Hawass was doing a lot to stop Egyptian tourism. He is the one that planned on closing the Giza plateau (pyramids) before 9/11. He has hurt both Egyptian tourism and archeology by severely restricting firmans to non Muslim universities. He has done a lot of damage during his tenure, and he is an arrogant SOB to boot. When I studied Egyptology at UCLA and when I worked with some Egyptologists during my tenure with AIA, no one like or respected Hawass.
Perhaps his successor will do something to actually help Egyptology and tourism.
I am so envious of you. I wanted to study Egyptology; I used to sleep one block from Tahir Square in Cairo, near the museum.
I didn’t know anything about Hawass.
Check out anchorstone.com and tell me what you think. Was King Tut the crown prince of the pharoah that died during the Red Sea crossing? Interesting data.