Cultural heritage

Newly elected Miss Lebanon Perla Harb poses on stage after winning the Miss Lebanon 2025 pageant, in Zouk Mosbeh, north of Beirut, on Oct. 4, 2025.

Culture

Miss Lebanon 2025 crowned in ceremony highlighting culture, heritage

Lebanon crowned Perla Harb as the country’s new beauty queen in a grand ceremony highlighting Lebanese culture.

Khaled El-Enany, Egyptologist and former Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, speaks during an interview with AFP at a hotel in Paris on April 10, 2025.

Culture

UNESCO backs Egypt's Khaled el-Enany as next director-general, first Arab in post

Enany would be the first Egyptian and the first Arab to serve as the agency’s director-general.

Installation view of CONVERGE in Seven Contours, One Collection at MACAAL © Ayoub El Bardii.

Culture

Marrakech's African Contemporary Art Museum reinvents itself two years after quake

Marking the two-year anniversary of the 2023 earthquake, Marrakech’s Museum of African Contemporary Art highlights the city’s recovery and its growing role as a hub for African art.

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Culture

Saudi excavations reveal 11,000-year-old human settlement

The settlement dates to between 11,000 and 10,300 years ago, to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period.

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Culture

Damascus hotel to get revamp in Syria-Saudi partnership: What we know

Sheraton

Culture

3,000-year-old gold bracelet vanishes from Egypt museum: What we know

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Armenia's Pashinyan drops Mount Ararat from border stamps in 'concession' to Turkey

A beekeeper walks by his beehives set in a valley in the Armenian province of Kotayk, with Mount Ararat seen in the background, on May 15, 2019.

Culture

From the depths: Egypt raises archaeological relics from sunken city

Divers watch as a crane pulls an artifact from the waters at Abu Qir bay in Alexandria on Aug. 21, 2025, as part of an event organized by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to recover sunken antiquities.

Breaking | Last Updated: June 30, 2023, 2:28 pm

UNESCO votes in favor of readmitting US, Israel still out

Convening for an extraordinary session, the members of UNESCO voted by a large majority for the United States to rejoin the organization.

Audrey Azoulay

UNESCO chief says door open for Israel to come back

The United States is in the process of rejoining UNESCO after leaving it six years ago, while Israel currently has no intention to once again follow suit.

Walnuts

EU grants protection status to Turkey's Caglayancerit walnut

The move will increase the market potential of Turkish walnuts that are produced in the country's southeast, which is still reeling from the nation's worst disaster.

Turkish actress Merve Dizdar poses during a photocall after she won the Best Actress Prize for her part in the film "Kuru Otlar Ustune" (About Dry Grasses) during the closing ceremony of the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 27, 2023.

Turkey's conservatives lash out at actress Merve Dizdar after Cannes win

Angry reactions to actress Merve Dizdar’s acceptance speech at the Cannes film festival may foreshadow more crackdowns on the liberal arts sector as Erdogan and a new conservative parliament takes the reins.

A chef holds a platter of kanafe during Hatay kanafe festival, July 23, 2019.

Culture

Turkey's Hatay kanafeh delicacy granted EU special status

Turkey’s earthquake-hit multicultural Hatay province receives recognition for its renowned Mesopotamian dessert.

Rally in Jerusalem, Feb. 25 2023 Credit: Tal Kfir Shor

Handmaid's Tale inspires Israeli women battling religious coercion

Hundreds of women clad in red cloaks and sporting white bonnets have been appearing in the past few weeks in several of the anti-judicial overhaul, pro-democracy demonstrations across the country.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 23: Kevin Hart attends the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix's "Me Time" at Regency Village Theatre on August 23, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

Culture

Explainer: Egypt cancels Kevin Hart’s show after ‘Black Egyptians’ reference

Hart was criticized on Egyptian social media for comments he allegedly made asserting that ancient Egyptians were black.

Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida.

Barcelona ends twin city agreement with Tel Aviv, citing Israeli 'apartheid'

Barcelona’s Mayor Ada Colau said that thousands of residents in her city signed a petition to sever ties with Tel Aviv so as to pressure Israel on Palestinian human rights.

Gobekli Tepe

Culture

Prehistoric world heritage site Gobekli Tepe survives Turkey earthquakes

Though Monday’s earthquakes destroyed several historic sites, some of the iconic historical heritage that is invaluable to science as well as Turkey’s economy has survived.

Islamic Arts Biennale display at King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Culture

First-ever Islamic Arts Biennale held in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah

The landmark event aimed to celebrate Islamic culture amid the kingdom’s cultural expansion.

Kfar Kama

Culture

Israeli Circassian village lands among UN's top tourism picks

Israel's Circassian village of Kfar Kama is featured in this year's "Best Tourism Villages," a project of the UN World Tourism Organizaiton.

Magda Shehata Haroun talks during an interview with AFP at the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue.

Culture

Egypt's few remaining Jews celebrate Hanukkah

Hanukkah was celebrated amid tight security in Cairo's Meyr Biton Synagogue. Yet Magda Haroun, head of Egypt's tiny Jewish community, looks forward to the day when all of Egypt's synagogues will be open for prayer and celebrations.