Ancient Nubia Now: Panel Discussion

Inspired by the exhibition, "Ancient Nubia Now," this panel discussion explores how shifting conceptions of the ancient African past have informed contemporary notions of cultural identity from a variety of perspectives.
Barry Gaither, director and curator, National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA)
Chester Higgins, photographer
Nedra Lee, assistant professor, Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Dalia Habib Linssen, head of Academic Engagement
Friday, October 18, 2019

Пікірлер: 173

  • @gsutton78
    @gsutton784 жыл бұрын

    Bravo!!! We need to organize many more discussions like these in the very near future. We need them now more than ever...

  • @user-wu1rz1ok6l
    @user-wu1rz1ok6l4 жыл бұрын

    I am from Nubia, from southern Egypt

  • @mimianwar5448
    @mimianwar54483 жыл бұрын

    Finally someone acknowledge that you cannot mention Nubia without Egypt for truly they are the same

  • @inidbil7277
    @inidbil72773 жыл бұрын

    People fail to realize that when the Greeks conquered Egypt and installed themselves as it's rulersfrom 305 BC to 30 BCn Egypt was already over 5000 years old by this time. According to the Nabta Playa discovery 7500BC. Ancient Nubia and Ethiopia was ancient to Egypt. Egypt was Ancient to the ancient greeks

  • @greatnilemedjaywarrior3155
    @greatnilemedjaywarrior31554 жыл бұрын

    They should go to Nubia an Do more Digging it's so much we still don't know an Ancient Nubia interesting

  • @truthhurts6327

    @truthhurts6327

    4 жыл бұрын

    What religion did they practice before Christianity?

  • @justcallmebrian793

    @justcallmebrian793

    4 жыл бұрын

    Basically the Nubians and Egyptian worshipped the same gods. There was some gods unique to both people but they basically believe in the same system of brliefs.

  • @hughcipher6229

    @hughcipher6229

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yes more digging in Nubia the Sudan & the Sahara. Imagine what lies under those sands

  • @ponibrojokobro1397

    @ponibrojokobro1397

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@truthhurts6327 catianity.... they worship cats

  • @inidbil7277

    @inidbil7277

    3 жыл бұрын

    I don't mean to come at you my brother but I just want to use your statement to make a point. "THEY" should go to Nubia and do more digging it's so much WE still don't know about Ancient Nubia.... Therein lies the problem with us Africans. We want "them" to teach us about OUR history and to come and help us develop our continent. It's not in their best interest to do that. They will do what's best for them and we will keep crying racism and slavery. That's why the world believes today that ancient Egyptian were not originally African peoples because that's the story that suited them.. also Jesus us white. wake up Africans!

  • @cosmo1578
    @cosmo15784 жыл бұрын

    I believe it could be beneficial for black people to know the name Ta-nehisi because that was the actual name of the place before caucasians people called the place nubia. It's the same with caucasians people renaming KEMET Egypt. I thought the three presentation on Ta-nehisi, Mero, KEMET, Ethiopia, and the connection of the Sudan was beautiful and we need more to help ourselves reconstruct our black history so that we can begin to heal ourselves from within and shake off the shackles of white supremacy from our imaginations.

  • @idontgiveafaboutyou

    @idontgiveafaboutyou

    3 жыл бұрын

    I think it’s better to discuss and educate others rather than cause more division.

  • @inidbil7277

    @inidbil7277

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@idontgiveafaboutyou can you please elaborate. I don't understand who or what is causing more division

  • @worldtraveler134

    @worldtraveler134

    2 жыл бұрын

    They now accept begrudgingly the connection but, they still disconnect West Africa from Kemet Nubia Ethiopia. It's our responsibility to Teach them not too!

  • @nialcc

    @nialcc

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@idontgiveafaboutyou - So your name doesn't "cause more division"? I think you're a troll.

