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Article: A FACELIFT FOR EGYPT'S SACRED SITES.
- Article from:
- The Middle East
- Article date:
- May 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 IC Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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With violent conflict raging in Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories, Christian pilgrims are looking for alternative pilgrimages. Egypt, with a wealth of spiritual sites important to followers of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, has not been slow to latch on to the new potential for religious tourism.
The nation-wide restoration of historic monuments in Egypt shows the tolerant face of Islam, in marked contrast to the destruction by the Taliban of the fourth-century Buddhist statues in Afghanistan. Far from erasing its past, Egypt considers its ancient Pharoanic and Graeco-Roman heritage, along with its more recent Christian legacy, to be an integral part of ...