Boutros Boutros-Ghali

The first African to become secretary-general of the 
United Nations is a native of Egypt .

From the article below you’ll find out information about the life and deeds of this remarkable person.

He headed the secretariat, which is one of the 6 main institutions of the union. The significance of his activities is difficult to deny. In many respects, he differs from his followers and predecessors.

Family, youth, and scientific activity

MARK MY WORDS

He was born on November 14, 1922, came from a fairly influential, well-known Christian Coptic family that occupied important positions in Egypt. His mother Safeya Mikhail Sharobim was the daughter of a prominent public servant and historian Mikhail Bey Sharobim. During the monarchy, representatives of this Christian familles were ambassadors, chamberlains and ministers. 

The paternal grandfather of the future United Nations secretary general whose name was Boutros Pasha Ghali, was the prime minister of Egypt at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1910, he was shot to death at the hands of nationalist. The uncle of Boutros Ghali - Wassif was the Egyptian minister of Foreign Affairs in 1924. His nephew Youssef Boutros Ghali, was the Minister of finance for a long time during the era of Mubarak and was Chair of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (2008). His little cousin Mounir Abdelnour was minister of Tourism and then minister of Industry under President Sissi. 

Boutros Boutros-Ghali's wife, Leia Maria Boutros-Ghali, née Leia Nadler, (Daughter of Nadler, owner of a sweets factories in Alexandria) was raised in an Egyptian Jewish family later converting to Roman Catholicism as a young woman. They had no children.

The young Boutros followed the route of his famous ancestors and built a career for himself in the political industry and in law and economics. Boutros received his education at the University of Cairo. Three years later he became a doctor of philosophy after studying international law at the University of Paris.

This man was fluent in Arabic, French and English, which further gave him an edge in the struggle for the post of UN Secretary General. He was also invested in political science, public law, and economics.

For each of these sciences, he had prestigious diplomas. Between 1949-1977 he was engaged in international relations and law as a professor. He also worked at Columbia University in the 1950s. He headed the research department at the Hague academy and acted as a freelance professor in Paris. Many Egyptian diplomats were  the students of Boutros at Cairo University. 

From 1960 to about 1975 , Boutros-Ghali founded,edited and wrote for the Egyptian news paper Al-Ahram (El-Ektesady) , where his beat was regional and international law, diplomacy and political science. 

Political career

DOCTOR BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI

He headed the Egyptian Foreign Ministry as foreign political adviser (Minister) to two presidents - Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak from 1977 to 1991. During is tenure, Egypt made a fateful peace with Israel, for which Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize, and then paid with his life at the hands of the Islamists.

Boutros became the first UN secretary general among representatives of Arab states and Africa and held this post from 1992 to 1996. Boutros-Ghali largely foresaw changes in global politics, having issued a document in 1992 titled "An Agenda for Peace" where he outlined the views of the diplomat on the political development of the world community. This document is very relevant to this day. 

The period of his work is described in his memoirs. "As SG, I defended the independence of the UN," he said. Guided by this goal, he took several steps that affected the interests of the US (and Israel), which ultimately deprived him of chances of re-election as UN head for a second term. Despite his great diplomatic efforts, he was unable to prevent the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, where more than 1 million people died. 

VISITING THE PEACE KEEPER

The politician said that he contacted the leaders of various states, asking them to send troops to prevent the monstrous crisis. "Unfortunately, let me say that I failed. This is a scandal " Boutros-Ghali said when the Rwandan Hutus began to routinely destroy the Tutsi. Critics argued that his active intervention only spurred the violence. Two years later, in 1996, despite the pressure from the US, he authorized the publication of a report on the tragedy in the Lebanese village of Qana in spring of the same year. As a result of the shelling of UN peacekeeping force post in Lebanon by Israeli artillery, about 100 refugees (including 52 children) were killed and 116 people were injured. The UN experts conducted an investigation and came to the understanding that the bombardment was intentional. The US then persistently advised the SG not to publish the report on the investigation in Qana, but to only declare it verbally. However, Boutros Ghali felt that people had the right to know everything. 

Ultimately, the United States vetoed his re-election as secretary general, and he was the only SG in this post who served 1 term. In his last years, he lived between Cairo and Paris, a city that he loved very much. 

Critic of the USA

Ghali was critical about the role of the United States in the UN, saying in an interview after his resignation that the organization had turned into an "instrument of American foreign policy." He is remembered for his irreconcilable resistance to American actions in the Balkans. 

ANOTHER DOCTORATE

The diplomat also spoke out against the bombing of Bosnia, which the US planned to carry out. In 1999, in his autobiographical book "Unvanquished: A US-UN Saga" Boutros-Ghali criticized many representatives of the US administration during the tenure of Bill Clinton and, in particular, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, calling her "an insignificant political adviser" and a bad diplomat. The book caused a negative reaction from the White House. He was not an American "protégé". 

