China's fake Sphinx irks Egypt

Beijing, May 26 (IANS/EFE) The Chinese replica of the iconic Giza Sphinx has angered Egypt, that has now taken the issue to the Unesco and have demanded that the Chinese authorities bring the imitation down.

The construction of the 60-metre-long and 20-metre-tall replica was finished in April on the outskirts of Shinjiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei.

The imitation is just a bit smaller than the original 73mX21m statue at the foot of Giza's Pyramid.

The Chinese Sphinx has irked the Egypt to the limit that the north African nation's Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim threatened to complain to Irina Bokova, the director general of the Unesco, last week.

The Egyptian government has called the Chinese imitation a violation of the 1972 World Heritage Convention and considers that it can affect the tourism in the already politically unstable country.

The cement and steel replica is "a bad imitation that belittles the original", Ibrahim told the Al Ahram daily, and added that he had also asked China to explain and apologise for their act.

In response, the Shijiazhuang authorities have distanced themselves from the construction calling it a purely private initiative.

The people related to the construction, however, said that the imitation would serve only as a temporary scene for shooting movies and television dramas.

The manager of the park told Xinhua that the Sphinx will be razed down once the shooting is over, but did not specify the date.

The official also offered apologies for the misunderstanding the structure might have caused, adding that the park "deeply respects the world cultural heritage".

Paradoxically, the news of demolition caused an influx of tourists to the Shijiazhuang park who expressed regret about its future destruction.

In a bid to save the structure, some of the visitors suggested to add the nose and the beard to the imitation to make it look different from the original which has lost them over the centuries, according to the China Daily.

The statue has sparked debates on the internet in China calling it a lack of imagination or a mad craze to copy the West instead of constructing own tourist attractions and other infrastructure.

China is building up its reputation of replicas with already existing Eiffel Tower, the imitation of the city of Venice and the picturesque Austrian town of Hallstatt.

The owners of the theme parks maintain the imitations are there so that the tourists do not have to leave the country to visit them.

Recent news have suggested the construction of the replica of the famous Washington Capitol in the south of the country. The US Capitol has also served as the blueprint for various state buildings in China.

This is not for the first time the 4,500-year-old structure has been copied. The 30-floor pyramid-shaped Hotel Luxor in Las Vegas in the US is also adorned by a small-scale Sphinx at its entrance.

--IANS/EFE

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