Qatari Mission, headed by Sheikh Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali al Thani, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees – Qatar Museums Authority, is currently engaged in the restoration and preservation of 53 Nubian pyramids at al Begrawiya area, Nahar al Nil State, north of the National Capital Khartoum, ahead of the coming tourism season which starts in September.
These pyramids are major sites of the Kingdom of Meroe which flourished between the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD and included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
The the process will be conducted within the Qatar-Sudan Archeological Project (QSAP) which was initiated by former Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani and Sudan President Omer Bashir and then translated into an agreement signed by the two countries in September 2012.
The project is an umbrella that supports at first 28 archeological missions – working in the Shamalia and Nahar al Nil States – in different ways especially in the logistics required to accomplish their task in a fast track. About 40 archeological missions will start by the next tourism season, according to Mr. Abdulla Al Najjar, the Project’s Chief Executive Officer.
He said the restoration of Begrawiya pyramids is being conducted as a pilot project that can be rolled out at any area of Meroe civilization where there are Pyramids.
“We work in coordination with international organizations such as the German Institute of Archeology, the University College of London, Egypt Museum in Munich and many other institutions which have had extensive experience in restoration and preservation of pyramids.” he said.
He argued that they have chosen German Institute because it is very unique in this field, also because the German archeologist Prof. Hinkel has been working in Sudan during 1962-2004 and left behind extraordinary information of those pyramids and general archeological sites in Sudan.
“Prof. Henkel donated his archives to the German institute and our intention is to seek their help in the restoration and to give those donations to the Sudanese authorities to allow students, scholars and those specialized in archeology to benefit of them” Al Najjar added.
Another progress in the project, Al Najjar says, is that the two states will be provided with two camps to house the archeologists, technicians and all those linked to the project at about 5 kilometers away from Jabal al Barkel and about 2 kilometers from the pyramids of al Begrawiya.
“ we hope the two camps will be ready before the start the new season to provide logistical support to those missions”. he added.
The third step forward in the 5-year project was the workshop which was organized last month under the name” Towards Sustainable Tourism in Meroe”. Al Najjar said .
“I think it was a very unique opportunity and it had attracted scholars, scientists and experienced archeologists who have been working in Sudan especially in al Begrawiya area for long time, we invited them and gather them in one room to discuss and set a site management plan that will be implemented to cater for the visitors who will visit those important sites and also to bring it to standard that is accepted and endorsed by the UNISCO World Heritage Council because al Begrawiya has been one of the sites inscribed by it and our mission will not be implemented on the ground unless they met those international standards.
He related that those scholars spend 2 days discussing those plans and items and their recommendations will be implemented, this workshop has focused in Begrawiya only but everything we start and then can be rolled out to other sites until those archeological sites reach recognized standards that can be seen by different assessment agencies.
Furthermore, Al Najjar paid a field tour to 10 archeological sites at the Northern State last week accompanied by Dr. Salah Mohamed Ahmed, QSAP General Coordinator and Dr. Oukasha Aldali, QSAP projects Director. The visit coincided with the visit of Minister of Tourism Eng. Mohamed Abdul Karim Al Hud and the Governor of the Northern State Dr. Ibrahim Alkhidir to the area.
The Minister appreciated the Qatari government and people role in supporting Sudan, stressing that the project would create a tremendous shift in the antiquities sector. Dr. Salah expressed satisfaction over the visit noting that it was the first time he saw such high enthusiasm among the Sudanese and foreign archeologists.
Asked by Sudanow whether the project is implemented within the tourism economy, Al Najjar affirmed that the main objective behind Qatar government support was to create a legacy that could be left behind and establish a solid platform that could be used to promote tourism in the Sudan in general, and cultural tourism in particular.
“We believe the Sudanese civilization and history have lot in store to reveal for those interested tourists who take the pain to travel to those areas to see something that they have weren’t expected to see, and then they would enjoy best experiences they have had in visiting similar archeological sites in the world”. he said
He observed that economics tourism is the responsibility of the concerned government entities such as ministry of tourism, antiquities corporation and wild life, pinpointing that the two camps the project is stablishing would be left as legacy that could be used in the future to promote such industry.
“This is a very unique project. We hope the project will be able to achieve its strategic objective which is to help Sudan and Sudanese people promote their tourism industry in the best possible way that can help and sustain such sector in the future”.He stressed.
By Sudanow.info, 14 hours 26 minutes ago
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