The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

the crossing (and the CSF conscript)

Inspired by sandmonkey’s remark on gifts to Egypt from foreign revolutionaries, I went to see the 1973 War Panorama the other day – also to learn more about the war’s first half. (For some reason, the show stopped before the IDF built four pontoon bridges crossing the canal into the other direction and before Egypt’s Third Army got trapped.)

The panorama is a gift from North Korea:


Now my visit got quite a sad note to it, if you see this CSF conscript who is so scared from his superiors that he does not dare to answer which two countries were fighting in the 1973 war and in which year it started. (See this post on 3arabawy.)

Back to The Crossing: I’ll hire these guys next time I need to cross Salah Selim during rush hour.

I’ll hire these guys next time I need to cross Salah Selim during rush hour.
PS: On a (maybe not) related note, I’d sponsor one shark soup for anyone who can tell me the secret history of the Korean restaurant deep inside the Cleopatra bunker on Midan Tahrir.

Update: The sign on the first picture reads Panorama creators D.P.R. Korea 1989. I'll try to enlarge the pictures.