Christianity,the Coptic religion and ethnic minorities in Egypt

The Copts are the direct descendants of the Old Egyptians. Today they form the Christian minority in Egypt whose number is about nine millions. The Coptic language originates from the language spoken in Ancient Egypt and the Coptic music has also its roots in the Old Egyptian music. Both the Coptic language and Coptic music have survived in the liturgy of the Coptic Church till today. The early Coptic Church had a great impact on the Christian world. Apostle Athanasius of Alexandria formulated the Christian Creed, St. Antonius the Great and St. Pakhomius founded the monastic system, and the Theological School of Alexandria had a great reputation. The Coptic Church is also the church of the martyrs and it lived through long ages of severe persecution. Yet the Copts are wellknown for loyalty to their country and they are proud of their Egyptian identity.     

Land reclamation in Egypt: A study of life in the new lands

For decades, Egypt has tried to increase its agricultural area through reclamation of desert land. The significance of land reclamation goes beyond the size of the reclaimed area and number of new settlers and has been important to Egyptian agricultural policies since the 1952-revolution. This paper examines from a micro-perspective, the life of Egyptians resettled in the new lands. The first part of the paper provides an introduction to the discourses of land reclamation, to the policies of reclaimed land distribution, and to the background of the settlers. The second part is based on fieldwork in a village in the new lands; it is inhabited by graduates who have received land under the Mubarak Project. The analysis shows that they move there in hope of making a better life especially for their children. Nevertheless, the settlers have difficulties building a sense of belonging to the new villages, and lack of good schools and other public services may cause families to split up. For some, however, resettlement in the new lands entails new social and economic possibilities. The paper concludes that while land reclamation may not be ecologically or economic sustainable, the new lands provide settlers with new opportunities.     

Continental back-arc basin origin of some ophiolites from the Eastern Desert of Egypt

Summary Geochemical and petrographical data of three ophiolitic pillow metavolcanic occurrences from the central Eastern Desert of Egypt are presented. The investigated rocks show a subalkaline, tholeiitic affinity. Chemical data indicate that the metavolcanics have transitional within-plate basalt to island-arc basalt features, which are characteristics of basalts formed in ensialic back-arc basins. The association of the investigated ophiolites with volcanoclastic metasedimentary rocks of marine to continental facies is a further confirmation of their ensialic evolution. This suggestion, along with the geochronologic, isotopic and crustal growth rate evidences, revives interest in models that involve contribution from a pre-Pan-African continental crust at least in the southern part of the Egyptian Shield. Mixing between a depleted mantle-derived magma and an enriched crustal melt, a process similar to AFC (assimilation and fractional crystallization), is suggested for the evolution of the investigated rocks. This study provides evidence for formation of some ophiolites in the Eastern Desert of Egypt in continental (ensialic) back arc basins.     

Present groundwater status in Egypt and the environmental impacts

This article is an attempt to give a brief review on the status of groundwater studies in Egypt, their results, and the present plans for groundwater development that are usually based on the hydrogeological characteristics of the groundwater resources as well as on the environmental control of the discharge area.In terms of groundwater hydrology, Egypt can be divided into the following groundwater provinces: (1) the Western Desert, (2) the Eastern Desert, (3) the Nile Valley including the delta, (4) the Sinai Peninsula, (5) the Northern Coastal Zone, and (6) Wadi El-Natrun.The studies of volume and nature of groundwater and the environmental impact studies that were carried out in each of these provinces differed according to the importance given to development of projects in areas of interest and to the availability of funds. Recent studies and the surveys conducted for groundwater hydrological research by local and international organizations are described separately for each province. Special reference is made to groundwater hydro-geological setting, groundwater resources evaluation, and present and future utilization. The New Valley is the largest Egyptian irrigated agricultural development project that is solely dependent on groundwater resources. An outline showing its nature, objective, and size is included as an example of groundwater development.     