He was the secretary general with his own opinion which were very extraordinary and that's why the Americans forced him to resign. The job of this Egyptian diplomat was particularly difficult since it was a morbid time for many countries. New world political system emerged at the time. This was primarily due to the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union, one of the founders of the UN. The Soviet Union disintegrated, the world became unipolar, and in this world, he had to conduct peacekeeping operations. 

Father of peacemaking his "An Agenda for Peace" is especially important for modern peacekeeping within the UN. Ghali defined this quite easily: "Practically feasible mandate; good cooperation in the fulfillment of mandate; continued support from the SC; the readiness of members to send the necessary military, police and civilian personnel, including specialists; due command of the UN; adequate logistical, financial support ". All modern international peacekeeping operations are organized precisely on the basis of these principles. 

THE MAN BEHIND THE SMILE

After leaving the post of UN head in 1996, Ghali continued his work at Hague Academy of International Law. Then he became a Director for Human Rights in Egyptian National Council. The name of this charismatic and charming diplomat is well known to many people interested in world politics. But even those who know a little about the work of the UN remember this man at least for his unusual double name. It has often been mentioned in skits with an international theme. Ghali himself valued good humour and even gave an interview to the famous British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who acted under the pseudonym Ali G. - Boutros-Ghali gave him good advice on how to achieve peace throughout the world. "Lower the cannon and listen to Bob Marley," advised the experienced diplomat.

The formal creation of the Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie in 1997 entrusted the former Secretary-General of the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali to be the first secretary-general of "La Francophonie". At the end of his mandate in 2002 Boutros was leaving a trail of innovations and had raised the influence of the organization world wide.

  

From 2003 to 2006, Boutros-Ghali served as the chairman of the board of the South Centre an intergovernmental research organization overseeing research for developing countries. 

At last Boutros-Ghali played a "significant role" in creating Egypt's National Council for Human Rights, and served as its active president until 2012.

The former United Nation Secretary General died on the 16th February 2016 in Cairo  at the age of 94. He was Buried after a state military funeral in the “Boutrosiya” (St-Peter) church build in 1912 for the Boutros family and were his grand father “Boutros Ghali” was laid to rest, this same church was bombed in December 2016 by Islamist terrorists. Boutros Boutros-Ghali left behind a long list of good deeds very worthy of respect.

Video tribute to Boutros Boutros-Ghali - Bibliotheca Alexandrina

CLICK ON ARROW IN THE CENTER OF PICTURE TO VIEW VIDEO

  

Some books from the legacy of Boutros Boutros-Ghali     

·       Egypt's Road to Jerusalem:: A Diplomat's Story of the Struggle for Peace in the Middle East 

·       Agenda for Peace 1995 

·       60 ans de conflit israélo-arabe: Témoignages pour l'histoire 

·       Mes années a la maison de verre 

·       En attendant la prochaine lune -- 

·       The United Nations and Rwanda 1993-1996 VX 

      Egypt's road to Jerusalem (1997), about the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.

·       Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga (1999), about his time as Secretary-General at the UN.

FAYOUM

Fayoum (Arabic: الفيوم‎‎ El Fayyūm, Coptic:  ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ Phiom) is a city in Middle Egypt. Located 100 kilometres  southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. Originally called Shedet in Ancient Egypt, the Greeks called it Crocodilopolis or Krocodilopolis, the Romans Arsinoë. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location.

OLD PICTURE OF FAYOUM CITY

The modern name of the city comes from Coptic ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ /Ⲡⲉⲓⲟⲙ epʰiom / peiom (whence the proper name Ⲡⲁⲓⲟⲙ payom), meaning the Sea or the Lake, which in turn comes from late Egyptian pꜣ-ymꜥ of the same meaning, a reference to the nearby Lake Moeris; the extinct elephant ancestor Phiomia was named after it.

Archaeological evidence has found occupations around the Fayoum dating back to at least the Epipalaeolithic period. The middle Holocene occupations of the area are most widely studied on the North shore of Lake Qarun, where archeologists did a number of excavations of Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites, as well as a general survey of the area. Recently a team from the UCLA/RUG/UOA known as the “Fayoum Project” has further investigated the area.

BIRDS ON LAKE QARUN

In the Pharaonic era, the city was called Shedet. The 10th-century Bible exegete, Saadia Gaon, thought el Fayoum to have actually been the biblical city of Pithom, mentioned in Exodus 1:11. It was the most significant centre of the cult of Sobek, the crocodile-god. In consequence, the Greeks named it Crocodilopolis, "Crocodile City", from the particular reverence paid by its inhabitants to crocodiles. The city worshipped a tamed sacred crocodile, named Petsuchos that was adorned with gold and gem pendants. The crocodile lived in a special temple pond and was fed by the priests with food provided by visitors. When the Petsuchos died, another replaced it.