  • @kemetnubiakamp

    @kemetnubiakamp

    2 жыл бұрын

    Nwb.t is the original name of the capital city of Ta-Sty/PDt. Nubia is most likey the Romanization of that muncipality even though there was more than one municipality in Km.t called Nwbyt/Nwbt, etc. It's not a Roman name etymologically but a Romanization of an Kemety identiy just as "Egypt" is a Greek linguistic creation of Hwt-ka-Ptah, the temple name in Minnefer in Lower Kemet. Given that Nobate is referenced in the Ezana Stone of Aksum, it is unlikely Romans created the name Nubia from thin air but hat it was among the Upper Kemet identies. Ta-NHS is likely another identiy also in Upper Kemet. It can't be understated that Josef Levy indicated there are at least 25 different Nubian identies so likely referencing different land areas from Upper Kemet southward or at the very least different ethnicities who were noted. To replace NHS with Nwb.t would be an era given there's no indication they were the same civilization, only two of several mentioned by the rmTw of Kemet.

  • @ayinke1481
    @ayinke14812 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for this wonderful event 🙏🏽

  • @dnifty1
    @dnifty13 жыл бұрын

    Unfortunately the problem with this concept of "Nubia" is that it is an artificial construct that has nothing to do with the actual history on the Nile Valley. To start, prior to the creation of large settled towns, that was the beginning of civilization, most Africans were nomadic people who moved in response to environmental changes and the migration of herds of animals. There were no nation states and national borders to stop people from moving over long distances in order to find water or food. This was the norm in Africa for the hundreds of thousands of years prior to the rise of organized nation states, ie civilization. And that fundamental migratory nature of Africans is how Africans went on to settle the planet. The point here is that in ancient times, all of Africa was the home of black Africans and there was never any magical barrier or natural exclusion zone stopping black folks from going to certain places, such as the Sahara. That is simply false. It is in that context that "Nubia" as an archaeological concept was created in order to say that that was the Northern border of black Africa and that beyond that were non black people. This is the basis of the racist separation of Egypt from Africa using Nubia as the "border country". However, the facts are that in ancient times, the Nile Delta and areas around it were flooded and sparsely populated by anybody. Most of the populations along the Nile were in the South and as mentioned previously most of these people were migratory and only stayed in one area for a season based on the seasons and movement of rainfall. The main sites of the late Paleolithic along the Nile Valley have all been found in the far South around Aswan in places like Wadi Kubbaniya and Wadi Halfa (18,000 years ago), in places considered as part of "Nubia" today. And then During the period of about 9000 to 6000 BC the Sahara experienced a wet phase as rains moved north and created savannahs and plains in what was desert. During that time, black Africans moved into the Sahara to find game and practice hunting and fishing. This is found in the rock art in that time period. And during this time these Africans adopted cattle pastoralism at a very early point in time (possibly earlier than other part of the world) and it spread from the Sahara to the Nile and farther South. It is also during this that the earliest evidence of mummification was found. Towards the end of this last Saharan wet phase, populations again migrated towards the Nile and it is during this time that you had the rise of population centers in places like Nabta Playa and Early Khartoum. All of these cultures developed pottery traditions, had jewelry, had ritual worship of cows and other patterns of culture that were foundational to what came later. All of this is prior to the rise of formal civilization. Again, at this time, there were no nation states, national borders or barriers to black people moving around Africa. And because of this, people started to settle along the Upper Nile practicing the elements of culture that were common to other cultures that predated them along the Nile and the Sahara. And among the early cultures to rise out of that was "Ta Seti" which is in the area between Aswan and the 2nd Cataract. From that came the beginning of civilization and Kemet. But that was not part of anything called "Nubia" because it didn't exist as an ethnic group, political entity, nation state or anything else. Ta Seti was important because it was an early gold trading center in that area of the Nile Valley. Ta Seti was absorbed into the civilization of Kemet during the predynastic and most of the key towns of the predynastic were all in the South of Egypt between modern Luxor and Aswan. The concept of "Nubia" simply has no relevance in any of that historical context because there was no nation state, ethnic group or national boundary called "Nubia" in Africa 8000 years ago. There was never a barrier to black Africans moving back and forth along the Nile and between the Nile and Sahara. And it is precisely that history going back tens of thousands of years that gave rise to civilization in the first place. "Nubia" as a construct simply tries to place a fence around black Africans in ancient times in order to construct a way to justify erasing them from their history along the NIle in Egypt. But it does not reflect the historical facts on the ground either in ancient times or today. There was never a continuous unified ethnic group, nation state or culture called "nubia" spanning from 6000 BC all the way to the present day. It is like saying there was a continuous ethnic identity called French going back to 6000 BC. It is false and only designed to constrain African history behind an artificial construct. The history of black Africans along the Nile and in the Sahara goes back many tens of thousands of years and did not start with anything called "Nubia". Keep in mind that when you study "Nubian" history it only goes back to around 2000 BC. So what abut all the history in that region before that? And how do you tie all these people together from 2000 BC to people in the Christian era and right up to today? These people over those various periods of time didn't speak the same language, had different religions and so forth. So why are we treating this as some kind of single monolithic entity which didn't exist? Conversely, showing just how fake and fabricated this construct is, the late Paleolithic Sites of the Halfan industry/Halfan Culture are called "Egyptian" even though they are in areas that are part of modern Sudan and 10 thousand years prior to the existence of anything called "Egypt". In fact they exist in the same areas that these same archaeologists call "Nubia". Wadi Halfa is near Abu Simbel which is right on the border between Egypt and Sudan. But when it is convenient on one hand these areas are called "Nubia" but for other purpses such as the beginnings of cultural traditions found in Kemet, they are called "Egyptian". It is all a game of semantics to divide up African history using labels and terms to obfuscate the continuous presence of black Africans along the Nile (all of it) for hundreds of thousands of years. The Halfan Culture based on patterns of hunting, fishing and harvesting wild grains gave rise to the Qadan Culture. Both of these cultures existed in the same areas that were occupied by the so-called "A Group Nubians". And shows just how artificial a construct "Nubia" is, because the Halfan and Qadan show clearly the flow of culture and technology South to North along the Nile in the period leading up to the Saharan wet phase. Heck, if you want to be technical it is these late Paleolithic cultures along the Nile Valley, practicing harvesting of wild grains that eventually moved into the Levant and spurred the rise of farming, possibly carrying early African cow breeds..... The key to this was that the Halfan and Qadan cultures developed the mortar and pestle to grind wild grain and make them edible. And that was a key step towards the eventual development of agriculture. All of his happened along the Upper Nile over 10,000 years ago. So when these clowns sit here and say the Rise of Kemet came from migrants from the Levant, totally ignoring tens of thousands of years of evolution along the Nile and the origin of sophisticated means of hunting and fishing and harvesting and eating grains, you know they are lying. All of that is black African history yet they don't bring it up when they claim to be discussing "Nubia"(ie. black African) history.