Modeling Biogeochemistry,the Key for Understanding Environmental Chemistry of a Semi－Arid Soil in Egypt

1IntroductionThecomponentsoftheenvironmentaredamagedbyagriculturalpractices.Soilslosstheirfer tilityandwaterdeterioratesduetopollution .Chemicalweatheringofmineralandsoiloccursattheinterfacesbetweentheliquidandsolidphases;consequentlythesurfaceareaandcompositionofthemineralsplayanimportantroleinthisprocess.GarrelsandMackenzie ( 1 96 7)suggestedthatincon gruentweatheringreactionswouldproducedissolvedspeciesandnewsolidsthataremorestableintheweatheringenvironmentthantheoriginalbedrockminerals.Ro…     

Springs in Egypt

Examples of springs in Egypt deal only with examples of natural springs producing potable water. None of the natural springs producing highly mineralized thermal water for therapeutical are considered. No water from natural springs in Egypt is bottled. Egyptian standards state that the total dissolved solids in potable water should not exceed 1000 ppm, except in Siwa, where the only available source for water for human consumption is from springs that have water containing more than 2000 ppm TDS. Six natural springs in Egypt provide typical examples for the Sinai and the Western Desert: Ain Furtaga in the southern pre-Cambrian province of Sinai Peninsula; Ain El Gudeirat in the sedimentary plateau of North Sinai; and Ain El Bishmo, Ain El Bousa, and Ain El Gabal in the Western Desert Oases of Bahariya, Kharga, and Dakhla. They discharge from the Nubian Sandstone aquifer system. The sixth spring, Ain El Arayes, is a spring in Siwa Oasis.     

Current State of Crustal Deformation and Seismic Activity from Seismic and Geodetic Data in Aswan Region,Egypt

Geotectonics - Aswan region is a very important region for Egypt where the High Dam is situated. The wellbeing of the dam and its encompassing region is of extreme worry to all the Egyptian...     

Mediation agreement to resolve an environmental conflict and its social implications: the case of Wadi Zalmon (Israel National Park)

Mediation refers to an informal process in which a neutral third party helps parties in conflict attain an agreement which they were unable to reach on their own. It is mainly used to solve social, economic and political problems, but its characteristics allow using it to resolve also environmental disputes. The purpose of this article is to examine over a period of time the different attitudes of some groups of populations (communities, municipalities and governmental authorities) toward mediation agreement and its implications. The agreement was signed for an area which was declared a National Park due to its unique landscape—characterized as a cultural landscape (a landscape which represents a combined works of nature and of man). Examination over time is intended to expose whether changes have taken place in the populations in respect to the agreement and its social and cultural influences on them. The paper is dealing with Wadi Zalmon, a stream flowing from east to west in Western Galilee, in the north part of Israel and its environs. In this declaration are involved many populations, which represent the multicultural distinctiveness of Israeli society: Christians, Moslems, Bedouins and Jews.     

Palynology of some Cretaceous mudstones from southeast Aswan,Egypt: significance to regional stratigraphy

The basal mudstones from the El-Nom borehole in the Gebel Abraq area in southern Egypt have yielded a diverse and relatively well preserved terrestrial palynoflora that includes Balmeisporites holodictyus, Crybelosporites pannuceus, Foveotricolpites gigantoreticulatus, Nyssapollenites albertensis, Retimonocolpites variplicatus and Rousea delicipollis. These suggest an Albian–Cenomanian age and deposition in a fluvio-deltaic environment; no marine phytoplankton is reported. The fern-dominated palynoflora and the overwhelming presence of kaolinitic clays suggest a warm, humid palaeoclimate. According to available knowledge, the mudstones in the Gebel Abraq area, equivalents of the so-called “Timsah Formation”, might be correlated with an older rock unit, the Maghrabi Formation, based on the new palynological age assessment. This new definition of local stratigraphy implies that the Bernice sheet of geological map of Egypt [Klitzsch, E., List, F., Pöhlmann, G., 1987. Geological map of Egypt, sheet NF 36 NE Bernice, 1: 500 000. Conoco and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, Cairo] ought to be reconsidered.     

