Kom el Hitan (Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III / Colossi of Memnon)
Two recently discovered statues, including a Skehmet head, were stolen from the on-site magazine at 3:30am on 19th March. There are pictures of these statues on Jane Akshar’s blog. The items were recovered by the Luxor police from a house on 20th March and arrests made.
(Other Facebook reports are suggesting that 15 items were stolen but this is probably a mis-translation from Arabic reports.)
General Report
The highly respected Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute of the Unversity of Chicago have been publishing regular updates from their project office in Luxor. On 8th February, the Director, W. Raymond Johnson, said that “Police presence on the antiquities sites is strong, with some Egyptian military as well,” and “There was no damage to or looting of any archaeological site in Luxor.”
On 2nd February, the Minister for Antiquities Dr Hawass said, “The temples of Edfu and Kom Ombo are also safe. ”
Looters tried to break into Karnak Temple over the weekend of 30th January, but were replused by locals, although reportedly the thugs were armed with guns. The protectors included Mr. Mansour Boraik, head of the Upper Egyptian Antiquities, and Mr. Ibrahim Soliman, head of the Karnak Temple. It has been suggested that the attack was aimed at the Karnak warehouse. No other reports of attempted looting are presently known. Luxor Temple and the Mummification Museum are guarded by soldiers: Miss Sanaa Aly, the Director of Luxor Museum, has confirmed its safety. Apparently the Mosques have been telling their worshippers to protect the monuments.
There has also been illegal digging on the West Bank, reported in a comment below. Daniel Jackson has kindly translated the orginal German report by saamunra:
In the area of birket habu people tried to digg but were discovered early and dealt with (but without police – whatever that means). There is not specific date reported.
In Kom es-Samak a man was digging illegaly at night and was discovered by the gafirs. Because there was no police anywhere they dealt with him on their own, beating him badly. Our member went there on march 9th to lokk for himself and counted about 10 holes at the souther side of Kom es-Samak. He thinks the man was in search for foundation deposits. I will try to get some pictures from the damage.
The police returned to the coptic monastry at westbank is to guard it. It seems to be ok.
According to Coptic source via Facebook, all Coptic churches in Upper Egypt are secure.
Theban Hills
Scant attention has been paid to the workmans huts in the hills above the Valley of the Kings which have been used as a rubbish dump and allowed to deteriorate. Although Dr Hawass professed interest in the homes of ordinary workers which have been excavated in various Egyptian locales, in this case that has not apparently translated into protection of the site.
There is a new report about an smuggeling attempt of pharaonic statuettes. The information is very vage.
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/419472
Dr Hawass’ report on the Luxor thefts published 22 March says that the upper parts of a statue of Sekhmet and an “the life-size head of an unidentified goddess” were taken but recovered. The latter is said to be 38 cm (same as Jane’s original report) but it was there identified as being of Amenhotep III. Is anyone able to clarify this please?
http://www.drhawass.com/blog/conflict-and-resolution-luxor
Kom el Hitan statues reported as being recovered (that WAS quick!):
http://luxortimesmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/03/stolen-statues-from-amenhotep-iii.html
Al Masry Al Youm reports that 2 pharaonic statues have been stolen from the Kom el-Hettan storehouse at Luxor westbank early this morning. A group of armed men have injured three gafirs.
Read more here:
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/363816
I have new information concearning Kom es-Samak and Birket Habu at Luxor westbank. One of our trusted members from the egyptian travel forums is curently in Luxor and reporting the news as it is told by the local gafirs.
In the area of birket habu people tried to digg but were discovered early and dealt with (but without police – whatever that means). There is not specific date reported.
In Kom es-Samak a man was digging illegaly at night and was discovered by the gafirs. Because there was no police anywhere they dealt with him on their own, beating him badly. Our member went there on march 9th to lokk for himself and counted about 10 holes at the souther side of Kom es-Samak. He thinks the man was in search for foundation deposits. I will try to get some pictures from the damage.
The police returned to the coptic monastry at westbank is to guard it. It seems to be ok.
The original text in german:
“Es gab aber in letzter Zeit zwei Vorkommnisse.
