700 kilometers from Tahrir Square, Luxor, Egypt's tourist pearl has had its own revolution. Here the face of the regime is as much or more than Mubarak, the governor Samir Farag. He has not resigned (yet) but, after several violent demonstrations outside the headquarters of the governorate, some days not be seen in public.
"He is locked in his palace, dared not set foot in the street, we are afraid," said a young man living humorous strolling tourists on felucca. The city is full of posters and graffiti against Samir Farag, which many locals condenses all the evils characteristic of the last years of the regime: a leader who has used his authoritative power to deliver the country's resources to his friends as the people sinking into poverty.
Army general and loyal to Arafat until the end, Farag is the architect of the transformation undergone intense Luxor in recent years. Hundreds of millions of euros have been thrown at a furious pace to restore carefully tombs and temples, together with tourist attractions and well paved roads lined with colorful flower beds and lift luxury hotels along the Nile in Luxor, where the pharaohs 4,000 years ago built their capital of Thebes, well worth it.
Farag has always been sold as a visionary who seeks to return to the city the old glories of the past. The problem, critics accuse him is that his vision for Luxor does not include its present inhabitants, whose slums and dilapidated buildings, huddled together with antiques, do not fit into a paradise for tourists.
In recent years, hundreds of families have seen their homes and lands expropriated from their ancestors, often for meager compensation. "The house of my grandfather was just ahead of the new ticketing office. The shot down eight months ago and we have not taken anything, "said Mahmud, tourist taxi driver of 39 years.
We were offered a flat, but where? In the desert? No way. Farag just wanted us out of our city for their business friends could keep it all. " Agroup of families have mounted a protest camp in a clearing on the eastern shore. They stood their homes demolished to realize the last and most controversial draft Farag, which critics describe as "pharaonic" but has been endorsed by UNESCO: the restoration of the avenue of sphinxes, the sacred path linking the temples of Karnak and Luxor along 2.7 km, buried for centuries.
Its excavation was required to demolish hundreds of houses of poor families. The government says they have been compensated with up to one hundred thousand pounds (thirteen thousand euros), but many involved say the amount is not enough to start again. The camp is not about money. What bothers them is that their houses were not on the Sphinx, but over 100 meters.
The suspicion is that, as it did with other land expropriated, Farag intends to sell to a foreign businessman to build a luxury hotel. "That was the game for many years: they are lined and we looked at," says Mahmoud. Now everything will change. " Luxor is 700 km Tahrir, but the Revolution means here the same thing to finally have a voice (and vote) on the future of the city, the country. 
"He is locked in his palace, dared not set foot in the street, we are afraid," said a young man living humorous strolling tourists on felucca. The city is full of posters and graffiti against Samir Farag, which many locals condenses all the evils characteristic of the last years of the regime: a leader who has used his authoritative power to deliver the country's resources to his friends as the people sinking into poverty.
Army general and loyal to Arafat until the end, Farag is the architect of the transformation undergone intense Luxor in recent years. Hundreds of millions of euros have been thrown at a furious pace to restore carefully tombs and temples, together with tourist attractions and well paved roads lined with colorful flower beds and lift luxury hotels along the Nile in Luxor, where the pharaohs 4,000 years ago built their capital of Thebes, well worth it.
Farag has always been sold as a visionary who seeks to return to the city the old glories of the past. The problem, critics accuse him is that his vision for Luxor does not include its present inhabitants, whose slums and dilapidated buildings, huddled together with antiques, do not fit into a paradise for tourists.
In recent years, hundreds of families have seen their homes and lands expropriated from their ancestors, often for meager compensation. "The house of my grandfather was just ahead of the new ticketing office. The shot down eight months ago and we have not taken anything, "said Mahmud, tourist taxi driver of 39 years.
We were offered a flat, but where? In the desert? No way. Farag just wanted us out of our city for their business friends could keep it all. " Agroup of families have mounted a protest camp in a clearing on the eastern shore. They stood their homes demolished to realize the last and most controversial draft Farag, which critics describe as "pharaonic" but has been endorsed by UNESCO: the restoration of the avenue of sphinxes, the sacred path linking the temples of Karnak and Luxor along 2.7 km, buried for centuries.
Its excavation was required to demolish hundreds of houses of poor families. The government says they have been compensated with up to one hundred thousand pounds (thirteen thousand euros), but many involved say the amount is not enough to start again. The camp is not about money. What bothers them is that their houses were not on the Sphinx, but over 100 meters.
The suspicion is that, as it did with other land expropriated, Farag intends to sell to a foreign businessman to build a luxury hotel. "That was the game for many years: they are lined and we looked at," says Mahmoud. Now everything will change. " Luxor is 700 km Tahrir, but the Revolution means here the same thing to finally have a voice (and vote) on the future of the city, the country.
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