Stoppeleare House - REVISITED.

Luxor is ancient Thebes and has a fascinating past. Share your knowledge or ask your questions here.

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A-Four
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Stoppeleare House - REVISITED.

Post by A-Four »

in my early years on the W.B. Luxor, I came across many people who were told, and believed that the house at the top of the hill near Sitt Zeban, at the cross roads to the King's Valley was Carter House. Unfortunately, I am guilty of never telling any one the truth, except for one person, being that throughout these early years the true Cater House was hidden by trees and another building, now gone that was used by th Japanese mission who worked in the Western Valley. The one person I did correct was a young chap visiting Luxor, who told me that if that was Carter House, how come he never saw the thieves that stole everything from the tomb of Amenhotep 1, at the top of the hill that is part of Dra Abu el Naga, which of course is directly across from Stoppeleare House.

I have heard many different stories about the history of Stoppeleare House, so I will put a few things right. Alexander Stoppeleare was from Belgium, during the late 1940's he was a sort of chief inspector of antiquities and employed directly by the Egyptian Government. The house was finally built and completed under the direction of Hassan Fathy, but unfortunately never used because of the Egyption Revolution in 1952, when Stoppeleare and all other foreigners left the country.

The house from that period until almost quite recently has been left to rot. I was in there about 20 years ago, there were huge cracks throughout the whole mud brick building, it was very dark, with a strange whistling sound from the wind coming through the shutters from the West. It had an enclosed garden quadrangle within the building, where I noticed a rather large tree, which was totally out of place. Of all the things I remember about the place, the strangest was the door bell, as you approached the house, it was certainly European and totally out of place, though I am sure it would have put a smile on Hassan Fathy's face at the time. Anyone approaching the house, either walking or motorised vehicle, would have been heard long before the bell had been wrung.

During the John Romer days, he ignored the place, simply because, I suspect, it was rather a stupid place to perch a house. Any one who lives on the WB, away from a village knows only too well, the very cold night West winds in Winter, and the very hot East winds in Summer. Romer and his team carefully restored Davis House, which I think he believed most future tourist would read a book on the main subject, and realise that dig house was far more historically important than Carter House, or any other for that matter.

Twenty years later in the year 2000 Kent Weeks took a keen interest in restoring the Stoppeleare House, perhaps because Prince Charles had specially requested to visit the house on a trip to Egypt, a few years earlier. I do know that the Egyptian Government of the day offered no money towards restoration plans, so nothing happened.

Moving on now to almost another twenty years, enter stage left, a so called 'not for profit company' called Factum Foundation of Spain, the company that specialises in 'digital mediation in contemporary art, and the production of facsimiles', along with a team called The Thebian Necropolis Preservation Initiative, and a couple of other institutes with equally long names, plus UNESCO, have piled in a small fortune to restore Stoppeleare House, unfortunately the Egyptian Government could help financially in any way possible. Earlier this year at the official opening of the new 3D Scanning, Archiving and Training Centre, now based at the newly restored Stoppeleare House, among the guest was the Egyptian Minister for Antiquities,.................I wonder if he had reminded the others that Stoppeleare House was theirs for 10 years only, after that it return to the ownership of the Egyptian Government.


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Re: Stoppeleare House - REVISITED.

Post by Horus »

Here is an article giving some insight to the restoration work you mention.
http://www.factumfoundation.org/pag/245 ... aere-House
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Re: Stoppeleare House - REVISITED.

Post by A-Four »

Horus wrote:Here is an article giving some insight to the restoration work you mention.
http://www.factumfoundation.org/pag/245 ... aere-House
As usual, I am grateful to Horus, for giving the usual links, which as a rule most people will find from the so called key words that I add in my written work. The thing I try to project in a major subject post that I write on this forum is that, yes I do have a good ground knowledge of the subject in question, and any one who has a question relevant to the subject, I will attempt to answer to the best of my ability.

I am amazed even today, how many people think the old house on the hill is Carter House.
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Re: Stoppeleare House - REVISITED.

Post by A-Four »

A-Four wrote:unfortunately the Egyptian Government could help financially in any way possible.
Ive just had an e-mail from a friend to note my word blindness comment here, to correct,.....the Egyptian Government could NOT help financially in any way possible.
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Re: Stoppeleare House - REVISITED.

Post by newcastle »

An interesting article by A-Four.

I was lucky enough to have a peek inside Stoppelaëre House earlier this year...at the invitation of a Luxor friend whos training there. Clearly, a great deal of effort and money has been spent on resurrecting this piece of architectural history and it's nice that it is now being used rather than left to rot in the desert winds.

Their (Factum Arte) current project is recording the tomb of Seti I....which activity rather marred my visit to the tomb. Not that they tell you of the disturbance when you're forking out 1000LE!

One small correction. Dr. Alexandre Stoppelaëre was French....not Belgian
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Re: Stoppeleare House - REVISITED.

Post by carrie »

Unlike Poirot then.
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Re: Stoppeleare House - REVISITED.

Post by newcastle »

carrie wrote:Unlike Poirot then.
Mais oui! :a39:
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Re: Stoppeleare House - REVISITED.

Post by newcastle »

The one person I did correct was a young chap visiting Luxor, who told me that if that was Carter House, how come he never saw the thieves that stole everything from the tomb of Amenhotep 1, at the top of the hill that is part of Dra Abu el Naga, which of course is directly across from Stoppeleare House.
Funnily enough Carter did see someone mooching about Dra Abu el Naga, someone whom he suspected had been pilfering from an unknown tomb of Amenhotep I.....one Gad Hassan, one of the local tomb robbers. Carter recorded (somewhat floridly) watching this lone figure approaching, as he sat admiring the sunset from his new abode - the current Carter House, (adjacent to Stoppelaëre House.....but which, of course, was built much later).

It turned out that Hassan had been sifting through debris left from previous clearances but hadn't found much of interest....a few alabaster & pottery items. But Carter did persuade Hassan to show him the location of the tomb.

Of course the treasures of the tomb had been robbed, or maybe taken by the necropolis priests, 3000 plus years ago!
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