What would Tutankhamun say? Remember when mummies starting floating up in sewage? This story is even better. Security officials at the Cairo International Airport foiled a plot to smuggle ancient mummified limbs out of the country in a couple of loudspeakers. On a plane to Belgium, the X-ray technicians noticed something fishy and looked deep […]
Serious health issues frequently affect us people living in the Middle East. We face long-eradicated diseases like polio. There is also concern about disease caused by terrifying levels of air pollution. In cities like Tehran, people may be seeing air pollution worse than in Beijing. It’s hard to breath in cities like Tehran, but Cairo too. And eating. […]
Luxury usually comes at a high price, not only financially but environmentally too. But plans for a new building in the heart of Cairo hope to change this high cost to the environment, combining luxury living with eco-friendly technology. Real estate company, Abraj Misr, has just announced plans to invest 4.5 billion Egyptian pounds (US$589.7 […]
Egypt isn’t exactly renowned for its vast green spaces and pioneering environmental policies. Its capital is the biggest city in the Middle East and it’s also one of the most densely populated in the world. Cairo is famous for being full of people, buildings and traffic – not plants or trees. But recently projects aiming […]
Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities reported a new discovery of several Greco-Roman era mummies near Minya in northeastern Egypt, 250 kilometers south of Cairo. The new discoveries occurred when police found two wooden sarcophagi floating along a village waterway in a pool of raw sewage. Polluted water is a persistent problem for the country’s archaeological treasures. But it’s a […]
NASA scientists are using the Suomi NPP satellite to photograph the earth at night. They are studying natural phenomenon as well as light pollution. They found that manmade lights shine noticeably brighter during the holidays of Ramadan, Christmas and New Year. Some Middle Eastern cities shone more than 50% brighter during Ramadan. Find out how […]
Constant and daily power blackouts in Cairo not only make it difficult for people to go on with day-to-day routines, it can be deadly for people undergoing surgery. Egypt, while rich in natural gas and sunlight is a poor energy manager and for this its people experience hours of blackouts each and every day. This photo […]
In Beijing the air pollution is so bad that you sometimes can’t see your hand in front of your face. Above the charts bad, cities of the world are now coming to terms with their own local air pollution.
Egypt can offer more to desert tourists than camels: In the ancient land of the Pharaohs, desert-dwelling invertebrates have often been part of Egyptian folklore, including scarab or dung beetles which are known to navigate by the stars. Now spiders join the story.
A severe Middle East winter snowstorm has left a blanket of snow on Cairo, Egypt for the first time in over 100 years. The freak storm also caused Middle East Mayhem in Jordan and Jerusalem, where snowfall levels were recorded reach as much as half a meter in many places.
We already have great respect for the Zabbaleen in Garbage City, the minority Coptic Christians who make a living sorting through Cairo’s trash, and then we saw these extraordinary Cave Churches over on Amusing Planet.
In the new Portal 9, the first Arabic-English journal about the city, the founder of Abu Dhabi’s urban planning department talks with editor Todd Reisz about planning crowded Cairo, working with Sheikh Zayed and practicing in mid-century Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The flame of an initiative launched in the largely Coptic neighborhood of Mokkatam in Southwest Cairo is at risk of flickering out amid ongoing political turmoil that has enflamed the city once again.
Corruption is black, brown, grey, devoid of color. And in Egypt, it can be seen in streets piled high with trash and polluted canals, in maddening traffic resulting from outdated infrastructure, and chronic power outages. Corruption is everywhere, yet this silent killer of hopes and dreams is hard to pin down. Not anymore. A band […]
Having just returned from Lamu, Kenya, where there is no other way to travel but by boat (or plane or donkey), it seems strange to me that it has taken modern Cairo this long to come up with the idea of a water taxi. But there you have it. Cairenes weary of knotted traffic jams […]
It has been two years since Mohamed Ashraf Abdel Samad founded Shagara – a non profit organization that aims to green Cairo with urban rooftop farms and other carbon-sapping trees and plants – and virtually every day since has been a struggle. After studying for some time in Norway, where his “semi hippie” friends introduced […]
Cold weather and a booming industrial economy is making it hard to breath in the Middle East says NASA Air pollution is a big problem in the Middle East particularly in cities such as Tehran, Cairo and the rich Gulf nations. The latest images from NASA, however, reveal the true extent of the problem with […]
Joseph’s lungs didn’t like the return to polluted Cairo. It caused a dangerous bout of asthma. Returning to the city I have lived for more than a decade this January, Cairo, I was definitely not expecting to end up at the doctor’s office with days of near constant asthma problems. After 10 years, one would think […]
Taking irrigated water from the Nile, the Toshka pumping station in upper Egypt was supposed to help combat encroaching desert Political tension in Egypt in the aftermath of the revolution which began nearly two years ago, has hit tourism, led to high food prices, and caused an economic slowdown which is raising food security concerns. […]
The year in retrospect has been a positive one. Despite civil unrest, dangerous regimes, and appalling environmental crimes and neglect, there are good green things afoot for the Middle East. Today we recap some of our green leaders of 2012, the people of the Middle East and for the Middle East who have made 2012, […]
Every year when farmers start harvesting their sugar cane, maize and other crops, Cairenes brace themselves for what is ominously known as “The Black Cloud.” Caused when seasonal meteorological conditions meet the smoke released by burning agricultural waste, the heavy black pollution settles over an already smoggy Cairo, and respiratory diseases flourish. Now a new […]
With air pollution 100x worse than NYC the news doesn’t look good for 2013 even though Cairo taxis were offered free natural gas tanks. Two years ago when the Egyptian government began fully implementing taxis run on natural gas, there was much praise and fanfare. Air pollution was at monumental levels in the Egyptian capital […]
Egyptian model for the Zabaleen could help heat Syrian refugees. Green Prophet’s Joseph reports from Jordan. Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan: Walking through the vast expanse of white tents, dirt “roads” and masses of families huddled closely together for warmth, if you ask what they most need, the answer, without pause, is simple: blankets. In […]
Solar panels at the pyramids. In the past two years since a popular uprising ousted former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the question of sustainability, energy and overall environmental awareness has been as evident as a clean street in Cairo. Basically, it has been nonexistent. Actually, it had been nonexistent until recently. Over the past few months, Egyptians have […]
Hilton Worldwide has launched a pilot program to distribute surplus food to community organizations that feed the poor in Egypt. The hotel chain has teamed up with Feeding America and The Global FoodBanking Network to collect food that would otherwise be thrown away from cafes, restaurants, and conferences and distribute it to school feeding programs, food […]