Your Egypt

[kamar]

CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt is fuming over a competition to choose the world's "new seven wonders," deriding it as a marketing stunt that demeans the pyramids of Giza, the only surviving ancient wonder.

"They are the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that still exists, it's ridiculous, they don't need to be put to a vote," Egypt's antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass was quoted as saying in local newspapers Thursday.

Culture Minister Faruq Hosni echoed the complaint, describing the project as "absurd" and its creator, Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Bernard Weber, as a man "concerned primarily with self-promotion".

Weber has embarked on a tour of the 21 short-listed sites but got a frosty reception in Egypt.

The hotel function room near the pyramids where Weber was due to hold a news conference Wednesday was closed down at the last minute "for maintenance" and an AFP TV crew was prevented from filming "for security reasons".

"I must say that I've never seen anything quite like this anywhere in the world," Weber said after the botched media event.

The hostility his initiative has met in Egypt came in stark contrast to the honours granted by Jordan, where Weber's presentation was graced by the presence of an enthusiastic Queen Rania.


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