September 11, 2001, two large passenger jets flew into the
World Trade Center towers in New York City, and a third
plane struck the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Within days,
U.S. intelligence sources traced the attacks and another that caused
the crash of a plane in rural Pennsylvania to al-Qaeda, an organiza-
tion financed by a Saudi Arabian named Osama bin Laden. But bin
Laden’s right-hand man, the one believed to be responsible for plan-
ning the attack, was an Egyptian. Some of the hijackers of the planes
were Egyptian. As American planes began bombing targets associated
with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, some Egyptians took to the
streets of Cairo in protest against the United States. Egypt seemed
to be living up to its reputation as a hotbed of Islamic unrest and a
breeding ground for terrorism.
That is the Egypt in the news during recent years. But open up a
National Geographic magazine, a coffee-table book about the wonders
of the world, or a book on Western civilization, and a different
Egypt can be seen. It is a land of temples and tombs, of pharaohs
and pyramids, of camels and sand. It is a photogenic and mysteri-
ous land, so unlike the United States, yet somehow linked to the
American way of life—it is the birthplace of paper and written
language, of monumental architecture, and of irrigation.
World Trade Center towers in New York City, and a third
plane struck the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Within days,
U.S. intelligence sources traced the attacks and another that caused
the crash of a plane in rural Pennsylvania to al-Qaeda, an organiza-
tion financed by a Saudi Arabian named Osama bin Laden. But bin
Laden’s right-hand man, the one believed to be responsible for plan-
ning the attack, was an Egyptian. Some of the hijackers of the planes
were Egyptian. As American planes began bombing targets associated
with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, some Egyptians took to the
streets of Cairo in protest against the United States. Egypt seemed
to be living up to its reputation as a hotbed of Islamic unrest and a
breeding ground for terrorism.
That is the Egypt in the news during recent years. But open up a
National Geographic magazine, a coffee-table book about the wonders
of the world, or a book on Western civilization, and a different
Egypt can be seen. It is a land of temples and tombs, of pharaohs
and pyramids, of camels and sand. It is a photogenic and mysteri-
ous land, so unlike the United States, yet somehow linked to the
American way of life—it is the birthplace of paper and written
language, of monumental architecture, and of irrigation.
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