Ahmed Fakhry

Luis Walter Alvarez , Ahmed Fakhry (center) and Jerry Anderson with the equipment for the pyramid project

Ahmed Fakhry ( Arabic أحمد فخري Ahmad Fachri , DMG Aḥmad Faḫrī ; * May 21, 1905 in the al-Fayyum depression; † June 7, 1973 in Paris ) was an Egyptian Egyptologist . He has made lasting contributions to the exploration of the depressions in the western desert of Egypt.

Life

Ahmed Fakhry was born in 1905 to 'Ali Fakhry and Galila Abbas in Fayyum and grew up there.

He studied at the University of Cairo and graduated in 1928 with a Bachelor of Arts . With the help of a government scholarship, he went on to study from 1929 to 1932 in Berlin with Kurt Sethe , in Brussels with Jean Capart and in Liverpool with Thomas Eric Peet .

In 1932 he became an employee of the Egyptian Antiquities Service and was subordinate to Selim Hassan in Giza . In 1936 he was appointed chief inspector for Middle Egypt and the oases. In this function he carried out the first investigations and excavations in the depressions Charga , Dachla , Farafra and Bahariyya . From 1938 he was chief inspector for the Nile Delta and shifted his research focus to the Sinai Peninsula , the Mediterranean coast including the Siwa oasis and the Sketan desert (Wadi an-Natrun). During the Second World War , from November 1942 to October 1944, he was a curator at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo . In 1944 he was appointed director of the newly founded section “Desert Researches” and continued his work in Siwa, Charga and Dachla.

In 1947 he carried out archaeological field research in Yemen . Between 1950 and 1955 he directed field research in Dahshur and at the Djedkare pyramid in ash-Shawwāf in Saqqara- South. From 1952 until his retirement in 1965 he was professor of the history of ancient Egypt at Cairo University. He taught u. a. also as visiting professor 1953–1954 at Brown University in Providence and in 1965 at Pennsylvania State University . After his retirement, he turned back to the oases, especially the Dachla valley. Here he succeeded u. a. the discovery of Mastabagräber the oasis Governors of the 6th dynasty in Balat .

Ahmed Fakhry was married. With his wife Editha he had a son, 'Ali Fakhry. His son also studied Egyptology, but worked as an Egyptian diplomat. Ahmed Fakhry died on June 7, 1973 in Paris after a lecture tour of the consequences of a heart attack .

Fonts (selection)

• Sept Tombeaux à l'est de la Grande Pyramide de Guizeh , 1935
• Bahria Oasis , 2 volumes, 1942, 1950
• Recent Explorations in the Oases of the Western Desert , 1942
• Siwa Oasis: Its History and Antiquities , 1944
• The Oasis of Siwa: Its Costums, History and Monuments , 1950
• An archaeological journey to Yemen: (March - May, 1947) , 3 volumes, 1951–1952
• The necropolis of El-Bagawat in Kharga Oasis , 1951
• The inscriptions of the amethyst quarries at Wadi el Hudi , 1952
• The Bent Pyramid of Dahshur , 1954
• Miṣr al-Firʿaunīya (Pharaonic Egypt), 1957, 1960, 1971, 1978
• Al-Yaman: Māḍiha wa Ḥāḍiruha (Yemen: its past and present), 1957
• Baina Āṭār al-ʿAlam al-ʿArabī (Among the Monuments of the Arab World), 1958
• Dirāsāt fi Tārīḫ aš-Šarq al-Qadīm: Miṣr wa al-ʿIrāq, Sūrya, al-Yaman, Irān (Studies on the history of the ancient Orient: Egypt and Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Iran), 1958, 1962
• The monuments of Sneferu at Dahshur , 2 volumes, 1959–1961
• The pyramids , 1961
• The oases of Egypt; Vol. 1: Siwa Oasis , 1973
• The oases of Egypt; Vol. 2: Bahriyah and Farafra Oases , 1974
• Monuments of the Dachla oasis. From the estate of Ahmed Fakhry , 1982

literature

• Monuments of the Dachla oasis. From the estate of Ahmed Fakhry. Edited by Jürgen Osing (= German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department, Archaeological Publications Vol. 28). von Zabern, Mainz 1982, ISBN 978-3-8053-0426-9 (pp. 11–12 complete list of publications by Ahmed Fakhry).
• Morris L. Bierbrier: Who was who in Egyptology . 4th revised edition. Egypt Exploration Society, London 2012, ISBN 978-0-85698-207-1 , pp. 186-187.