Under the Ptolemies, the city was for a while called Ptolemais Euergetis. Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC) rechristened the city as Arsinoë after the name of his sister and wife Arsinoë (316–270).

RAISING PIGONS IN FAYOUM

Under the Roman Empire, Arsinoë became part of the province of Arcadia Aegypti. To distinguish it from other cities of the same name, it was called Arsinoë in Arcadia. With the arrival of Christianity, Arsinoë became the seat of a bishopric, a suffragan of the Oxyrhynchus, the capital of the province and the metropolitan see. Lequien gives the names of several bishops of Arsinoë, nearly all of them associated with one heresy or another.

Fayoum has several large bazaars, mosques, baths and a much-frequented weekly market. The canal called Bahr Yussef runs through the city, its banks lined with houses. There are two bridges over the river: one of three arches, which carries the main street and bazaar, and one of two arches, over which is built the Qaitbay mosque, that was a gift from his wife to honour the Mamluk Sultan in Fayoum.

LAKE KAROUN

Lake Karoun / Qarun

Lake Moeris (Ancient Greek: Μοῖρις, genitive Μοίριδος) is an ancient lake in the northwest of the Fayoum Oasis, 80 km (50 mi) southwest of Cairo, Egypt. In prehistory, it was a freshwater lake, with an area estimated to vary between 1,270 km² (490 mi²) and 1,700 km² (656 mi²).

It persists today as a smaller saltwater lake called Birket Qarun. The lake's surface is 43 m (140 ft) below sea level, and covers about 202 square kilometers (78 sq mi).

It is a source for tilapia and other fish from the local area. The lake is a magnet to migrating fowl from Europe thus a heaven for hunters.

WATER WEEL

When the Mediterranean Sea was a hot dry hollow near the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the late Miocene, Faiyum was a dry hollow, and the Nile flowed past it at the bottom of a canyon (2,400 m deep or more where Cairo is now). After the Mediterranean refolded at the end of the Miocene, the Nile canyon became an arm of the sea reaching inland further than Aswan. Over geological time that sea arm gradually filled with silt and became the Nile valley.

Eventually, the Nile valley bed silted up high enough to let the Nile in flood overflow into the Fayoum hollow and make a lake in it. The lake is first recorded from about 3000 BC, around the time of Menes (Narmer). However, for the most part it would only be filled with high floodwaters. The lake was bordered by Neolithic settlements, and the town of Shedet grew up on the south where the higher ground created a ridge.

FISHERMEN ON LAKE KARUN / QARUN

In 2300 BC, the waterway from the Nile to the natural lake was widened and deepened to make a canal, which is now known as the Bahr Yussef, a project started by Amenemhat III, or perhaps by his father Senusret III. This canal fed into the lake and meant to serve three purposes: control the flooding of the Nile, regulate the water level of the Nile during dry seasons, and serve the surrounding area with irrigation. There is evidence of ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using the natural lake of Faiyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry periods.

The immense waterworks undertaken by the ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty to transform the lake into a huge water reservoir gave the impression that the lake was an artificial excavation, as reported by classic geographers and travelers. The lake was eventually abandoned due to the nearest branch of the Nile shrinking from 230 BC.

SKELETON OF A WALE

Wadi El Hitan in Fayoum Oasis

Wadi El Hitan (Arabic: وادي الحيتان‎‎, "Whale Valley") is a paleontological site in the Faiyum Governorate of Egypt, some 150 km southwest of Cairo. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2005 for its hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest forms of whale, the archaeoceti (a now extinct sub-order of whales). The site reveals evidence for the explanation of one of the greatest mysteries of the evolution of whales: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. No other place in the world yields the number, concentration and quality of such fossils, as is their accessibility and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. This is why the UNESCO added it to the list of protected World Heritage sites .

The fossils found at the site may not be the oldest but their great concentration in the area and the degree of their preservation is to the extent that even some stomach contents are intact. The presence of fossils of other early animals such as sharks, crocodiles, sawfish, turtles and rays found at Wadi El-Hitan makes it possible to reconstruct the surrounding environmental and ecological conditions of the time, adding to its justification to be cited as a Heritage site.

