In the lush green fields of Egypt's fertile 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. Above, Abdel Mobdi Moussalam, 48, carries papyrus reeds collected on his land in the village of al-Qaramous in Sharqiyah province, in Egypt's northern fertile Nile Delta region, northeast of the capital.
AFP