Provenance of temper in a New Kingdom Egyptian pottery sherd: Evidence from the petrology and mineralogy of basalt fragments

A New Kingdom spinning bowl from Karnak (Luxor) Egypt is similar in form to spinning bowls commonly found at other Egyptian sites and has a bulk chemical composition in the range for other Egyptian marl vessels. These data support a domestic origin. The matrix of the bowl contains unaltered, sand-sized, mafic rock fragments with volcanic, subophitic textures. Over 20% of the sand-sized grains consist of angular, unweathered rock fragments, and of these ∼20% are volcanic. Apparently they were added as temper. Electron microprobe analyses show that augite, plagioclase, and, where present, pigeonite, in nine of these have compositions typical of mafic igneous rocks. Geothermometry confirms crystallization at ∼1100°C. Pyroxene discrimination diagrams indicate geological sources ranging from within-plate alkali basalts to within-plate, continental tholeiites. Suitable sources for the temper are rare in Egypt. Both alkaline and tholeiitic, postorogenic (unaltered) late Cenozoic basalts occur in the Cairo area, making this the most likely but not the only possible source for the temper. The pottery may have also originated in Cairo because raw rock materials were moved upstream less commonly than down the Nile. A Cairo provenance for the Karnak artifact is consistent with the everyday movement of people and goods along the Nile between the ancient twin capitals of Memphis and Thebes. These results and the common occurrence of volcanic rocks as temper indicate that microbeam analytical techniques may help narrow the provenance of ancient pottery. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A new velocity field from the analysis of the Egyptian Permanent GPS Network (EPGN)

For studying recent crustal movements and their relation to earthquake occurrence in large scales, the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG), Helwan, Cairo, Egypt started in 2006 the establishment of the Egyptian Permanent GPS Network (EPGN). Beginning with 4 stations in 2007, 15 stations were operational at the end of 2011. In addition, a station in Alexandria of the French “Centre d'Études Alexandrines” (CEALX) was added as station to the EPGN. Nowadays, 16 stations are operational and an extension to 20 in the near future is expected. The collected EPGN data of the last 6 years are used in this work to throw light upon the present state of recent crustal movement of the whole of Egypt. Bernese software V. 5.0 was used for processing the collected data according to the IGS standards. In addition, selected IGS, AFREF, and EPN sites are processed for reference frame definition. In this first comprehensive analysis of the permanent network, a complete and consistent evaluation resulted in the first estimates of present day horizontal velocities and coordinate time series.     

Hydrogeological conditions and aquifers potentiality for sustainable development of the desert areas in Wadi Qena,Eastern Desert,Egypt

To increase the potentiality of development and land reclamation activities, the Egyptian government funds the construction of a new desert road in Upper Egypt. This road connects Upper Egypt with the Red Sea Governorate. Surrounding the road is 207,000 acres of land surface which is almost flat and suitable for reclamation. To ensure the sustainability of the proposed development surrounding the road, analyses of the morphometric parameters, infiltration test and the grain size distribution, geoelectrical and hydrogeological investigations were conducted in the area. The results indicated a possibility of flash flood hazards and poor drainage condition for land reclamation activities is expected. The hydrogeological and geoelectrical investigations revealed that the unconfined Quaternary and confined Nubian Sandstone aquifers are the main aquifers in the area. The depths to water in the two aquifers range from 18 to 36 and 80 to 300 m with an average thickness of 40 and 275 m, respectively. The aquifers are made of sands and silt with clay intercalations. The total dissolved solids of water ranges between 1,700 and 5,400 mg/L, whereas the sodium absorption ratio ranges between 7 and 30 meq/L, indicating the suitability of water for irrigating medium- to high-salt-tolerant crops with proper drainage facilities. Thus, water in this area is not suitable for domestic use. Based on hydrogeological equations, the available water for extraction from the aquifers in the area is about 17.195?×?10⁹ m³, and this volume is not feasible to reclaim the whole proposed area for reclamation. Meanwhile, it may be possible to water small farms (not more than 60,000 acres for 50 years). Surface water source should be considered for the sustainability development of the area.     

Economic restructuring, social re-composition and recent urban changes in Portugal

The productive restructuring process has affected more than just the economic field, because its effects have been felt on urbanisation processes, on social relations, and on the spatial organisation of society. Starting from the ‘metapolis’ concept, developed by Ascher (1995), we analyse the evolution of new forms of urban space in Portugal, arguing that new urban forms generate new social inequalities and, in extreme cases, social exclusion. Portugal is a semi-peripheral country that combines certain of the trends in social and economic organisation common to core countries, with certain trends more common in the developing world. Thus the understanding of urban change in Portugal is a complex task, made more difficult by the rapidity of processes since the mid 1970s. The Lisbon Metropolitan Area has been deeply affected by the productive restructuring process. The role of economic and urban policies in the Lisbon region is discussed, and an assessment is made of certain measures aimed at solving economic and social problems. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Sources of the predynastic grinding stones in the hu-semaineh region,upper Egypt,and their cultural context

