment the long-term plan and the master plan outlived to this city and approved the by Prime Minister Dr.Ahmed Nazif, when he visited the city with a group of ministers concerned.

Farouk Hosni, Minister of Culture, assured the President's recogni-tion to the importance and peculiarity of Luxor that appeared in his specific and plain directives to the government to join forces and re-move obstacles so that this city would restore its status as a destination for every foreign tourist and for every Egyptian who loves his country.

Farouk Hosni said: As for Luxor's nature as a monumental city, the Supreme Council for Antiquities had a number of projects to implement in order to restore its status. On top of these projects is transferring Al-Qurna residents to Al-Tarek city. This project contributed to rescuing almost 1000 monumental tombs. The project also rescued Egypt's civili-zation whose antiquities are lost day after another due to uncivilized behaviors resulting from 800 houses built over the period of 100 years above the tombs of the pharoanic honorables and workers.

The project of opening Al-Kebash Road ranks 2nd in the most impor-tant projects that have been successfully implemented. Minister of cul-ture said: that opening of Al-Kebash Road that joins between Luxor and Al-Karnak Temples represented a dream for all archeologists not only in Egypt, but also in the whole world.

He also added that Dr. Samir Farag succeeded in achieving and implementing this dream, that needed courage, when he removed seizure on this road and compen-sated land owners. Minister of Culture added that he gave instructions to the Supreme Council for Antiquities to intensify efforts and provide human elements as archeologists and restorers to accelerate achieving this project.

Minister of culture also said that the Visitors International Centre project in the West Land is one of the successful project in that repre-sents a civilizational leap in managing an international archeological site.

This centre allows explanation to tourists using the very modern technologies before visiting the tombs where the visit is limited on watching only. Consequently, this will eradicate a number of passive actions that used to happen during the visit and directly harm the monuments due to the accumulation of water vapor resulting from visi-tors' breath and its passive interaction with rocks of the tombs which leads to the hall of inscriptions.