Einmal wurde versucht in Birket Habu zu graben, das Unternehmen ist fruehzeitig entdeckt worden,
die Angelegenheit ohne Polizei unterbunden.
Schwerer war der Vorfall in der Naehe von Deir esch-Schelwit.
In der Nacht hat ein Mann am Hebsed-Podium von Amenhotep-3 Raubgrabungen durchgefuehrt.
(den Namen dieses Ortes moege jemand nachreichen) [identified as Kom es-Samak]
Ich habe etwa 10 Loecher gezaehlt, die alle auf der Suedseite vermutlich auf der Suche nach Grundsteindepots gegraben wurden.
Der Mann wurde aber erwischt, stolz zeigten die 3 Waechter ihre maechtigen Gehstoecke.
Da die Polizei sich aus diesem Gebiet zurueckgezogen hat, wurde das mit Hieben erledigt. (Aua)
Nur das Kloster gegenueber von Malqatta wird wieder bewacht.”
http://isis-und-osiris.de/isisosiris/main/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10816&start=450
[...] Karnak – Attempted entry by looters on 28th Jan. Repulsed by locals. (Egyptopaedia, 4th Feb) – LINK [...]
A report from a close friend in Luxor regarding the events of 28 – 31 Jan on the West Bank (some editing done to make English flow):
This is what has happened on the West Bank, as my friend Ahmed [who works as a Guide there] told me:
‘When we heard that some people had attacked the Cairo Museum and some houses we went around in groups [protecting the ancient sites and modern settlements on the West Bank] for three days. There were no policemen at all: they had gone back to the police stations to protect themselves [inside]. Some of the local groups went to look after the villages and the others either stood by the entrances of the Valley of the Kings or Hatshepsut’s temple or Medinat Habu and the Queen’s Valley, and the tombs. Because all of the sites are close beside each other [on the West Bank] Ahmed said it was easy for the locals to guard them.
The people who are living near the sites (most of whom are working in tourism) and the workers at the [tourist] alabaster factories went outside so that nobody could walk or even move in the streets. They made checkpoints and stopped and checked everyone. They even stopped Ahmed three times even though he is a local too.
Ahmed told me it wasn’t like the protection needed at Karnak [with hundreds of people on each side of the site in mobile phone contact with each other]: Karnak temple is a very big site but those on the West Bank are more contained [and easier to protect].
Thank be to Allah everything starts to become more normal now and we feel safe again. And no one will ever touch our history!’
Hi Kate (& Co.) – Work at Deir el Bahri continues. This comes from Andrzej Cwiek (private email).
I reported this on my blog, but then remembered this database.
As with Thebes in general, nothing negative to report (at Deir el Bahri) and i fully expect that to continue.
Stuart Tyler
i am very very proud of the way that the people of Karnak protecting the temple as soon as i can get a flight iwill be in egypt again and visiting karnak temple
IN WISH YOU ALL WELL
Hazel Fisher
[...] the museum break in and the efforts of locals around the country on Facebook (reproduced below). A moving story of locals in Luxor protecting Karnak temple was posted on the Looting Database and conveys their passion. A post from Francesco Tiradritti from [...]
We have just received an account for a dear friend in Karnak village re-the night of 28 Jan when the temple area was threatened. We have done some editing to make the English more clear, but trust that the narrative yet conveys the emotion and courage of the report.
“I don’t know what to say as I’m writing to you now with tears in my eyes.
I promise you I will tell you what I have seen and what I have heard.
At first we felt we were not living in our country and Egypt was not our home anymore, so we wanted big change. All of us hated the police and we are trusting [of] the army… we hated the way they [the police] were treating us and they were so rough with us.
On 28th [Jan. 2011] at 5 pm all of the police left all sites and about 10000 prisoners and few [bad] people went everywhere to breaking things – some looking for [their] own benefit, and the rest to show [that] Egypt has finished [ie to cause general chaos].
Now we felt [that] Egypt [was] in great danger. Yes we are angry with our Mum (Egypt) because she is not looking after us and not listening to us [ie the country/administration was not providing for us] but we never wish her [ie Egypt in a] bad [way] or [to be] finish[ed] or die.
