A woman cuts papyrus by a thread at the workshop in the village of al-Qaramous in Sharqiyah province, in Egypt's northern fertile Nile Delta region on July 28, 2021. PHOTO | KHALED DESOUKI | AFP
Once used by ancient Egyptians as writing paper, local artists now decorate the papyrus with hieroglyphics, Arabic calligraphy and representations from antiquity and nature to create souvenirs for eager visitors.
But tourism in the North African country has taken a battering since its 2011 revolution, and after a Russian airliner was downed by the Islamic State group in 2015.
The Covid-19 pandemic has further debilitated the sector: Egypt earned just $4 billion in tourist revenues last year, a quarter of what it had anticipated before the global health crisis.
