Good riddance. The man was a troll. I had the unfortunate opportunity to meet him twice.
And so ends the Egyptian tourism industry.
86% come from Europe, totalling $4.1 - 11 billion annually receipts from tourism. Now kiss it goodbye; from a country that had less than 1% GDP growth last year.
In a country of 81+ million. Powder keg.
I saw Dr. Hawass when he was in the US during an event at the Smithsonian’s, I was able to shake his hand but did not speak with him long enough to form an opinion (his lecture was very good).
I’ve heard he was a very hard task master, placed somewhat impossible conditions on archaeologists and other researchers. I’ve also heard complaints that he required huge “contributions” in order to work anywhere in Egypt and it was virtually impossible to work at any well known site.
Having met him twice, aside from a troll which does not really tell us much, what did he say/do that made you have such a poor opinion of him? Would you agree that he has been one of the best directors when it came to protecting Egypt’s artifacts and was relentless in getting artifacts back that were taken over the decades? Or, would you fall into the group who believes his work was to enrich his name and bank account more so than a desire to protect his countries history?