Egypt Papyrus Makers Keep Tradition Alive Despite Tourism Slump

  • Date: 09-Aug-2021
  • Source: Asharq AL-awsat
  • Sector:Tourism
  • Country:Egypt
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Egypt Papyrus Makers Keep Tradition Alive Despite Tourism Slump

A woman lays out soaked thin strips of papyrus to form a sheet, before compression and drying at the workshop - AFP

In the lush green fields of Egypt's fertile Delta Valley, farmers and artisans are struggling to make a living as they keep alive the Pharaonic-era tradition of making papyrus.

In the 1970s, an art teacher in the village of Al-Qaramus taught farmers the millennia-old techniques for transforming the plant into sought-after paper decorated with ornate drawings and text.

The village and its surrounds, located about 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Cairo, now make up the largest hub of papyrus production in the country, experts in the sector say.

Once used by ancient Egyptians as writing paper, local artists now decorate the papyrus with hieroglyphics, Arabic calligraphy and representations from antiquity and nature to create souvenirs for eager visitors.

The Covid-19 pandemic has further debilitated the sector: Egypt earned just $4 billion in tourist revenues last year, a quarter of what it had anticipated before the global health crisis, according to AFP.

Today, Al-Qaramus has 25 farms trying to make ends meet by selling papyrus, compared to around 500 prior to the revolution, according to farmer and artist Said Tarakhan.

"I lost about 80 percent