Participatory Site Management of Qubbet El Hawa, Qubbet El Hawa North Launched

Today, the Launch of the Participatory site management of Qubbet el Hawa and Qubbet el Hawa North (west bank Aswan) is taking place.

The Multi-Donor Action “Participatory site management Qubbet el Hawa and Qubbet el Hawa North” is jointly co-financed by the European Union and the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) and implemented by GIZ as part of the GFFO project “Ways to protect and enhance cultural heritage in West Aswan”.

The duration of this Action is scheduled from 01.05.2024 to 31.01.2027, (33 months) with a total budget of 2,715,000 EUR (EU contribution 2,500,000 EUR and GFFO contribution 215,000 EUR).

The Overall Objective of the Action is to contribute to enhancing cooperation and joint under-standing between the EU and Egypt.

The Specific Objective (outcome) of the Action is to significantly strengthen the constructive collaboration among key stakeholders involved in the inclusive development of the cultural heritage sites on the west bank of Aswan.

The establishment of a participatory archaeological site management at Qubbet el Hawa and Qubbet el Hawa North will contribute to increased opportunities for networking and local partnerships around shared EU-Egypt cultural, political, and economic agendas.

Several officials are taking part in the event such as the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, the Governor of Aswan, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the Ambassador of the EU, the Deputy Head of Mission of the German Embassy, and the GIZ TBC director. 

Aswan-West is an outstanding archaeological heritage site and could become the beacon of Egyptian and European engagement for sustainable site management, implementing “sensitive” tourism and safeguarding of the region, possibly including in the long term a European-Egyptian-Centre of Archaeology.

The West-bank of Aswan is a unique archaeological site, which is currently only partly open for tourism, but offers the fantastic and promising chance in the future to give a comprehensive overview to all periods of the Egyptian Culture, from Prehistory, Pharaonic times, Greeks & Romans, Christianity and Muslim-Architecture up to the Nubian Culture. The attractions could be linked to the already existing touristic centres in Aswan-East and Elephantine-Island.

The Site measures ca. 3,5 km along the river Nile and covers some mountains and “wadis”, which are known as the region around the “Aga Khan Mausoleum”, the still active monasteries of “St. Simeon” (Monastery of St Anba), “Qubbet el-Hawa” and “Qubbet el-Hawa-North” and the adjacent mountains with prehistorically rock carvings.

The project is of major importance since the West bank does not always benefit from the tourist flow in the Aswan region. The project also aims at starting a close cooperation with the Nubian community (council of elders; schools; local artisans; guides etc.) to further strengthen the awareness of the cultural heritage of the region and include Aswan West as part of the main tourist route.

It is noteworthy that most of the archaeological work in the region – since the time of Napoleon – has been carried out by European/Egyptian Missions, and this is still the case. The currently leading European archaeologists are the Spanish team at Qubbet el-Hawa of the University of Jaén (Prof. Dr. Alejandro Jiménez Serrano) and the Egyptian-German team at Qubbet el-Hawa (North) of the Egyptian Museum Berlin (Prof. Dr. Friederike Seyfried), followed by other German, Italian and British as well as Egyptian missions.

All missions are funded mainly for their scientific research by governmental research foundations and their results are remarkable in every aspect. Additionally, every group contributes as much as possible for the improvement of site-management, like for example the Spanish team, which built, in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities an administrative building to improve the services for tourists on the site: Inspectors’ office, police office and tickets’ office. Or the efforts of the German mission to get the permission for a protecting dry-masonry-wall of the antiquities land around the Qubbet el-Hawa-North.