Kaleidoscope

Even though 2007 is almost finishing and I didn’t go to most of the places I mentioned in my previous note. But at least I tried to learn more about it, so perhaps I will be able to go there one day

Why do I want to go there? It’s just sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo BEAUTIFUL!!! (here is the link on keyhole, I’ll try to find more pics soon)

First thing, u need to have a special permission because of the tension between Egypt & Sudan over this land, I don’t know how feasible this permission is (most probably a bit hard, but not impossible).

El mohem,,, I was a bit curious about this issue, so here is what I found:

 ”The Egyptian Sudanese Borders throughout history / الحدود المصرية السودانية عبر التاريخ “, it’s the outcome of a conference held on December 1997, many important scholars participated in it (including Dr. Yonan Labib, Dr. El Sayed Folaifel, Dr. Zahi Hawass,,,,). The book discusses this issue starting from the time of Ancient Egypt, the Romans time, the Islamic era, and the modern times.

There are two important documents related to the Egyptian Borders.

One of the them is a ”faraman” issued by the Ottman Sultan (El bab el aali) on 13 February 1841 (after an international conference in London in 1940). In brief he said that Mohamed Aly can rule Egypt by hereditary ascension, but the outter parts of Egypt (el Nuba, Darfur, Senar) will br ruled according to the righteous governance principles. The faraman included a map that pointed out the borders of “Egypt proper”. But that’s another story. (Dr. Yonan discussed this issue quite extensively in his article)

In 19 January 1899, there was another important (and very famous) treaty between the Egyptians and the British occupation. In this one, the borders were designated on the 22 degree line. This was the dividing line when Sudan announced its independence in 1956. 

The Halayeb Triangle issue started in 4/11/1902, when the Egyptian ministry of interior announced that the Sudanese authorities will have administrative rights on this part in order not to deivide the Besharei tribes across borders. 

From this time, some Sudanese governments raised the issue and tried to impose its political sovereignty in addition to the administrative rights. But Egypt replied back with the historical and political evidences and enforced its military presence in this area in the 90’s.

I hope that this info was of help.

P.S. The book is part of a very interesting series called “Tarikh El Masreyeen / The Egyptians’ History”. It’s printed by El Hay`a el Masreya lel ketab / The General Egyptian Book Organiztion. http://www.egyptianbook.org.eg/En/

500 + pages

5,25 LE