Cairo: Egypt’s antiquity authorities said Thursday they had turned down an offer to lease the country’s archaeological areas for 200 billion dollars.
“The offer was completely rejected because the Egyptian antiquities are not only a public property for Egyptians, but also a world heritage,” said the head of the state Higher Council of Antiquities Adel Abdul Sattar. “No-one in the world would forgive us if we renounced them [antiquities],” he added.
The official added the offer had been sent to the council through the Finance Ministry, without providing further details.
Opposition newspapers claimed that the proposal had been made by a Qatari businessman who offered to pay $200 billion for getting the right to make use of Egypt’s world-famed areas of the Pyramids, the Sphinx and Abu Simple in Luxor for five years.
The reported offer prompted Al Sayyed Hamed, a lawyer, to file a complaint with Egypt’s public prosecutor against the prime minister and officials in charge of antiquities.
“The idea of rent can be a justification for selling the nation’s antiquities in the future,” the lawyer said in his complaint. “If the deal were sealed, it would be a stigma in the Egyptian history.”
Qatar is a staunch ally of the Islamist President Mohammad Mursi whose government is struggling to curb an unsustainable budget deficit.
Tourism, a main foreign currency earner for Egypt, has been in decline due to a lack of security and political turmoil, which have gripped the country since a revolt forced former strongman Husni Mubarak to step down two years ago.
