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Cross-Cultural Dress and Tourist Performance in Egypt Susan Slyomovics FROM THE TIME OF THEIR construction, the great monuments of Pharaonic Egypt have been looted by the early Egyptians, Arab treasure hunters, and contemporary antiquarians and tourists. The pillage of centuries now exhibited in Western museums has stimulated the emergence of well-organized international tourism to the pyramids and tombs of the Nile River. The majority of contemporary tourists, i.e., Western non-Muslim visitors, are primarily interested in the lure of ancient Egypt at the expense of modern Arabic-speaking Muslim Egypt. Today wherever we journey in Egypt as tourists, brochures assure us that we are looking upon an advanced civilization that was in its prime while Europe was stillan infant. From the sound-and-light show at the pyramids, entitled "Here History began . . ." to quotations drawn from Herodotus' Persian Wars (the first guidebook to the ancient world), for use in promotional literature, the Egyptian tourist industry encourages the notion that Egypt is the cradle of Western civilization and thereby acknowledges that the lure of ancient Egypt is so strong that visitors are seldom aware of Egypt's other attractions. For the tourist, the trajectory of civilization begins in Pharaonic Egypt, advances to Greco-Roman times, progresses to the European Renaissance, and culminates in modern Western culture, entirely bypassing the achievements of Islamic civilization. In conjunction with the temporary foreign tourist, Egyptian state agencies and ministries of tourism, culture, and antiquities have created a semantic reality, namely "Ancient Egypt." Its meaning resembles and is subsumed by the scholarly construction of "the Orient," described by Ed139 ward Said in his Orientalism. Like "the Orient," "Ancient Egypt" emerges from a network of political interests and scholarly intertextuality that dominate, structure, and finally imply a socio-cultural reality to correspond with our imaginative texts. Performingthe Tourist Experience The Western tourist arrives with great respect for the antiquity of Egypt's institutions, the glories of Ancient Egyptian architecture and sculpture, and the exotic veil of mystery surrounding archaeological discovery. The preferred manner of travel has always been to sail up the Nile, leaving one's boat to hastily inspect monuments closest to the shore. To this day Herodotus' basic voyage upriver to the monuments (460-455 B.C.E.) remains the prototypical tourist itinerary. However, in the 1980s, it is no longer necessary to make the long, arduous trek up the Nile River. The highlights of "Ancient Egypt" have been brought together in a single, convenient theme park, "Pharaonic Village." Consider the performance of "Ancient Egypt" staged on the outskirts of Cairo for the tourist who passes through an archway lettered "Pharaonic Village," and, in the company of a group of other tourists, steps onto a large barge moored along the quay. The barge is filled with glass museum cases containing step by step instructions on the production and fabrication of papyrus as well as numerous samples for sale. The ancient art of papyrusgrowing and of painting on papyrus was revived after one thousand years. This is the claim made by its reviver, Dr. Hassan Ragab, whose several papyrus boats and stores are located in the principal tourist cities, airports, and major hotels of Egypt. From the barge the tourist is transported through a network of navigable canals by a smaller boat, which in the words of the tourist brochure authored by Dr. Ragab, is a "floating amphitheatre which ensures maximum comfort and pleasure." The boat circles a village constructed on Jacob Island, Giza Governorate to simulate a composite "Ancient Egyptian " settlement. Jacob Island is planted with trees and vegetation in an attempt to screen out the urban surroundings of what is Africa's most populated city. The first stage of the tour takes place on a floating amphitheatre enclosed on three sides which transports tourists around Jacob Island. The tourist audience , seated in rows, is obliged to face forward to view the pantheon of Egyptian gods and goddesses-Osiris, Isis, Horus-each of which is seen briefly as the boat passes through "the Canal of Mythology." The boat slowly sails by painted, obviously false creations: in the foreground, seven foot high statues of deities made from plaster and paint represent similar 140...

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