STORY:
Egypt's Pyramid Celebrations

Egyptian authorities, confident in the drawing power of the world's most famous monuments, have waited until the last minute to announce their own millennial extravaganza; a 12-hour spectacle at the Giza pyramids.

A report from the Irish Times says at sunset on December 31st, a gold-encased capstone will be lowered by helicopter onto the top the Great Pyramid, setting off a specially commissioned dusk-to-dawn music and laser show by the French musician Jean-Michel Jarre..The opera will be called The Twelve Dreams of the Sun.

The idea for the celebration comes from a ritual which was believed practiced by the early Egyptians. Dr Zahi Hawass, the ebullient archaeologist in charge of the Giza Plateau, believes every household in the north and south of Egypt used to participate in the building of the pyramid by sending workers, food and grain," He says, "My interpretation is that when the king finished building the pyramid they put a capstone on top and after that the people sang and danced because the nation's project was finished. That is what we are doing at the millennium."

The millennium celebration has provided him with a much-needed deadline and by the time New Year's Eve rolls around he vows to have the infamous horse and camel drivers banished from beside the pyramids to the desert beyond. Vehicles will be forbidden at the site and visitors who do not want to walk will be ferried by electric carts.

How easy it will be to see all this on December 31st remains to be seen. Even before the celebration was announced travel agents around the world were using the pyramids as a selling point, offering everything from new-age meditation at their base to "bedouin" picnics in the nearby desert. The few hotel rooms still available around Giza are going fast, although prices have yet to be set. Nobody yet knows how the millennium spectacular will be organized, how many tickets will be available or how much they will cost.

Source: Irish Times

DATE: 4/13/99

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