FOSSILS IN THE DESERT

The first fossil skeletons of whales were discovered in the winter of 1902-3. For the next 80 years they attracted relatively little interest, largely due to the difficulty of reaching the area. In the 1980s interest in the site resumed as four wheels drive vehicles became more readily available. Continuing interest coincided with the site being visited by fossil collectors, and many bones were removed, prompting calls for the site to be conserved. The remains display the typical streamlined body form of modern whales, yet retaining some of the primitive aspects of skull and tooth structure. The largest skeleton found reached up to 21 m in length, with well-developed five-fingered flippers on the forelimbs and the unexpected presence of hind legs, feet, and toes, not known previously in any archaeoceti. Their form was serpentine and they were carnivorous. A few of these skeletal remains are exposed but most are shallowly buried in sediments, slowly uncovered by erosion. Wadi El-Hitan provides evidences of millions of years of coastal marine life.

Watch the amazing "Wales In the Desert" Documentary below

NOTE:  In my previous post the reference to the documentary was somehow 

difficult to notice and therefore was missed by most readers

The Great Sphinx of Giza

The Sphinx

The Great Sphinx of Giza (Arabic: أبو الهول‎‎ ) Abū al-Haul, English: The Terrifying One; literally: Father of Dread, commonly referred to as the Sphinx of Giza or just the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human. Facing directly from West to East, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx is generally believed to represent the Pharaoh Khafre.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE SPHINX (Giza)

Cut from the bedrock, the original shape of the Sphinx has been restored with layers of blocks. It measures 238 feet (73 m) long from paw to tail, 66.3 ft (20.21 m) high from the base to the top of the head and 62.6 feet (19 m) wide at its rear haunches. It is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the Pharaoh Khafre (c. 2558–2532 BC).

Construction

The Sphinx is a monolith carved into the bedrock of the plateau, which also served as the quarry for the pyramids and other monuments in the area. The nummulitic limestone of the area consists of layers, which offer differing resistance to erosion (mostly caused by wind and windblown sand), leading to the uneven degradation apparent in the Sphinx's body. The lowest part of the body, including the legs, is solid rock. The body of the lion up to its neck is fashioned from softer layers that have suffered considerable disintegration. The layer in which the head was sculpted is much harder.

Origin and identity

The Great Sphinx is one of the world's largest and oldest statues, but basic facts about it are still subject to debate, such as when it was built, by whom and for what purpose. These questions have resulted in the popular idea of the "Riddle of the Sphinx.” alluding to the original Greek legend of the "Riddle of the Sphinx."

First century writer Pliny the Elder mentioned the Great Sphinx in his Natural History, commenting that the Egyptians looked upon the statue as a "divinity" that has been passed over in silence and "that King Harmais was buried in it."

Names of the Sphinx

1800's picture of the Sphinx

It is impossible to identify what name the creators called their statue, as the Great Sphinx does not appear in any known inscription of the Old Kingdom and there are no inscriptions anywhere describing its construction or its original purpose. In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx was called Hor-em-akhet (English: Horus of the Horizon; Hellenized: Harmachis), and the pharaoh Thutmose IV (1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC) specifically referred to it as such in his "Dream Stele."

The commonly used name "Sphinx" was given to it in classical antiquity, about 2000 years after the commonly accepted date of its construction by reference to a Greek mythological beast with a lion's body, a woman's head and the wings of an eagle (although, like most Egyptian sphinxes, the Great Sphinx has a man's head and no wings) The English word sphinx comes from the ancient Greek Σφίγξ (transliterated: sphinx) apparently from the verb σφίγγω (transliterated: sphingo / English: to squeeze), after the Greek sphinx who strangled anyone who failed to answer her riddle.

The name may alternatively be a linguistic corruption of the phonetically different ancient Egyptian word Ssp-anx (in Manuel de Codage). This name is given to royal statues of the Fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt (2575–2467 BC) and later in the New Kingdom (c. 1570–1070 BC) to the Great Sphinx more specifically.

Medieval Arab writers, including al-Maqrīzī, call the Sphinx balhib and bilhaw, which suggest a Coptic influence. The modern Egyptian Arabic name is أبو الهول (Abū al Hūl, English: The Terrifying One).

Builder and timeframe

Profile of the Sphinx

Though there have been conflicting evidence and viewpoints over the years, the view held by modern Egyptology at large remains that the Great Sphinx was built in approximately 2500 BC for the pharaoh Khafra, the builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza.

Selim Hassan, writing in 1949 on recent excavations of the Sphinx enclosure, summed up the problem: Taking all things into consideration, it seems that we must give the credit of erecting this, the world's most wonderful statue, to Khafre, but always with this reservation: that there is not one single contemporary inscription which connects the Sphinx with Khafre; so, sound as it may appear, we must treat the evidence as circumstantial, until such time as a lucky turn of the spade of the excavator will reveal to the world a definite reference to the erection of the Sphinx.

