Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

a huge pumping station (the Mubarak Pumping Station). At its terminus, the canal splits into four branches, each about
50 kilometers (31 miles) long, which will be used to irrigate the adjacent desert lands. The whole region where the canal
and its branches run is known as the Tushka Depression or Basin, and these projects are collectively known sometimes as
the Tushka Project. (The official name of the collective project is the Southern Egypt Development Project.) The project
that most threatens the Nabta Playa area is the east Uwainat groundwater project, which, according to the Egyptian
government, would irrigate 200,000 feddans (acres) in the region. Nevertheless, as Schild himself admits, “recent
financial problems facing the project brought a temporary stop to these plans, although all the planning work, designs,
drilling for water, survey, soil assessments, etc., of the area have been finished.” 2 In addition, according to Schild,
“exempting Nabta from these governmental plans by the SCA has not yet been successful.” It is because of this, says
Schild, that “the CPE has been very intensively recording all the megaliths and related monuments at Nabta, e.g., we have
just finished mapping, in the scale of 1:50, all the megaliths and their fragments, together with the associated quarries, in
the entire Nabta Basin.” 3
We felt it was important that UNESCO World Heritage be consulted on this matter. Communications were sent to
both the UNESCO World Heritage headquarters in Paris and its offices in Cairo. UNESCO funded the creation and
operation of the impressively built Nubian Museum of Aswan. No reply, however, has yet been received. We also
contacted Dr. Malville, the astronomer who was a member of the CPE and who had been responsible for the study of the
Calendar Circle and the megalithic stellar alignments at Nabta Playa in 1997–1998. Oddly, Dr. Malville had not been
consulted or even informed of the removal of the Calendar Circle. We also communicated with the Egyptian astronomer
Dr. Mosalam Shaltout, who had been involved with the study of Nabta Playa. Dr. Shaltout had also not been informed of
the removal of the Calendar Circle. We hope that with the publication of this text an alarm bell will be heard by the
archaeological and anthropological communities in the hope of salvaging the Nabta Playa prehistoric site as well as other
monuments that may be threatened by ongoing desert reclamation projects.
April 2010 update: Unauthorized visits to Nabta Playa are still taking place. To our knowledge, no security system
has been put into place, and the site still remains unprotected. We are given to understand that no official announcements
have been made by the Nubian Museum in Aswan or the Supreme Council of Antiquities as to what is planned for the
Calendar Circle and other monuments that were removed from the site. On April 7, 2010, Robert Bauval discussed the
matter with professor Salima Ikram of the American University in Cairo. She offered to look into this matter.
February 2011 update: As these pages go to press, stunning events are sweeping through Egypt. On January 25,
popular democratic protests began in Tahrir Square. On January 31 a new “Ministry of Antiquities” was created by the
besieged dictator Hosni Mubarak, and Zahi Hawass was made minister. On February 11, amid charges of rampant and
pervasive corruption, Hosni Mubarak resigned after twenty-eight years in power, the entire Mubarak government was
dissolved and power transferred to a temporary military council, ostensibly to prepare for democratic elections. All
former government ministries are in a state of uncertainty. We sincerely hope these events will lead to a democratic Egypt
born anew and with a reinvigorated care and love for its astonishing ancient past.