The International Campaign to Preserve the Monuments of Nubia, 1959-68 223

the international campaign to preserve the monuments of nubia, 1959-68 223 RAMESES RECROWNED: THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO PRESERVE THE MONUMENTS OF NUBIA, 195968 Sarwat Okasha Former Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Culture, Member of the British Academy, Cairo, Egypt It gives me sincere pleasure to offer this contri- I recollect his delighted response to my tale bution to the Festschrift honoring my friend Jack of the fateful encounter with the American Josephson. His erudite scholarly dedication to the Ambassador and the Director of the Metropol- art of Egypt’s ancient civilization has provided itan Museum. This meeting proved the catalyst many absorbing topics for discussion, from which so urgently needed to set in motion a train of I have derived both knowledge and enjoyment. events, more fully recounted elsewhere,1 leading His keen insights regarding many diverse subjects to the unprecedented international campaign of interest in our world, past and present, have to preserve the monuments of Nubia. I present enlivened and enriched our wide-ranging con- this abbreviated English-language version to my versations over the past decade and a half of our friend Mr. Josephson, knowing he will appreci- acquaintance, since his marriage to Egypt’s Bal- ate learning how matters unfolded to their happy lerina, Magda Saleh. outcome.2 1 S. Okasha, Insan al ʿAsr Yutawig Ramsis (Cairo, 1971), Temple, and the organizer of the exhibition of Tutankhamun subsequently published in 1974 by UNESCO in a French in Paris. translation as Ramsès Recouronné: Hommage Vivant au A stellar contingent of Egyptian archaeologists, engineers, Pharaon Mort; and Okasha, Mudhakirati fi al siyasa wa and administrators have earned the gratitude of the nation: al thaqafa (Cairo, 1990), 7-97, and rev. ed., Insan al ʿAsr the capable engineer Dr. Hassan Zaki, former Minister of Yutawig Ramsis. Massirat al-hamla al-dawliyya li’inqadh Irrigation and chairman of the Advisory Council for the Abu aathar al-Nuba (Cairo, 2008); Mankind Crowns Ramses. The Simbel project; Dr. Anwar Shukri, earlier Undersecretary of International Campaign for the Safeguard of the Monuments State for Antiquities; Mr. Abdel Moneim el Sawi, Deputy of Nubia, trans. Aida al Bahgoury (forthcoming). Chairman of the Fund for the Rescue of the Monuments of 2 I have in this essay endeavored to render the full scope Nubia from September 1962 to September 1966 during my and extent of our daring undertaking. I must not omit men- absence from the ministry; Dr. Abdel Moneim Abu Bakr, tion here of some of the many without whose unshakable former Professor of Egyptology at Cairo University; Dr. faith in the project and its inestimable value to the cause of Gamal Moukhtar, the senior Egyptologist at the Center of human culture, to the preservation of the icons of civilization Documentation, then Undersecretary of State for Antiquities and its common heritage, and to the noble ideal of interna- and the first Chairman of the EAO; engineer Mohammed tional cooperation and mutual understanding, the impossible Mahdi, earlier Director of the EAO; the chemist Dr. Zaki dream could never have become reality. First among these are Iskander; engineer Taha el Shaltawi, former Deputy of the the three UNESCO Directors General, foremost among them EAO; engineer Mohammed Abdel Mo’ti Amer, the Director René Maheu, that great human being with whom I stood side of the Engineering Bureau; Dr. Ahmed Qadri, General Direc- by side for 13 years, who was devoted to the principles of tor of the Nubia Fund; and Dr. Shehata Adam Mohammed, Director of the General Administration for the Rescue of the the international organization. He never wavered, despite Monuments of Nubia. the often vicious attacks to which he was subjected. Next Before all these, and to the legions of anonymous foot sol- is his predecessor Vittorino Veronese, who unhesitatingly diers, workmen, engineers, archaeologists, restorers, techni- embraced the project in 1959 and ushered it through its ini- cians, and artists who tirelessly participated in this endeavor, tial steps, going where another might have feared to tread. civilization itself must bow in respect and gratitude. And finally is their successor, Amadou-Mokhtar M’Bow, who Nor do we forget the High Dam Ministry for its aid, for saw the final phase of the project—the rescue of Philae— out of its services budget came Egypt’s contribution to the through to its completion. Brazilian Ambassador Paulo de fund for the salvage of Abu Simbel, to the amount of L.E. Berrêdo Carneiro, who chaired both the International Action 5,000,000, with another L.E. 1,000,000 for the salvage of the Committee and the Executive Committee for the Interna- other temples. tional Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, was a Then there are the myriad institutions; universities; loyal ally and devoted supporter. He instantly adopted the archaeological, scientific and cultural institutes and centers; project and was steadfast