  • @obeahman6286

    @obeahman6286

    2 жыл бұрын

    Very concise and interesting. Hell, i was not even following discussion, I was here.

  • @kwameboateng4065

    @kwameboateng4065

    2 жыл бұрын

    You a very good point .Thanks .

  • @kwameboateng4065

    @kwameboateng4065

    2 жыл бұрын

    You made a very good point thanks

  • @Maatson_

    @Maatson_

    Жыл бұрын

    Hit points I’ve read for years and come to some of the very same conclusions and learned a few new things

  • @UrbanDanceAcademyLA

    @UrbanDanceAcademyLA

    Жыл бұрын

    Still waiting on those references on everything you said! As if you are going to OVERRIDE all of the GREEKS with your Raycist rant🤡🤡…Have you looked at the hieroglyph for the word FACE!! I am not even going to say anything else!! You wasted your time writing all of that GARBAGE 🤢🤮

  • @judithhodges8351
    @judithhodges8351 Жыл бұрын

    Yes we are looking again at the evidence given long ago and re examing it!

  • @kemetnubiakamp
    @kemetnubiakamp2 жыл бұрын

    At 20:40, it's the reed leaf as the first letter of the deity "Amun;" so what is written is "imn" not "ahmn." The reed leaf is likely a short "i" or even a "ji" sound, not an "a" sound.

  • @greatnilemedjaywarrior3155
    @greatnilemedjaywarrior31554 жыл бұрын

    Nubia also had Three Nubian Christian Kingdom's after Last Pharaoh's 25th Dynasty's of Kush/Egypt

  • @truthhurts6327

    @truthhurts6327

    4 жыл бұрын

    What was they before christianity?

