UNESCO to Establish 1st Underwater Cultural Heritage Chair in Egypt

On Saturday, Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO's Director-General, and Dr. Abdelaziz Konsowa, the Head of Alexandria University signed the agreement of establishing the organization's first chair for Underwater Cultural Heritage.

The chair will be located at Alexandria Centre for Maritime Archaeology & Underwater Cultural Heritage, Faculty of Arts.

On his side, Konsowa expressed that these chairs are considered as collaborative projects between the high-education institutions and the organization.

This partnership creates a platform for dialogue and sharing knowledge and experience. Also, these chairs can contribute to enhancing the university's scientific research abilities.

Regarding the main targets of establishing this chair, he added that raising Arabs and Africans awareness to the importance of the underwater heritage, providing the necessary advice related to documentation, citation, research, and public display, and encouraging the Arabic and African countries to join UNESCO 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.

A number of workshops and sessions will be organized to provide the training opportunities for maritime archaeologists and students not only from Egypt but also from the Middle East and Africa.

In 2019, the Egyptian National Commission for UNESCO organized the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) Workshop in Egypt.

The objectives of this workshop were to provide training opportunities for government officials in UCH management by the effective implementation of the UNESCO 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage that Egypt ratified in 2017.