Egypt antiquities chief faces jail time

Zahi Hawass sentenced over land dispute, while former prime minister set to stand trial on corruption charges.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt's ebullient minister for antiquities, has been sentenced to a year in jail after he refused to implement a court decision in a land dispute.

The court on Sunday also fined him 10,000 Egyptian pounds (more than $1,600) in damages.

Hawass, who has reached international acclaim as an Egyptologist, said he would appeal the ruling and told journalists had the court's decision had not targeted him "personally".

The sentence will be suspended until the appeal ruling.

Hawass was named antiquities minister last month, but had held the position as head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities under Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's ousted former president.

Sunday's court ruling concerned a complaint brought against Hawass when he was Egypt's antiquities chief under Mubarak. Hawass was ordered to return the land to the plaintiff, but had allegedly refused to do so.

The ruling comes as other ministers who served under Mubarak found themselves the target of separate investigations.

Read the rest here

UPDATE!  The Zahi Hawass saga continues!  It turns out our favorite controversial figure also produces "a line of rugged khakis, denim shirts and carefully worn leather jackets that are meant, according to the catalog copy, to hark 'back to Egypt’s golden age of discovery in the early 20th century.'”

Read about the whole thing here (via NYTimes)

Egyptian Museum of Cairo

Museum Syndicate is a independently owned and operated website that showcases over 75 museum's collections from around the world.  You can search the Brooklyn Museum to the National Portrait Gallery in London.  Naturally, I checked out the Cairo Museum.

There are 122 objects images from the Cairo Museum on Museum Sybdicate. They are photographed and thumb-nailed in a simple but clear catalog format.  While this catalog is nowhere near a definitive collection of the thousands of objects in the Cairo Museum, it can give a person a taste of what is housed inside.  

Here is a sample:

	Funerary Mask of Yuya		Unknown Artist
	Geese		Unknown Artist
	Giant Statue of Akhenaten	1350 BC	Unknown Artist
	Gold Cobra		Unknown Artist
	Gold Funerary Mask of Tutankhamun		Unknown Artist

If you are particularly interested in the "Giant Statue of Akhenaten" , for example, click on the name of the object, and  it brings you to a page with that looks like this:

TITLE:	Giant Statue of Akhenaten
OWNER:	Egyptian Museum of Cairo
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:	Egypt
DATE OF CREATION:	1350 BC
TAGGED WITH:	Ancient Egypt Sculptures and Carvings
JIGSAW PUZZLE	Click Here to Play

Happy hunting!

The Nile

It may be easy to think about Egypt's politcal change occuring in a vacum.  However, let's not forget that Egypt is a global nation, with close ties to Europe, the United States and the rest of Afirca.  One tangible connection between Egypt and the rest of Africa to the south is the Nile River.  The Nile is such a strong symbol of Egypt, that it is easy to forget that it flows through eight other countries, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia. Zaire, Kenya, Tanzanian, Rwanda, and Burundi.

With this in mind, Egypt's political change will not doubt have an impact on water use issues.  In a region where water is scarse, who controls the nile will no doubt be a conplicated topic.

In July 2010, Reuters blogger, Barry Malone, asked if the water issues in this region could lead to violence?

His post was written pre-revolution, but it brings up some interesting issues.  It is definetly worth the read.