Papyrus makers keep tradition alive despite Egypt tourism slump
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AL-QARAMUS (Egypt) • In the lush green fields of Egypt's fertile Nile Delta Valley, farmers and artisans are struggling to make a living as they keep alive the Pharaonic-era tradition of making papyrus.
In the 1970s, an art teacher in the village of Al-Qaramus taught farmers the millennia-old techniques for transforming the plant into sought-after paper decorated with ornate drawings and text.
The village and its surrounds, located about 80km north-east of Cairo, now make up the largest hub of papyrus production in the country, experts in the sector say.
Once used by ancient Egyptians as writing paper, local artists now decorate the papyrus with hieroglyphics, Arabic calligraphy and representations from antiquity and nature to create souvenirs for eager visitors.
But tourism in the North African country has taken a battering since its 2011 revolution, and after a Russian airliner was downed by Islamist militants in Egypt in 2015.
The Covid-19 pandemic has further debilitated the sector: Egypt earned just US$4 billion (S$5.4 billion) in tourist revenues last year, a quarter of what it had anticipated before the global health crisis erupted.
Today, Al-Qaramus has 25 farms trying to make ends meet by selling papyrus, compared with around 500 prior to the revolution, according to farmer and artist Said Tarakhan.
The papyrus plant, with its fan-shaped foliage, grows in water and can reach 4m in height. Its form has served as inspiration for decorating the columns of ancient Egyptian temples.
To make paper, workers use wire to cut the stems into thin strips, which are immersed in water and then layered on top of one another to create sheets.
The sheets are placed into a compressor to compact them, and the resulting paper is left to dry in the sun before being decorated with writing or colourful designs.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
