The photographer Kaupo Kikkas recently discovered this abandoned outdoor theater in a desert in Sinai. Some digging and google-translating around his website reveals that this cinema is actually not that old, and not that Egyptian- it was built by a bored, rich French man some time around the beginning of this millennium. Apparently this man was traveling through the desert, noticed the empty space and thought it would be a good place for a theatre. Which seems pretty whimsical. But he actually planned it out, had a screen designed, brought in chairs and equipment, and planned a huge opening party for the place. Even the governor of Sinai attended.
However, the theatre inspired "tension with the locals", and the opening was sabotaged, and the theatre abandoned.
Photos of it now are strangely difficult to come across, but the theater's existence can be validated by the existence of this one advertisement:
(also you can see it on google maps)
My opinion on Kaupo Kikka's documentation of "La Tete dans Les Etoies" is that they reflect an important trend in global society- The people at the very top of the monitary world are doing some frivolous and sort of wasteful things, with money that could be used on more important issues. But this theatre was an interesting idea. "Head in the stars", indeed.
This is really neat. There must be all sorts of neat places/things like this with stories that I haven't heard.
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