  • @WilliamGarrow

    @WilliamGarrow

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@truthhurts6327 They worshipped numerous God's Nubian and Egyptian. Apedemak the God of war was one of their main god's. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apedemak

  • @aspeltaofkush3540

    @aspeltaofkush3540

    4 жыл бұрын

    They were Alodia, Makuria, and Nobatia

  • @3galz43boys

    @3galz43boys

    3 жыл бұрын

    Neset betit mena or nama was a kushite from nubia who established the dynastic empires in ta-meri or kemet after defeating king scorpion. In other words kemet was a Nubian land.

  • @malcolmking5023
    @malcolmking5023 Жыл бұрын

    I'm interested in Nubian and Meroitic as well archaeology how can a layman volunteer help?

  • @kemetnubiakamp
    @kemetnubiakamp2 жыл бұрын

    A missed opportunity at 6:11 given Cleopatra VII in her actual Egyptian depictions (not the Romanized statues done hundreds of years after her death) did have African features. Moreso than that contemporary work.

  • @donbezi
    @donbezi3 жыл бұрын

    amazing, beautiful and epic. ROXBURY REPRESENT

  • @amadoudjouldebarry9776
    @amadoudjouldebarry97763 жыл бұрын

    Nice video

  • @greatnilemedjaywarrior3155
    @greatnilemedjaywarrior31554 жыл бұрын

    I Think They Should Talk More about Nubian Kush an Egypt as well an Ethiopia Aksum Warriors Black Culture Love is Important an For Black Afro people Around the World Worldwide

  • @amgadfadl9441

    @amgadfadl9441

    4 жыл бұрын

    i am from Nubia ( Sudan) can we contact each other brother ?? i have so much things to say and discuss if you are interesting

  • @amgadfadl9441

    @amgadfadl9441

    4 жыл бұрын

    i am from Nubia ( Sudan ) Can we contact each other Brother >> i have things to say if you are interesting !!

  • @truthhurts6327

    @truthhurts6327

    4 жыл бұрын

    Hey what religion did they practice before Christianity?

  • @rudyyorke6053

    @rudyyorke6053

    3 жыл бұрын

    The reason Egypt is more popular than Nubia because the white people mistakenly thaught the Ancient Kemetians were white So they push their white agenda.

  • @amenrakwamehotepporchprima9307

    @amenrakwamehotepporchprima9307

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@rudyyorke6053 they were north african caucasians

  • @EPUEPUEPUEPU
    @EPUEPUEPUEPU4 жыл бұрын

    When will this exhibition open again

  • @mfaboston

    @mfaboston

    4 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for watching! This exhibition is now closed.

  • @EPUEPUEPUEPU

    @EPUEPUEPUEPU

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@mfaboston Bring it back again if you can thanks :)

  • @eastafrika728
    @eastafrika72811 ай бұрын

    Architecture and Math began here in East Afrika up through Nubia. The Saracen Nubians even built most of Europe's architecture.

  • @lovethyself744
    @lovethyself7443 жыл бұрын

    Very good topic yes !!!!

  • @ancientstaffpub
    @ancientstaffpub4 жыл бұрын

    "Egyptian civilisation was indebted to Africa". Interesting pathology.

  • @inidbil7277

    @inidbil7277

    3 жыл бұрын

    Egyptian civilization IS African civilization.

  • @ancientstaffpub

    @ancientstaffpub

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@inidbil7277 that was my point,.

  • @mimianwar5448
    @mimianwar54483 жыл бұрын

    I don't know about you guys but you are talking as if Nubia is not Egyptian this is a very good way to offend Nubians as part of Egypt don't you know the map? What happened to Aswan? They are black in colour....I don't hear you talking about them....

  • @osamaabdulmonim5868
    @osamaabdulmonim58682 жыл бұрын

    Black American aren't Nubian don't get confused

  • @phasematerialsresearch9319

    @phasematerialsresearch9319

    5 ай бұрын

    Massively Incorrect statement.

  • @lovethyself744
    @lovethyself7443 жыл бұрын

    As long as Covid19 crap is done, research must resume !

