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Exploring Egypt Seminar: Histories and Historiographies
Le mardi 1er juillet 2025 à 18h00 (heure du Caire), NVIC 
Documenting Lost and Endangered Heritage
The Case of 19th Century Luxor
Sylvie Weens
Partenaire(s) de l’Ifao : DAIK, NVIC, CAI, PCMA
Langue : anglais.
The 13th session of the seminar series 'Exploring Egypt: Histories and Historiographies', a joint initiative of the Ifao, DAIK, CAI, PCMA & NVIC, will be hosted at the NVIC, Zamalek. This session features Sylvie Weens, and it is entitled "Documenting Lost and Endangered Heritage : The Case of 19th Century Luxor". The lecture is open to the public in the limit of available places.
ABSTRACT
A large part of Luxor’s unique architectural heritage, that is significant of the city’s 19th century landscape, has been lost over several years without any proper documentation being carried out. The loss of this heritage prompted historian Sylvie Weens to embark on a documentation project that aims to understand and reconstruct what Luxor looked like in the 19th century and early 20th century, a topic which has surprisingly never been properly studied nor researched. Over the years, she has gathered many archival documents that contribute to a better understanding of the historical and urban development of the town, in the context of archaeological excavations, the rise of tourism and colonialism. Her work not only aims to document both lost and endangered architectural landmarks but also to identify the people who were once connected to these places. This on-going project helps rewrite the rich history of 19th century Luxor, whose importance has hitherto been largely neglected and underestimated.
Sylvie Weens is a French historian and independent researcher based in Cairo. She has studied Egyptology at Lille University and holds a Master’s degree in modern history from Le Mans university. Her research topic is the urban and historical development of Luxor in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She has published and lectured on the topography and occupation of Luxor temple through the 19th century, documenting the houses that were built inside the monument, as well as their inhabitants. She has recently worked on the private correspondence of Ferdinand Pagnon, who was Thomas Cook’s agent in Egypt, as well as on some unpublished material kept in the Cook’s archives to understand the circumstances surrounding the construction of the first hotels in Upper Egypt, and highlight the role they played in the region. She was assistant secretary at the Egypt Exploration Society in London from 1989 to 1997. 
Exploring Egypt Seminar: Histories and Historiographies
A joint collaboration between the Ifao (Institut français d’archéologie orientale) & the DAIK (German Archaeological Institute in Cairo), joined in 2025 by the CAI (Centro Archeologico Italiano), PCMA (Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology Cairo) & NVIC (Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo).
This seminar series aims, broadly speaking, to discuss different aspects related to the production of historical knowledge on Egypt. Speakers are invited to reflect on the different ways of writing, narrating and thinking about Egypt’s history at different periods, as well as on the actors, contexts, and power relations involved in the production of historical narratives. By adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, the seminar series seeks to bring into conversation fields which have traditionally been examined separately, such as the history of Egyptology, the study of modern Egyptian historiography, and the history of heritage and preservation.
In addition, while the seminar series seeks to shed a critical light on the formation of specific disciplinary fields and traditions, it also moves beyond an exclusive focus on professional history writing, in order to explore the various institutions, genres, and channels, through which historical narratives have been produced and disseminated. Among the themes that will be discussed, for instance, are the different “histories” of Egyptology, archaeology or Arabic and Islamic studies, academic versus “popular” representations of history, and heritage preservation as a site of production of historical narratives.
Exploring Egypt: Histories and Historiographies Seminar is organised by Fatma Keshk, Postdoctoral fellow at DAIK & Ifao and Malak Labib, scientific member of the Ifao.