Friday, March 24, 2006

Rushdi Said: The Desert Dream

A profile of one of the greatest contributors to the understanding of Egypt's geological past, the context within which Egyptian prehistory unfolded: "Rushdi Said, 86, is more than a celebrated geologist -- one of Egypt's best known. During the reign of both late presidents Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Anwar El-Sadat, he was, even more significantly, a leading public figure, notably the head of the National Mining Organisation, later the Egyptian Geological and Survey Authority, the body responsible for surveying Egyptian deserts for mineral deposits. He has written a handful of books: The Geology of Egypt , The River Nile Geology , Hydrology and Utilisation -- attempts to reconstruct the history of the River Nile from its origins to its present, but also to ascertain the amount of water carried by the river during the course of its history . . . . For decades he has been a strong advocate of saving the Nile Valley from further degradation and opening up new frontiers for population settlement in the desert."
See the entire profile on the above page.

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