  • @amenrakwamehotepporchprima9307

    @amenrakwamehotepporchprima9307

    3 жыл бұрын

    no one really cares about nubia

  • @DeeZee75

    @DeeZee75

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@amenrakwamehotepporchprima9307 I disagree. We're in the information age and the interest is growing.

  • @alephseskhet8700

    @alephseskhet8700

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@amenrakwamehotepporchprima9307 white people don’t yeah but that’s about it

  • @brendajerez2235
    @brendajerez22354 жыл бұрын

    The actual facts must be thought in schools across the world.

  • @vincem2759
    @vincem27594 жыл бұрын

    Will the exhibit by moving further south?

  • @mfaboston

    @mfaboston

    4 жыл бұрын

    This exhibition is not currently scheduled to travel.

  • @henokbeyene1053
    @henokbeyene10532 жыл бұрын

    🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

  • @En-of5oh
    @En-of5oh4 жыл бұрын

    It's clear that, the assessments of the first historians or archaeologists have bias, racism or whatever you cane name that, those people supposed the start and direction of civilization was from the north to the south, they meant from upper Egypt (Kemet) to lower Mero (Nubia), which was wrong according to later researches and studies, from that perspective more need and have to be re-described according to absolute history facts that bare of bias or racism but depends on historian scientific facts only.

  • @boulevarda.aladetoyinbo4773
    @boulevarda.aladetoyinbo4773 Жыл бұрын

    Nubian civilisation gave birth to Egypt civilisation, and Egypt civlisation gave birth to Greek civilisation, and Greek civilisation gave birth to Roman civilisation, and Roman civilisation gave birth to Western civilisation. Anything that contradicts and corrupts this objective, factual human history is flat-out false and misleading!...

  • @awgatsheni6598
    @awgatsheni65982 жыл бұрын

    They BELIEVE in their "truth" and OUR continent keeps CONCEALING the TRUTH because their have never had any noble curiosity .. they have an inferiority complex problem that keeps eating at them to appear informed. It's just too incomprehensible the reality that we are "gods" they are meant to be serving us, not the other way around.... it's really sad, I always feel for them. Everything about African people form our DNA to our continent is WEALTH, SACREDNESS and MYSTERY that should tell them we are not of the same extraction we are SUPERIOR and no matter how much they try to exterminate all of us ........ WE WILL REMAIN STANDING. What I've always found fascinating is ... there's no robust digging in their own backyards. Of course there's nothing there. 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦

  • @nialcc

    @nialcc

    2 жыл бұрын

    Not withstanding that your comment is quite funny, no one is superior to anyone else. Thinking like this has has played a tremendous part in the destruction of Africa as it is. There are great histories and attributes about all of us and really bad things about those same groups. What we all should want is to never let another George Andrew Reisner Jr near anything other an a plastic bowl from Walmart again. And we surely don't need a new non-European Reisner coming along. Unfortunately for you, you have proven we can't trust you with even the knowledge an archaeologist could bring out of the ground either.

  • @phasematerialsresearch9319

    @phasematerialsresearch9319

    5 ай бұрын

    Malcolm X describes this perfectly. He had Caucasians down to a science.

  • @marcelinocambanda2511
    @marcelinocambanda25114 жыл бұрын

    I wish all AFRIKA new this.

  • @inidbil7277

    @inidbil7277

    3 жыл бұрын

    All Africans know this deep down even though some may still be mind shackled by European pedagogy.

  • @mimianwar5448
    @mimianwar54483 жыл бұрын

    You think that Nubia is distinct from Egypt but it is one and the same there is no difference between one another....when talking about Egypt and it's own you have to speak like how the Egyptian and Nubian think there is no discrimination...we don't look at colour different rather the beauty of the colour....besides the Nubian have their own unique look other than centre Africa...their feature is different...and I can speak about the Sudanese people too...all of us are brothers and sisters after all the president of Egypt Anwar El-Sadat his father was Egyptian and his Mother was Sudanese Married to half Egyptian and half English there was no Problem. So please black people have no problem in Egypt....YOU are Making the distinction and I don't appreciate that...leave Egypt alone Nubian are Egyptian 100%

  • @user-jv8kr4im1t

    @user-jv8kr4im1t

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yes and no brother. I appreciate the sentiment but we are two people who are closely related like brothers. Egypt is beautiful and most of my experiences were great but there is still some prejudice like everywhere else.