in his support thereafter. Nor can the scholars and experts; the project’s international commit- I forget Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, who worked on our tees; the engineering firms and companies; all our partners behalf his worldwide network of influential connections; or in the endeavor. To them Egypt was but the birthplace of Mme Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the UNESCO con- civilization, a name they yearned for in dreams, exalting her sultant, with her passionate love of Egypt and its antiqui- in their noblest thoughts. What better reward for all than the ties, her enthusiasm and boundless energy. She was a prime survival of the monuments that they strove to save, speaking mover in the documentation endeavor, the salvage of Amada to future generations of the genius of those past? 224 sarwat okasha September 22, 1968, dawned upon Egypt, a the Report on the Monuments of Nubia Likely to day of joy and celebration, the joy of daunting be Submerged by Sudd-el-Ali Water (June 1955). challenges overcome and an impossible dream It included engineer Osman Rostem’s proposal come true, the successful culmination of a decade to erect three cofferdams encircling Philae. of unwavering endeavor to preserve the monu- Re com mendations were limited to undertaking ments of our ancient civilization from oblivion. a comprehensive documentation of endangered Five hundred guests of Egypt gathered before monuments and sites, and preservation of two the magnificent temples of Abu Simbel—myself handily relocatable temples. Copies were dis- as host representing President Gamal Abdel tributed to scientific institutions abroad with an Nasser, with the Director General of UNESCO invitation to participate in excavations; it elicited René Maheu, the organization’s former head Vit- scant response. torino Veronese, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, a A significant event took place in May 1955, throng of UNESCO representatives, the minis- with the signing of a protocol of cooperation ters charged with the organization’s affairs from between UNESCO and Hussein’s Ministry of the 50 nations participating in the Abu Simbel Education, establishing the Center of Docu- project and their ambassadors in Cairo, together mentation and Study on the History and Art of with their counterparts from the Arab world, the Ancient Egypt4 (usually referred to simply as the Egyptian ministers involved in the rescue of the Center of Documentation). The impetus for this Nubian antiquities, a number of eminent Egyp- important step proceeded from growing anxiety tian personalities, and a cluster of intellectual and at home and abroad over the increasingly delete- literary figures, artists, and members of the media. rious impact of climate and human activity on The international campaign to salvage the the monuments, notably in Upper Egypt, where imperiled monuments of Nubia in Egypt and the a rising water table was leading to flooding, ero- Sudan, during which many hands had joined the sion, and irretrievable loss. Documentation as a world over, united in a spirit of true cooperation meticulous permanent record and future resource and a profound faith in the timeless value of the for researchers was perceived as the only realisti- achievements of human culture, was brought to cally feasible response. a triumphant conclusion. In 1958, the newly minted Ministry of Cul- Decades earlier, in his impassioned book The ture and National Guidance, which I established Death of Philae, the French writer Pierre Loti had at the behest of the President, was assigned the decried the drowning of that splendid temple by task of oversight of national heritage, a symbol of the waters of the first Aswan Dam (built in 1902), the Revolution’s powerful emphasis on a vigor- bewailing this symbolic death of ancient Egypt ous national cultural policy. A mere eight months and calling upon Egyptians to rally in defense of later, in November 1958, I received a visit from their immortal patrimony. He vividly imagined a the Ambassador of the United States in Cairo, bemused Isis staring at her reflection in the inex- Raymond A. Hare, accompanied by the Director orable rising tide. Loti’s anguished, despairing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, cry was movingly echoed by our Prince of Poets, Mr. James Rorimer. Without preamble, this gen- Ahmed Shawqi, in eloquent verse. tleman announced that he had come to negotiate After the July 23, 1952 revolution, concern the purchase of “one or two temples” threatened over the fate of the monuments surfaced in a with submersion under the waters of the projected report submitted by the Director of the Egyptian High Dam at Aswan. The vast man-made lake that Antiquities Service,3 Mostafa Amer, to the Min- would form behind this massive structure, fore- ister of Education, Kamal el Din Hussein, and a seen to extend southward approximately 300 km fact-finding mission was dispatched to Nubia for within Egypt and another 187 km in the Sudan, ten days in December 1954.

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