The "circumstantial" evidence mentioned by Hassan includes the Sphinx's location in the context of the funerary complex surrounding the Second Pyramid, which is traditionally connected with Khafra. Apart from the Causeway, the Pyramid and the Sphinx, the complex also includes the Sphinx Temple and the Valley Temple, both of which display the same architectural style, with 200-tonne stone blocks quarried out of the Sphinx enclosure.

Napoleon in front of the Sphinx

A diorite statue of Khafre, which was discovered buried upside down along with other debris in the Valley Temple, is claimed as support for the Khafra theory.

The Dream Stele, erected much later by the pharaoh Thutmose IV (1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC), associates the Sphinx with Khafra. When the stele was discovered, its lines of text were already damaged and incomplete, and only referred to Khaf, not Khafra. An extract was translated: which we bring for him: oxen ... and all the young vegetables; and we shall give praise to Wenofer ... Khaf ... the statue made for Atum-Hor-em-Akhet.

The Egyptologist Thomas Young, finding the Khaf hieroglyphs in a damaged cartouche used to surround a royal name, inserted the glyph ra to complete Khafra's name. When the Stele was re-excavated in 1925, the lines of text referring to Khaf flaked off and were destroyed.

Early Egyptologists

Sphinx & Pyramids

Some of the early Egyptologists and excavators of the Giza pyramid complex believed the Great Sphinx and other structures in the Sphinx enclosure predated the traditionally given construction date of around 2500 BC in the reign of Khafre.

In 1857, Auguste Mariette, founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, unearthed the much later Inventory Stela (estimated Dynasty XXVI, c. 678–525 BC), which tells how Khufu came upon the Sphinx, already buried in sand. Although certain tracts on the Stela are considered good evidence, this passage is widely dismissed as Late Period historical revisionism, a purposeful fake, created by the local priests with the attempt to certify the contemporary Isis temple an ancient history it never had. Such an act became common when religious institutions such as temples, shrines and priest's domains were fighting for political attention and for financial and economic donations.

George Sandys drawing of
Sphinx (1615)

Gaston Maspero, the French Egyptologist and second director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, conducted a survey of the Sphinx in 1886. He concluded that because the Dream stela showed the cartouche of Khafre in line thirteen, that it was he who was responsible for the excavation and that the Sphinx must therefore predate Khafre and his predecessors (i.e. Dynasty IV, c. 2575–2467 BC) English Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge agreed that the Sphinx predated Khafre's reign, writing in The Gods of the Egyptians (1914): "This marvelous object [the Great Sphinx] was in existence in the days of Khafre, or Khephren, and it is probable that it is a very great deal older than his reign and that it dates from the end of the archaic period [c. 2686 BC]."

Modern dissenting hypotheses

Rainer Stadelmann, former director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, examined the distinct iconography of the nemes (headdress) and the now-detached beard of the Sphinx and concluded that the style is more indicative of the Pharaoh Khufu (2589–2566 BC), builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza and Khafra's father. He supports this by suggesting that Khafra's Causeway was built to conform to a pre-existing structure, which, he concludes, given its location, could only have been the Sphinx.

Colin Reader, an English geologist who independently conducted a more recent survey of the enclosure, agrees that the various quarries on the site have been excavated around the Causeway. Because these quarries are known to have been used by Khufu, Reader concludes that the Causeway (and the temples on either end thereof) must predate Khufu, thereby casting doubt on the conventional Egyptian chronology.

Sphinx erosion 

Frank Domingo, a forensic scientist in the New York City Police Department and an expert forensic anthropologist, used detailed measurements of the Sphinx, forensic drawings and computer imaging to conclude that the face depicted on the Sphinx is not the same face as is depicted on a statue attributed to Khafra.

In 2004, Vassil Dobrev of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo announced that he had uncovered new evidence that the Great Sphinx may have been the work of the little-known Pharaoh Djedefre (2528–2520 BC), Khafra's half brother and a son of Khufu. Dobrev suggests that Djedefre built the Sphinx in the image of his father Khufu, identifying him with the sun god Ra in order to restore respect for their dynasty. Dobrev also notes, like Stadelmann and others, that the causeway connecting Khafre's pyramid to the temples was built around the Sphinx suggesting it was already in existence at the time.

The Great Sphinx as Anubis

Author Robert K. G. Temple proposes that the Sphinx was originally a statue of the Jackal-Dog Anubis, the God of the Necropolis, and that its face was recarved in the likeness of a Middle Kingdom pharaoh, Amenemhet II. Temple bases his identification on the style of the eye make-up and the style of the pleats on the head-dress.

Racial characteristics

Over the years several authors have commented on what they perceive as "Negroid" characteristics in the face of the Sphinx. This issue has become part of the Ancient Egyptian race controversy, with respect to the ancient population as a whole.