  • @mimianwar5448

    @mimianwar5448

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@user-jv8kr4im1t don't give in to their ideas...they are from all the discrimination that they are suffering from in the west up to our days..trying to find their own identification anywhere if they can find it just to feel good about themselves and to be proud and I do feel for them but to play on any weaknesses that they can find in any person suffering from hard times as we all do now in our days and as a matter of fact it's not us only it's happening all over the world...they will keep at it until there going to be unrest and then people will start asking for separation succeeding in taking Egypt apart...you have to be aware of what is happening we're going to be after having a country that have a place in the world strong and powerful,protecting her people into another Sudan weak in it's own division. We Egyptian don't have an identity problem we have our History we are together like you said it..brothers sisters hand in hand and no one can separate us no matter of our deferences let it be Christians or in colour I am living in Canada and it's a lot better than America where discrimination is galore but the fact is there is still discrimination not as bad...I see it in America every day in the killing of blacks on the street by the police for no reason what's so ever who are supposed to be the force of the law mind you they get charged if they were caught in Camera but really what good is that after the killing? Please everything can be dealt with except putting our country in danger....think about it....together we stand don't let them come in between us....thank you

  • @urbannaturalistt
    @urbannaturalistt Жыл бұрын

    Just here to see the race wars in the comments 🤷🏿

  • @CrowdPleeza
    @CrowdPleeza4 жыл бұрын

    54:25 Civilization started in Sumer(Iraq).

  • @dealingthereal6922

    @dealingthereal6922

    4 жыл бұрын

    CrowdPleeza humanity started in Africa and civilization started in Africa.

  • @CrowdPleeza

    @CrowdPleeza

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@dealingthereal6922 It's not that simple. "Sumer was an ancient civilization founded in the Mesopotamia region of the Fertile Crescent situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Known for their innovations in language, governance, architecture and more, Sumerians are considered the creators of civilization as modern humans understand it." www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/sumer

  • @dealingthereal6922

    @dealingthereal6922

    4 жыл бұрын

    CrowdPleeza typical outdated, white supremacist historical perspective. Mesopotamia MAY Be older than ancient Egypt; but Nubia/ancient Sudan proceeded ancient Egypt: www.nytimes.com/1979/03/01/archives/ancient-nubian-artifacts-yield-evidence-of-earliest-monarchy-clues.html Oh well, at least you clowns have given up on contesting the fact that humanity began in Africa.

  • @AlligatorShuz

    @AlligatorShuz

    4 жыл бұрын

    Your outdated information has been proven to be a lie created by Europeans. You should visit Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia because they all have proof that civilization did not began in Mesopotamia. Where is the proof?

  • @CrowdPleeza

    @CrowdPleeza

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@AlligatorShuz What exactly would you consider evidence proving Sumer was or wasn't the first civilization?

  • @nialcc
    @nialcc2 жыл бұрын

    Dr. Lee's speech was well... useless. A complete waste of time.

  • @TecumsehSherman36
    @TecumsehSherman363 жыл бұрын

    ancient nubia was populated by blond blue eye folks but were displaced by black tribes.

  • @fourtyseven47572

    @fourtyseven47572

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yeahhh no.

  • @idontgiveafaboutyou

    @idontgiveafaboutyou

    3 жыл бұрын

    lmao

  • @rudyyorke6053

    @rudyyorke6053

    3 жыл бұрын

    HA?ha harhar ha aha aha you aha aha har aha trump dumb supporter aha aha

  • @gillankalubankwa3713

    @gillankalubankwa3713

    3 жыл бұрын

    You are a joke father of history Herodotus first visit to egypt he described egyptian having black skin nd wooly hair.

  • @TecumsehSherman36

    @TecumsehSherman36

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@gillankalubankwa3713 Here's the issue, the descriptions vary. Herodotus described as black, other Greeks like Stravo described them as "Northern Indians" in look. What are we to make of this? Exactly what their murals and burials tell us...a mixed population since antiquity. It makes sense given Egypt's geography...a gateway between Asia and Africa, and very close to Europe.