Qatar Sponsors Tourism at Meroe Archeological Sites
17 January, 2014Khartoum, (Sudanow)- The Qatari support for the Sudan has shown that it does not confine itself to the country’s present and future alike, in the form of multiple economic and peace initiatives, including sponsoring the Doha Initiative for Peace in Darfur, but it has equally extended its efforts to preservation of Sudan past heritage.
According to Dr. Salah Mohamed Ahmed QSAP General Coordinator, the Qatar-Sudan Archeological Project (QSAP) is funding 28 archeological missions that work in sites extending in an area of more than 700km north of Khartoum and covering the whole era from the earliest prehistoric times to the 19th century.
These projects include among other things, rehabilitation of the Sudan National Museum, building of a site museum at Naga, establishment of two camps at Meroe and Gebel Barkal for missions and tourism and the Qatari mission for the pyramids of Sudan.
Last week the Qatar-Sudan Archeological Project organized a workshop, 15-16 January, to discuss how to develop sustainable tourism at the archeological sites of the Island of Meroe (River Nile State) which were inscribed in the World Heritage Sites in 2011.
The Kingdom of Meroe was the last of the three Nubian powerful kingdoms (Kerma, Napata and Meroe). It flourished between the 8thcentury BC to the 4th century AD. While the former two kingdoms were characterized by their brave warriors kings like Kashta and Piankhy who extended their influence to Egypt and even to Syria in some references.
Meroe kingdom was known for its great achievements in the fields of trade, industry and architecture. It maintained contact with Arab and Indian traders along the Red Sea coasts. and the ruins of its mining activities remained witness up-today of its unique status in the continent and beyond, to the extend that it was named the Birmingham of Africa.
Meroe Queen Amanirenas led her army by herself and conquered the troops of the Roman Emperor Augustus south of the Egyptian town of Aswan and forced them to sign settlement according to her terms.
The archeological sites include the royal city, pyramids, temples, baths and other monuments. The initial sum set for the execution of the projects stands at over 135 million US$. But the Qataris arent expected to stand idle if more money is needed, as they have demonstrated in earlier occasion, including the Darfur peace process.
According to the papers presented at the workshop by the stakeholders there are many challenges for sustainable tourism at Meroe antiquities. Conservation operations need to solve the problems of drifting sands, the debris left by previous excavations, lack of transportation and accommodation services for the visitors, raising community awareness, publicity campaign...etc
Besides the main goal of protecting and saving the monuments of Meroe for the coming generations, the participants agreed at the conclusion of the workshop that a number of steps have to be taken for the promotion of sustainable tourism at the site through installation of appropriate visitor facilities, information system, offering additional tourist attractions, support the flourishing of local business, increasing the number of certain categories of visitors, promote Eco-tourism and installation of transportation infrastructure to reach Meroe from Khartoum and other big cities easily.
Mr. Abd Allah al Najar, Qatar-Sudan Archeological Project, Executive Manger, has however,stressed that all these challenges are manageable within the 5-year project which started last October.
End
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