C’est le gardien du site de Giza depuis 20 ans et le responsable de l’archéologie égyptienne depuis 2000. Sans lui, aucune fouille n’est possible. Homme de pouvoir et de communication, il arrive également à Zahi Hawass, surnommé “the king of Giza”, de promettre à tout va. Sans honorer sa parole.

Ainsi, dans cet entretien journalistique, il garantit que l’année 2007 sera l’année de l’exploration finale de la Grande Pyramide, avec moults révélations sous-entendues. Mi-2008, rien n’a été communiqué de ce côté….

Interrogé sur la question épineuse de la reprise (et du retard) de la fouille de la Grande Pyramide, le ministre égyptien de la Culture, Farouk Hosni, s’est contenté de répondre, de passage à Paris ce 16 juin, que “l’exploration était suspendue”. Sans donner plus d’explications.

A croire que cela ne dépend pas précisément d’eux…..

The dual strategy to cover any event around the Great Pyramid : Fox Tv and National Geographic Channel.

He’s famous for his megalomaniac tendency. To be sure, Rupert Murdoch, a simple australian journalist in the sixties, has become a big boss in the media field during the eighties. A secret character, he always refuses an interview about his life or connections in the political or cultural areas.

The man is quite eclectic : press, radio,TV, internet. Everything is good. That’s the way you have to react to cover the event. When Egypt wanted to use the mass media to gain some audience for economic reasons, Murdoch armada was ready. In march 1999, a first try was shot with a special tv broadcast called “opening of the lost tombs”. The show was supposed to reveal a live opening of some sarcophagi in the Giza site but it was mainly a succesful way for people in charge, like Zahi Hawass, to make themselves known and to test the results of thiskind of operation.

Another try in 2002 : this time, the stakes are higher. A so-called live discovery of a secret room inside the Great Pyramid through an exploration of the shafts of the monument by a tiny robot-camera. More medias to cover the story and therefore more money to eran for the makers. But above all one conclusion : the mystery of the Great Pyramid is still efficient . That’s why any media cover would be benefical for the one to be there, at the right place, at the right time.

Rupert Murdoch has understood the key to success for it with a clever innovation : a double broadcast with two channels he owns, Fox Tv and National Geographic Channel. A popular show guaranteed for one hand, a scientific caution for the other. Therefore, negociations are underway, according to insiders, to cover again the end of the exploration of the shafts which is planned for 2007/2008. With the invading commercial on the Net since 2002 and the technic of streaming (non-stop broadcast on the web), economical profits would be tremendous for any media to gain the scoop.

Murdoch is waiting to accomplish his last “coup”. Not sure that the turn of events will let him achieve his plan.