Grinding stones excavated at the Predynastic site of HG in Upper Egypt were analyzed, and consist of igneous rocks (rhyolite porphyry, basalt, granite) and metamorphic rocks (marble, quartzite). These rocks were brought to the site in Predynastic times (ca. 4000–3000 B. C.) from the Dokkan Volcanics located in the Wadi Hammamat, possibly as far away as 150 km. This is further evidence for the widespread exchange network that existed in Predynastic Upper Egypt. Complex economic interaction, as evidenced by artifacts excavated at HG, was a prime force as the early state evolved in Egypt. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Living conditions and social determinants of healthcare inequities affecting female migrants in Ghana

This paper is concerned with the living situation of female migrants in Ghana. We draw on the available research literature to examine the living conditions of female migrants paying special attention to the underlying interrelated factors impacting on their accessibility and utilization of orthodox healthcare. While a plethora of interconnected economic, social, cultural and institutional elements are key factors influencing the living conditions particularly, healthcare access and utilization, policy efforts undertaken to address the situation seem to focus only on the economic dimension. Three broad initiatives requiring active participation of multi-sectoral actors are outlined in efforts towards improving the situation.     

Water use at Luxor,Egypt: consumption analysis and future demand forecasting

Water resources in Egypt are becoming scarce and the demand for clean drinking water supply is one of the most important priorities of the Egyptian government in recent years. Analyzing water use and future demand forecasting is a primitive clue for water demand management. Water in Luxor is used for agricultural, residential, institutional, commercial, and touristic purposes. The results of water use analysis indicated that for the time period from 1983 to 2012, agriculture is the highest consumer of water which reached about 94.76–97.38 % followed by residential water consumption (1.90–3.05 %), institutional water consumption (0.71–1.75 %), and touristic water consumption (0.02–0.43 %), respectively. The future demand forecasting results revealed that the present situation may continue to rise in the next 50 years which will increase the water demand with a water deficit ranging between 15 and 114 MCM/year. To fill the gap between the present water consumption and future residential, institutional, commercial, and touristic water demand, additional municipal facilities, and improvement and management of water supply/demand are needed. To cope with the predicted future water demand, it is recommended to improve the on-farm irrigation, reduce the demand for irrigation water, rationalize the irrigation water use, and enhance the integrated role of water users in integrated water resources management.     

Observations from the 12 October 1992 Dahshour earthquake in Egypt

An earthquake of local magnitude 5.3 (duration magnitudeM _d ) on the Richter Scale occurred at Dahshour, 18 km south of Cairo, Egypt, on Monday, 12 October 1992 at 3:09 pm (local time). Numerous aftershocks followed the main event during the following weeks with magnitude up to 4.3. The earthquake occurred in an area that has had no recent seismic activity, and affected many cities in Egypt. Many buildings and monuments were severely damaged or collapsed. Modern concrete skeletal structures suffered minor nonstructural damage. Earthquake physical damage was estimated at about one billion U.S. Dollars. The severity of the damage was mainly due to poor construction materials and detailing, aging, inferior workmanship, and inadequate maintenance. Egypt was generally considered to be an area of moderate seismic activity. In 1989, earthquake provisions were first introduced in the Egyptian Code of Practice for Reinforced Concrete Structures only. The earthquake clearly showed the urgent need for an assessment and rehabilitation program to mitigate seismic risk hazard in existing structures. In addition, future development planning, and earthquake preparedness strategies should implement lessons learned from the event. In this paper, an overview discussion about the observations from the 12 October earthquake is presented.     

