Zahi Hawas- Egyptian archaeologist/governor of antiquities

sensitive_soul

I am intoxicated by Egyptian History, my mother dated an Egyptian man for years and lived in Cairo, so I grew up hearing allllll about it, now I am like a woman posessed, I adore it!

Zahi Hawas is the most famous archaeologist in the world, governor of the supreme council of antiquities in Cairo and every time I watch Discovery, almost daily, he's on it.... I have never known someone more driven to a lifelong passion....so much so I just e-mailed him and asked if I could sit in on one of his lectures in Cairo next year.

Anyone else an Egypt fan?

muppetkiller

Have to say I'm a bit of an Egyptian freak myself...
Just back from London to see the Rosetta Stone and the rest of the Egyptian goodies last weekend. Egypt was the one place I always wanted to visit ever since I was a kid..I remember when in second year in college everyone of my friends headed of to Ibiza lol I headed for Luxor and spent 2 weeks at ever sight I could get too. I remember sitting in the Great Pyramid and thinking like I'd been here before..I guess from seeing every History channel and Discovery channel special ever made lol...
As for the good doctor ..his site is really cool
http://www.guardians.net/hawass/

mathias

I have been fascinated by Egypt since I was a kid , finally got to go last year , spent a fantastic couple of weeks in Luxor etc.

However ,

Zahi Hawas ...To give that Evil little prick any kind of praise is to spit in the face of the history of the fantastic country , the man is a pompous egomaniacal charlatan , doing nothing but robbing the true archeologists and experts of this world of their rightful credit.

He gets his reputation and any praise out of fear rather than merit , banning any eqyptologist that neglects to credit him as part of a find. ( Joanne fletcher being a case in point , savagely and unnecessarily discredited by hawas, mainly for not mentioning him)

He runs the Egyptian antiquities like a dictator and discredits any work he doesnt get a mention for , And to see him , maskless , with an open flame in his hand , leering over recent finds like some cartoonish indiana jones , sickens me.
He should be removed from that position as soon as possible as far as Im concerned.

And as for his responsibility of perserving the monuments , he is failing miserably , one of the saddest sights I have seen in Eqypt was the state of the Valley of the kings , large out of control patches of fungus eating away the paintings and inscriptions on the wall ,caused by the breaths of the millions of tourists , something which could be prevented by a simple sealed glass tunnel around the tombs. But hes more interested in his own media image than securing such preservation for one of the most fantastic sights in Egypt.