Notation:
Jane Akshar, operates Flats
in Luxor, a member of the
AETBI, that
offers flats for lease as well as local tours of the Luxor region.
She also operates our Luxor News
Blog.
Old Gourna is located on a hillside overlooking the West Bank at Luxor. It has always been of interest to tourists, and today many of its inhabitants rely upon shops built to cater to the tourist industry. Gourna doesn’t translate well from Arabic so one will see spellings of Qurna, Gurna or Gourna, but they are all one and the same.
It
will be difficult to look over to the
West
Bank at Luxor and
not see the old village of Gourna, which is both a landmark on that
side of the Nile, and to some, a rather mysterious place, full of
intriguing histories of tomb robbers and rouges. Of course that was
years ago, but the village does sit atop as many as one hundred
tombs that need to be examined. Therefore, the residents of the old
village are being moved to a
new location
at Al-Taref city on Luxor's outskirts., while Egyptologists
anxiously await their chance to explore new territory, though there
are likely to be no unopened tombs beneath the town.
The Roof of the Mosque shows the use of domes for
cooling
This was not the first effort to move the villagers of El Gourna.
Some 60 years ago, another was made to move the residents of Gourna
to a
new village designed by Hassan Fathy. Born in
Alexandria in
1899 to an Egyptian father and a Turkish mother, he was an
outstanding and innovative architect who demonstrated how elements
from vernacular Arab urban architecture,
such
as the malkaf (wind catch), shukshaykha (lantern dome)
and mashrabiya (wooden lattice screen), could be combined
with the mud-brick construction traditionally practiced in
Nubia
in Upper Egypt to form a distinctive, environmentally and socially
conscious building style that linked the use of appropriate
technologies with co-operative construction techniques and the
guiding thread of tradition. Born in Alexandria, he was responsible
for some 105 projects in Egypt, Spain, Kuwait, Palestine, Greece,
Saudi Arabia and the United States, among other locations.
Unfortunately, his
New
El Gourna project was doomed to failure. Much like today, the
very people it was being built for did not want to move so no matter
how wonderful the design it was never going to be a success. And yet
it was a much better location than the village that the residents of
old Gourna are being made to move into in 2006. Many of these people
earned their living from the tourist trade, and the new location
will take them away from the heart of that
business.
However, this time they will not be allowed to return to the old
village. Indeed, the old village will probably not exist for very
long.
The village designed by Hassan Fathy during the 1940s was situated
on the main tourist road to the
Valley of Kings
and his idea was that the tourist coaches would come into the
village and buy local crafts. He built the village following the
traditions of the tribal families living in the old village on the
hill and had workshops and souks planned. Frankly it would have been
a much more interesting and pleasant place if it had worked. It is
still there, and while taking a look at the
newer
village, I also decided to have a look at Hassan Fathy's village
that was never put to use. The overall design is fantastic and I was
particularly impressed by the mosque, which somehow reminded of the
hypostyle hall at
Karnak, having pillars and the same feeling of space. Within the
housing, the rooms were amazingly cool and airy because of the use
of the traditional materials and the domed design. But like the
ancient monuments around Luxor, including some of the major temples,
it is being attacked by the underground water. Few buildings have
survived and many of the houses have been converted into concrete
boxes.
Initially,
we were shown around by the guardian of the mosque who took us into
old houses, around the mosque, and handed us over to the guardians
at the theatre and Hassan Fathy house. One of the houses that
remains is occupied by the first family to leave Gourna. We were
shown around by the house owner's daughter who is a tour guide and
speaks excellent English. She showed us fireplaces, chimneys, pigeon
roosts and even the original bed Hassan Fathy built for himself. We
also went to the theatre, reminiscent of an Elizabethan stage. Every
where there were traditional lamps, marhabeya screens, domes and
coloured glass letting silvers of light through.
The village is well worth a visit when in Luxor. There is a sign for
it about 20 meters from the main cross roads before one reaches the
colossus of Memnon on the
West
Bank. With energy prices peaking and cookie cutter houses
springing up everywhere in our modern world, its architecture is as
relevant today as it was 60 years ago.
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Last Updated: 12/06/2006