The face of the Sphinx has been damaged over the millennia.

Restoration

At some unknown time the Giza Necropolis was abandoned, and the Sphinx was eventually buried up to its shoulders in sand. The first documented attempt at an excavation dates to c. 1400 BC, when the young Thutmose IV (1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC) gathered a team and, after much effort, managed to dig out the front paws, between which he placed a granite slab, known as the Dream Stele, inscribed with the following (an extract): ... the royal son, Thothmos, being arrived, while walking at midday and seating himself under the shadow of this mighty god, was overcome by slumber and slept at the very moment when Ra is at the summit [of heaven]. He found that the Majesty of this august god spoke to him with his own mouth, as a father speaks to his son, saying: Look upon me, contemplate me, O my son Thothmos; I am thy father, Harmakhis-Khopri-Ra-Tum; I bestow upon thee the sovereignty over my domain, the supremacy over the living ... Behold my actual condition that thou mayest protect all my perfect limbs. The sand of the desert whereon I am laid has covered me. Save me, causing all that is in my heart to be executed..

Sphinx Restoration efforts

Later, Ramses II the Great (1279–1213 BC) may have undertaken a second excavation.

Mark Lehner, an Egyptologist who has excavated and mapped the Giza plateau, originally asserted that there had been a far earlier renovation during the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2184 BC),[39] although he has subsequently recanted this "heretical" viewpoint.

In AD 1817 the first modern archaeological dig, supervised by the Italian Giovanni Battista Caviglia, uncovered the Sphinx's chest completely. The entire Sphinx was finally excavated in 1925 to 1936, in digs led by Émile Baraize. In 1931 engineers of the Egyptian government repaired the head of the Sphinx. Part of its headdress had fallen off in 1926 due to erosion, which had also cut deeply into its neck.

The Sphinx profile in 2010

Limestone fragments of the Sphinx's beard in the British Museum, 14th Century BC

The one-metre-wide nose on the face is missing. Examination of the Sphinx's face shows that long rods or chisels were hammered into the nose, one down from the bridge and one beneath the nostril, then used to pry the nose off towards the south.

The Sphinx beard in 
London Museum

The Arab historian al-Maqrīzī, writing in the 15th century, attributes the loss of the nose to iconoclasm by Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr—a Sufi Muslim from the khanqah of Sa'id al-Su'ada—in AD 1378, upon finding the local peasants making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope of increasing their harvest. Enraged, he destroyed the nose, and was later hanged for vandalism. Al-Maqrīzī describes the Sphinx as the "talisman of the Nile" on which the locals believed the flood cycle depended.

There is also a story that the nose was broken off by a cannonball fired by Napoleon's soldiers. Other variants indict British troops, the Mamluks, and others. Sketches of the Sphinx by the Dane Frederic Louis Norden, made in 1738 and published in 1757, show the Sphinx missing its nose. This predates Napoleon's birth in 1769.

In addition to the lost nose, a ceremonial pharaonic beard is thought to have been attached, although this may have been added in later periods after the original construction. Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev has suggested that had the beard been an original part of the Sphinx, it would have damaged the chin of the statue upon falling. The lack of visible damage supports his theory that the beard was a later addition.

Residues of red pigment are visible on areas of the Sphinx's face. Traces of yellow and blue pigment have been found elsewhere on the Sphinx, leading Mark Lehner to suggest that the monument "was once decked out in gaudy comic book colors”.

Mythology

Colin Reader has proposed that the Sphinx was probably the focus of solar worship in the Early Dynastic Period, before the Giza Plateau became a necropolis in the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2134 BC). He ties this in with his conclusions that the Sphinx, the Sphinx temple, the Causeway and the Khafra mortuary temple are all part of a complex predating Dynasty IV (c. 2613–2494 BC). The lion has long been a symbol associated with the sun in ancient Near Eastern civilizations. Images depicting the Egyptian king in the form of a lion smiting his enemies date as far back as the Early Dynastic Period.

Sphinx in sands

In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx became more specifically associated with the god Hor-em-akhet (Hellenized: Harmachis) or "Horus-at-the-Horizon", which represented the pharaoh in his role as the Shesep-ankh (English: Living Image) of the god Atum. Pharaoh Amenhotep II (1427–1401 or 1397 BC) built a temple to the north east of the Sphinx nearly 1000 years after its construction, and dedicated it to the cult of Hor-em-akhet.

