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

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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.

The tomb of Thuya, the mother of Queen Tiye who was the Great Royal Wife of Pharoah Amenhotep III, is displayed at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt, Dec. 15, 2014.

Egyptian archaeologists unwrap Amenhotep I mummy, rewrite history

Egyptian archaeologists rewrite history after digitally unwrapping the mummy of Pharaoh King Amenhotep I, whose secrets were kept for thousands of years.

KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images

Egyptian revives 5,000-year-old martial art

Cairo is working to revive interest in the 5,000-year-old marital art of tahteeb, which soldiers practiced to train for war.

Palestinian university students wearing traditional embroidered dresses take part in an event entitled "Don't Steal Our Heritage" in Gaza City, on Dec. 16, 2021.

Palestinian embroidery represents social, cultural identity on UNESCO list

Palestinians praise the registration of embroidery on the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List after Israeli attempts to attribute the traditional embroidered Palestinian dress to themselves.

Palestinian university students wearing traditional embroidered dresses take part in an event titled "Don't Steal Our Heritage," Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Dec. 16, 2021.

Palestinians decry 'cultural theft' as Miss Universe contestants wear Bedouin clothes

Palestinians found it offensive for the contestants in Miss Universe 2021, which was held in Eilat, to wear the traditional Palestinian dress, and are now demanding that Israel be held accountable for what they deemed cultural "theft."

Jewish cemetery Iran

Israelis long to reconnect with Arab, Islamic homelands

Many Israeli Jews with Middle Eastern origins remember a painful expulsion from their homelands and want to preserve and celebrate the history of those Jewish communities.

Egyptian archaeologists work during restoration at the Baron Empain Palace in Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt, Sept. 24, 2018.

New secrets revealed in discovery at Heliopolis, Egypt's most ancient capital

Egyptian and German archaeologists have been working for 15 years to uncover the ruins of a city, the center of sun worship, in the Matariyyah region east of Cairo. This month, they revealed the remains of one of its temples belonging to King Nectanebo I.

PATRICK BAZ/AFP via Getty Images

Dancer pushes for UNESCO to recognize Egyptian belly dancing

Egyptian dancer Amie Sultan is working to get classical belly dance recognized as Egyptian heritage globally.

Taras Press

Children's books share Sudan's endangered Nobiin with new readers

Three Nubian-Sudanese writers have published children's books written in the Nobiin language and using the Old Nubian script.

This photo shows the exterior of the dilapidated Prinkipo Greek Orthodox Orphanage, Buyukada, Princes Island, Istanbul, Turkey, July 7, 2018.

Race against time to save Europe’s largest timber building

A first step forward in the effort to save Europe’s largest timber building in Istanbul has been completed, but experts warn the restoration is progressing slowly.

Hevra Synagogue

Turkish synagogues get makeover as Izmir strives for UNESCO stamp

An ambitious effort to revive Izmir’s Jewish heritage is paying off as the Turkish city vies for a place on the UNESCO heritage list.

Tourists visit the Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor, Egypt, March 10, 2020.

Egypt to announce opening of world’s largest open museum in Luxor governorate

As part of Egypt’s efforts to boost tourism, the Ministry of Antiquities bets on the restoration of El-Kebash Road in Luxor, which is one of the biggest open-air archaeological sites in the world.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews harvest wheat in a field near the city of Modi'in, Israel, April 28, 2021.

Israeli farmers prepare for year of rest

Preparing for the year of Shmita, when the land must rest and not be cultivated, Israel is privileging the importation of produce from Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.