We saw our Mum [Egypt] dying so we felt sorry for her – our heart aching – we have to protect her.
I went to walk to Karnak temple and saw the tank outside of the temple.
I cried.
And there were a lot of tourists, but no police.
Then I went to the Souk [tourist market] and I sat in a coffee shop with my friend, Ahmed, who is tour guide from west bank.
Before I [went] home we went to walk by Luxor temple.
We found none of the police there or even out side of the 2 [Christian] churches.
When I went home I found many people asking me, “Don’t sleep tonight because we have heard some people – we don’t know who are they – they may come to damage the [local] school.” I said “OK”.
At night one of my cousin, Ahmed, and my nephew Mohmed called me – they were outside – and told me they [could] hear some noise. We went all running towards the group of our friend[s who] has stopped 4 persons in car in my village at the back of Karnak temple.
I found more than 100 persons there. Then they said, “We will be here just in case somebody will come to Karnak temple.”
“What about the other sides of Karnak temple?” they told [asked] me.
There are more than 100 persons at each side of the temple and they gave me a list of telephone numbers to contact and tell each other if anyone need[ed] help. And I found people [had] make check points all around the temple.
At 3 am I had a phone call from Mostafa and the people went to the mosque and used the loud speaker to tell us, “11 persons [are] inside [Karnak] temple”.
Ok, my God, so we found [when we arrived] all Karnak around the temple [were] men and women and even some kids.
They told me, ‘Rauof and Hosney, and the people who made tea for us went inside the temple [ie people who made cups of tea for us when we visited the site are inside the temple area] and they are in danger because the bad people carry guns [are there]… I lost the contact with [them] after I heard shooting’.
At last we caught 4 of them [ie looters] and 11 had escaped – they were 15. [They] came in nice cars [ie expensive vehicles] with guns. One of the 4, he was [a] tourist police [person holding] high position call Amr the other 3 they are just bad people who smoke [drugs?] and dink.
… we spent two more night – we were doing the same thing [ie protecting Karnak temple] but now [there is] no problems anymore because the army, with police side by side [are protecting the site] but if you walk at Luxor or Karnak you will find people will stop you and make sure no strangers [are there] and they [the people] protecting their houses and streets, and churches until now.”
In the german “Aegyptenreiseforum” (online forums for travelling to Egypt) an egyptian member reports from karnak: her husband, a tourguide, has seen “people stealing stones in karnak”. Until now she was not able to report more details. I suggest you take her message with caution as it seems vage to me.
“The NZZ report is misleading. The Swiss team is fine. I asked NZZ today to verify their information and rectify this misleading mistake. Even if the situation is anything but relaxed, we should not panic.”
Thank you for the initiative of this Database.
[Kate: comment edited at author's request]
I was a bit worried about that NZZ report and had not chosen to feature it in the constantly-evolving main text, so thanks for confirming my suspicions.
There has been a lot of poor information about generally. I’d go so far as to say that there has been some deliberate disinformation coming out of Egypt. It’s been hard to rate reports.
With Luxor, the situation was even more complex. There was more news from Cairo as the communications network was better and there were media organisations with satellite uplinks. For 2 or 3 days, Luxor was something of a news blackspot – and we still have heard nothing from Edfu, Kom Ombo etc further up the Nile, although as Upper Egypt has generally been much quiter than Lower Egypt, I am hopeful that reports will be positive when we get them.
The swiss newspaper NZZ reports that in Luxor a digging has been attact in which the university of Basel takes part. Source of this information is Antonio Loprieno, head of Basel university. He suspects policemen from a nearby village are responsible.
The original excerpt in german language:
In Luxor sei zudem eine Grabung angegriffen worden, an der die Universität Basel beteiligt sei, sagt Antonio Loprieno, Rektor der Universität Basel und Ägyptologe. Lokale Projektmitarbeiter vermuteten dort Polizisten eines Nachbardorfs hinter dem Angriff.
Reported thuesday.
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/hintergrund/wissenschaft/aegypten_pluenderungen_mumien_1.9295894.html
KV and Westbank are guarded by villagers, acording to Mostafa Wazery, director of KV. Report from sunday.
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/egypts-tombs-temples-under-siege.html