Over the centuries, writers and scholars have recorded their impressions and reactions upon seeing the Sphinx. The vast majority were concerned with a general description, often including a mixture of science, romance and mystique. John Lawson Stoddard made a typical description of the Sphinx by tourists and leisure travelers throughout the 19th and 20th century: It is the antiquity of the Sphinx, which thrills us as we look upon it, for in itself it has no charms. The desert's waves have risen to its breast, as if to wrap the monster in a winding-sheet of gold. Moslem fanatics have mutilated the face and head. The mouth, the beauty of whose lips was once admired, is now expressionless. Yet grand in its loneliness, – veiled in the mystery of unnamed ages, – the relic of Egyptian antiquity stands solemn and silent in the presence of the awful desert – symbol of eternity. Here it disputes with Time the empire of the past; forever gazing on and on into a future which will still be distant when we, like all who have preceded us and looked upon its face, have lived our little lives and disappeared.

Greek Mythology Sphinx

From the 16th century far into the 19th century, observers repeatedly noted that the Sphinx has the face, neck and breast of a woman. Examples included Johannes Helferich (1579), George Sandys (1615), Johann Michael Vansleb (1677), Benoît de Maillet (1735) and Elliot Warburton (1844).

Most early Western images were book illustrations in print form, elaborated by a professional engraver from either previous images available or some original drawing or sketch supplied by an author, and usually now lost. Seven years after visiting Giza, André Thévet (Cosmographie de Levant, 1556) described the Sphinx as "the head of a colossus, caused to be made by Isis, daughter of Inachus, then so beloved of Jupiter". He, or his artist and engraver, pictured it as a curly-haired monster with a grassy dog collar. Athanasius Kircher (who never visited Egypt) depicted the Sphinx as a Roman statue, reflecting his ability to conceptualize (Turris Babel, 1679). Johannes Helferich's (1579) Sphinx is a pinched-face, round-breasted woman with a straight haired wig; the only edge over Thevet is that the hair suggests the flaring lappets of the headdress. George Sandys stated that the Sphinx was a harlot; Balthasar de Monconys interpreted the headdress as a kind of hairnet, while François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz's Sphinx had a rounded hairdo with bulky collar.

The Sphinx before Photography 

Richard Pococke's Sphinx was an adoption of Cornelis de Bruijn's drawing of 1698, featuring only minor changes, but is closer to the actual appearance of the Sphinx than anything previous. The print versions of Norden's careful drawings for his Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie, 1755 are the first to clearly show that the nose was missing. However, from the time of the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt onwards, a number of accurate images were widely available in Europe, and copied by others.

⏳ CLICK BELLOW TO WATCH THE SPHINX

NOTE:  In my previous post the reference to the documentary was somehow 

difficult to notice and therefore was missed by most readers

Collected from various Internet Sources. 

Farid Al-Atrash

فريد الأطرش‎‎ 

Farid, (October 19, 1910 – December 26, 1974), was a Syrian/Egyptian composer, singer, virtuoso Oud player. Having immigrated to Egypt at the age of nine with his Family.

Al-Atrash was born in al-Suwayda, in southern Syria to the Druze Al-Atrash family who fought the French colonial army. His father a Syrian, married a Lebanese and later immigrated to Egypt with his wife, Farid, Asmahan and Fouad. They immediately naturalized as Egyptian citizens.

Farid, Asmahan & Fouad with Mother

 Interesting to note that Farid's mother an artist sang and played the Oud, which spurred his musical interest at an early age.

As a child and young boy, Al-Atrash sang mostly in school events. He later studied music at the conservatory and became an apprentice of the renowned composer Riyad as-Sunbaty. In the 1930s, Al-Atrash began his professional singing career by working for privately owned Egyptian radio stations. Eventually, he was hired as an Oud player for the national radio station and later as a singer.

Farid and his sister Asmahan

His sister, Asmahan, was a very talented singer, she became one of the most popular female vocalists and cinema stars in the late 1930s and early 1940s, In 1941, Asmahan and Farid  starred in their first successful movie Intisar al-Shabab The Triumph of Youth, in which Farid himself composed all the music. Asmahan life was cut short due to an automobile accident in 1944.

Link to original song  -  Asmahan : Ya habibi taala

Musical career

FARID AL-ATRASH

Al-Atrash had a long and colourful music career lasting four decades. He composed musically diverse songs, and was a highly regarded composer, singer and instrumentalist. Al-Atrash maintained that although some of his music had western musical influence, he always stayed true to Arab music principles. Although the majority of his compositions were romantic love songs, he also composed several patriotic and religious songs.

One of Al-Atrash's most unusual and distinguishable traits was his voice. High and mellow at the start of his career, it evolved into a wider, deeper sound. A person not familiar with his work would find it hard to believe the singer in "Ya Reitni Tir" (1930s) and "Adnaytani Bil Hajr" (1960s) was the same singer. His singing style was deeply passionate.

