WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XV

By Islam El Shazly

One of the main reasons for starting this series of Lantern Slides was—and still is—to educate myself and reader about Egyptian heritage, so us as Egyptians would not lose sight of what made up this country, and what can still make it again. So we don’t forget who we are and where we came from.

History was distorted tremendously after the 1952 Coup d’état in favour of the Free Officers Movement that led the coup. Charisma alone would not entrench them in power, they had to demonize the previous era in its entirety. They had to appeal to the emotional aspect of the Egyptian; and because it was communist movement at heart, they knew how to draw on Soviet influences on how to get the common man on their side, and have him sing praises, when they were destroying his way of life forever.

They weren’t demons altogether either, but they were not fit for the job or up to it, and they ruined the country.

Egypt and Sudan were one country for as long as history; with one train ticket from Cairo, you could go all the way to Wadi Halfa in Sudan. Unity of the Nile Valley would be a priority for the Egyptians and Sudanese, until in 1956, due in part to lack of resolve and political maturity of the Nasserites and in part to a very well played game of nations by Britain, the unity was no more.

Did you know that the Nile used to flow very close to the Pyramids! That’s how this man used to be able to farm so close to the edge of the desert.

Note: In 1964, when The temples at Wadi es-Sebua were threatened by flooding from the construction of the Aswan High Dam project, they were dismantled and moved to a new site only 4 km west from their original location. Along with two other temples: The Temple of Dakka and Temple of Maharraqa.

Egypt: Street scene, Assiut.

Egypt: Tomb of Selim [sic] scaribee.

Egypt: Caravan donkeys, Assiut.

Egypt: Military camp, Wadi Halfa.

Egypt: Temple, Wadi Seboua.

Egypt: Ploughing near the Pyramids of Gizeh.