The destruction of the Egyptian historical record

Submitted by Saul Kelly (United Kingdom), Dec 27, 2011 at 09:51

I share your dismay at the loss of the invaluable collections held by the L'Institute. They included the archive and publications of the Egyptian Geographical Society, which chronicled the exploration of Africa by, among others, members of the Egyptian Royal Family in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I remember the joy with which, four years, ago, I found research material in L'Institute which was unavailable anywhere else in the world. That facility is now denied to future generations of scholars. The full scale of this tragic loss has yet to be realised by the world community of scholars. It will be impossible to make good the loss, even if the heirs of Mubarak have the desire to do so, which seems to be increasingly unlikely. The loss is symbolic of Egypt's descent into darkness.

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