In many of his songs, and nearly all of his concerts, Al-Atrash would sing a mawal, which is a slow voice improvisation of a few poetic lines. These improvisations sometimes lasted up to 15 minutes. The mawal was a favorite of his fans. Some of the most famous songs include "Rabeeh" (Spring), "Awal Hamsa" (first whisper), "Hekayat Gharami" (story of my love), "Albi Wa Moftaho" (my heart and its key), "Gamil Gamal", "Wayak", "Ya Zahratan Fi Khayali" (Flower of my imagination), "Bisat Ir Rih" (flying carpet), "Ya Gamil Ya Gamil", "Ya Habaybi Ya Ghaybeen", "Eish Anta", and "saa fi korb el habib" (an hour in company of the beloved).

Al-Atrash starred in 31 Egyptian musical films from 1941 to 1974. His last movie, Nagham Fi Hayati (Songs in my life) was released after his death. All his films except the last two were black and white. They ranged from comedies to dramas, or a combination. He composed all the songs in his movies including the songs sung by other singers, and instrumentals (usually belly dance routines). His earlier films would include approximately ten songs, but overall the films would average about five songs each. Some of Al-Atrash's well-known movies include Intisar al-Shabab (The Triumph of Youth, 1941), Yom Bila Ghad, Ahd el-Hawa, and Lahn al-KholOud ( "Eternal Lyric", 1952).

 

Al-Atrash shaking hands with Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, February 1955

Samia Gamal and Farid Al-Atrash

Quick success brought the young man a lifestyle of nightclubs, love affairs, and gambling. Soon Farid was in debt and found himself abandoned by his disapproving mother. During this difficult period of his life, he also endured the death of his sister and fellow performer Asmahan. Farid found comfort in a relationship with the belly dancer Samia Gamal, for whom he was motivated to risk all he owned. In 1947 he produced and co-starred in a movie with Samia directed by Henri Barakat; Habib al-'Oumr ("The love of my life," 1947), which became a huge success. After this came Afrita Hanem ("Madame la diablesse," 1949). Five films later, the unmarried couple broke up. Farid continued to work with other film stars in numerous successful movies in which he always had the romantic lead role of a sad singer. He even repeatedly chose his character's name to be "Wahid" meaning lonely.

Queen Nariman & Farid Al-Atrash

 Al-Atrash refused to get married, claiming that marriage kills art. In his films, the audience remembered his leading ladies and his beautiful songs more than the story lines.

Prior to the 1952 military coup d'état against King Farouk I, Al-Atrash became friends with Farouk's consort, Queen Nariman, a relationship that continued after the Queen's divorce and the coup that cost Farouk his throne. The former queen's family did not accept Al-Atrash, and the separation from Nariman sent the singer into a long depression, the start of health problems that worsened from that point on until his death.

Farid Al-Atrash lived in a building called “Dar El Hana” in Zamalek, a block away from the villa of Um Kalthoum. He later build a hi-riser on the Nile in Giza and moved to the roof garden.

Om Kalthoum  & Farid Al-Atrash

As Al-Atrash became older, he reconsidered his opinion of marriage and proposed to Egyptian singer named Shadia, but at the last minute he backed out. By now his health was poor, and he feared that he would leave her a young widow. He often played out that scenario and sang about it in his romance movies.

"He remained a bachelor throughout his life and constructed himself with references to the authentic post of Arab tradition and in a fairly idealized version of modernity. Tales of his love affairs were wildly popular during his lifetime and were seemingly merged with the lyrics of his love songs."

Al-Atrash suffered heart problems throughout his last 30 years. In the last few years of his life, he became physically thinner, and his singing voice became raspy as his sickness intensified. Although he was struggling with his health, he continued to produce movies and perform in concerts until his death.

Shortly after arriving from London to Lebanon he was admitted to the Al Hayek hospital in Beirut. On Monday December 24, 1974 the hospital doctors told Al-Atrash that he could leave after a couple of days to go home, as they noticed that Farid did not like his stay in the hospital and hated their food. On December 26, 1974, Al-Atrash died in the hospital he never left.

Al-Atrash was buried in Cairo, Egypt alongside his sisters and brother.

Over his lifetime, Al-Atrash starred in 31 movies and recorded approximately 350 songs. He composed songs for top Arab singers, foremost his own sister, Asmahan, as well as Wadih El-Safi, Shadia, Warda, and Sabah. He is widely considered to be one of the four 'greats' of Egyptian and Arabic music, along with Abdel Halim Hafez, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Oum Kalthoum. The Notable Egyptian instrumental guitarist Omar Khorshid covered Farid Al-Atrash's songs in a tribute album.

Link to Original Song:  Farid El Atrash: Gamil Gamal