EGY-HGM2016: an improved hybrid local geoid model for Egypt based on the combination of GOCE-based geopotential model with gravimetric and GNSS/levelling measurements

An improved hybrid gravimetric geoid model for Egypt, EGY-HGM2016, has been recently computed implementing the least-squares collocation (LSC) method through the remove-compute-restore (RCR) procedure. The computation of EGY-HGM2016 involves different datasets in terms of gravity anomalies determined from the GOCE (gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer)-based global geopotential model (SPW-R4) up to d/o 200 and EGM2008 from d/o 201 to 720 combined with terrestrial gravity datasets in terms of 2140 gravity field anomalies and about 121,480 marine surface gravity anomalies. In addition, orthometric heights from 17 GPS/levelling measurements have been considered during the modelling process to improve the determination of the hybrid gravimetric geoid over the Egyptian region. The EGY-HGM2016 model estimated over Egypt provides geoid heights that are ranging from 7.677 to 21.095 m with a standard deviation (st. dev.) of about 2.534 m in the northwest of the country excluding the involvement of the orthometric heights from GPS/levelling measurements. When the later dataset is considered during the implementation of LSC process, hybrid residual height anomalies ranging from ?1.5 to +0.9 m, with a mean of 0.22 m and a st. dev. of 0.17 m, are obtained. Comparison of the predicted hybrid gravimetric geoid with the corresponding ones obtained from EGM2008, GOCE-based SPW R4 model, and GPS/levelling reveals considerable improvements of our EGY-HGM2016 model over Egypt.     

Physical and Chemical Beneficiation of the Egyptian Beach Monazite

The Egyptian black sands contain several economic minerals, especially ilmenite. Monazite can reach concentrations up to 0.6 wt.%. The majority of monazite grains have light to deep canary and lemon yellow colors, whereas enigmatic monazite grains have brown, red, resinous, yellow and colorless to pinkish colors. The behavior of monazite with the electrostatic field setting of the roll-type electrostatic separator was studied for the different variables of the separator. Most of the monazite grains are reversible negative and are attracted towards the positively charged static electrode. Using wet gravity concentration, both low and high intensity magnetic separation, and electrostatic separation techniques, a high grade concentrate assaying 97 wt. % monazite with a recovery of 76.8% can be obtained. The Egyptian beach monazite contains high concentrations of Ce, La and Nd in addition to minor amounts of Y, Pr, Sm, Gd, Dy and Eu. It is particularly rich in the lighter rare earth elements (cerium subgroup). By a new method of ion exchange technique after chemically dissolving the mineral with sulfuric acid, both of REEs, Th and U, could be individually separated. The efficiency of the separation has been tested with sulfuric acid concentration at 2M H₂SO₄ where the thorium and uranium could be obtained with a cation exchange synthetic resin column, while rare earth metal ions are adsorbed and then individually separated. A highly pure thorium product could be obtained by oxalate precipitation followed by uranium precipitation as diuranate using NaOH.     

Multi-stage emerald formation during Pan-African regional metamorphism: The Zabara,Sikait, Umm Kabo deposits,South Eastern desert of Egypt

The genesis of gem-quality deep green emeralds of Zabara, Sikait and Umm Kabo (South Eastern Desert, Egypt) is to date a controversial topic. The emerald-bearing biotite schists and quartz lenses are interpreted alternatively as a product of (i) thrust-fault-shear zone – controlled large scale alkali-metasomatism driven by post-magmatic fluid flow or of (ii) a large scale interaction between syntectonic pegmatitic magma or hydrothermal fluids with pre-existing basic to ultrabasic rocks, or of (iii) a syn- to post-tectonic regional metamorphism and small scale blackwall metasomatism. Detailed microstructural and chemical analyses of the Egyptian emeralds and their host rocks show that three generations of beryl can be distinguished: a colourless pegmatitic beryl; a pale green Cr-poor beryl crystallized from pegmatite-related hydrothermal fluids; and a deep green Cr- and Mg-rich emerald. The crystallization of the Cr- and Mg-rich emerald was controlled by the very local availability of Cr, Mg and Be-rich metamorphic fluids during the Pan-African tectono-thermal event. Emerald-rich quartz lenses demonstrate that those fluids locally did mobilize quartz, too. The pale green emeralds found within the pegmatites in association with colourless beryl are the product of a mobilization of colourless pegmatitic beryl and/or phenakite by late pegmatitic fluids slightly enriched in Cr by an interaction with the Cr-rich country rocks. The late pegmatitic fluids are typically Na-rich as is demonstrated by the pervasive albitization of the pegmatites. The complex interplay of magmatic and regional metamorphic events during the genesis of the Egyptian emeralds/beryls makes it impossible through stable oxygen isotope data to relate their genesis to the one or the other event.