Archive for December, 2012

WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XII

By | December 26, 2012 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, Wednesday Nostalgia | Comments Off on WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XII

By Islam El Shazly

The photographers who visited Egypt in the late 19th century where explorers in their own right, they travelled the length and breadth of the country and spent hours upon hours chronicling with their cameras the sights and the lives of Egypt and the Egyptians. They left us a treasure trove of imagery, with subjects that have have almost completely disappeared from our lives.

Temples that have either sunk or moved, entire neighbourhoods that were levelled and rebuilt, ancient trees that were uprooted or disfigured, and lifestyles that all but vanished. Read more…

WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XI

By | December 19, 2012 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, Wednesday Nostalgia | Comments Off on WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XI

By Islam El Shazly

One of the most delightful things about looking into a collection like the Egyptian Lantern Slides is the level of content one sees on the faces of the simple Egyptian people. While the nature of photography back in those days called for stern faces and rigid bodies for the sake of exposure, their smiles or a curious look would defiantly make their way onto their faces.

It was not the perfect world, but they were content and they were proud. Not the annoying pride that would normally ruin its owner, but proud Read more…

WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK X

By | December 12, 2012 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, Wednesday Nostalgia | Comments Off on WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK X

By Islam El Shazly

Egypt is a land of contrasts, it is paradoxical and perplexing, and looking at the modern Egyptians, one has to wonder whether their – our, since I too am Egyptian – ancestors were like them! And if they were, how on earth did they manage to start and build a civilisation that would endure for close to 6,000 years?!

There are great differences between between the ones that came before and the ones who came after, but there are also great similarities, the most striking of similarities the simplicity of Egyptians, not simplicity in terms of higher brain functions, but rather simplicity of character. We are fairly uncomplicated. Read more…

COMFORT: THE TOP 12 MID-RANGE HOTELS IN EGYPT

By | December 7, 2012 | Egypt, Reviews, Travel + Leisure | Comments Off on COMFORT: THE TOP 12 MID-RANGE HOTELS IN EGYPT

By Islam El Shazly

There hundreds of hotels of different classes and classifications in Egypt, and that is not much of a wonder for a country heavily reliant on tourism. Hospitality comes with turf.

Picking the right hotel for a specific budget becomes paramount with such a large number of hotels, and choosing the right one is not always a straight forward affair, since the quality of service sometime fluctuates from one visit to the next, depending where you’re staying. Read more…

WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK IX

By | December 5, 2012 | Egypt, History, Wednesday Nostalgia | Comments Off on WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK IX

By Islam El Shazly

One of the main reasons for reminiscing is to escape the present, it is undeniable, the urge and the yearning for better times or better quality of life, or cleaner air. It makes for a good flight away from the grind of modern day life that has become the most common feature throughout the later part of the 20th century and the current century!

Fact is concepts like “quality of life” are an invention of the second half of the 1900’s, when we began to dissect every aspect of our lives, granted, quality of life is a very important aspect of our livelihood, and it is most certain that it preoccupied our predecessors, but I doubt that it was the driving force behind their existence. Read more…