Cairo International Book Fair to Hit Record Number of Visitors

Visitors at the Cairo International Book Fair. (Photo: the official page of the Cairo Book Fair on Facebook)
Visitors at the Cairo International Book Fair. (Photo: the official page of the Cairo Book Fair on Facebook)
TT

Cairo International Book Fair to Hit Record Number of Visitors

Visitors at the Cairo International Book Fair. (Photo: the official page of the Cairo Book Fair on Facebook)
Visitors at the Cairo International Book Fair. (Photo: the official page of the Cairo Book Fair on Facebook)

The 55th edition of the Cairo International Book Fair is expected to hit a record number of visitors this year. Held at the Egypt International Exhibition Center, from January 25 to February 6, the event lured over 1.2 million visitors by Sunday.

Themed "We Create Knowledge, We Preserve the Word", the fair has hosted 1,200 publishers from 70 countries, and welcomed over one million visitors within its first days, a record compared to the previous years, according to a statement by the Egyptian Culture Ministry.

“The number of visitors reached 404,931 on the third day,” said Nevine el-Kilani, minister of Culture, noting in a statement that “this large audience indicates that this edition is exceptional and remarkable in the fair’s history.”

Dr. Ahmed Bahi El-Din, head of the General Egyptian Book Authority, stated that “the attendees of the fair were 404,931 within the three first days, and increased to 1,009,983 so far,” noting that “the visitors have taken part in many of the cultural and artistic activities included in the fair’s program.” On the fourth day, the Cairo International Book Fair hosted 254,190 visitors, according to a statement by the ministry of culture.

The past edition of the fair (2023) welcomed 3,609,395 visitors within 14 days.



Law and Disorder as Thai Police Station Comes under Monkey Attack

The human inhabitants of Lopburi have long suffered from a growing and aggressive monkey population. Mladen ANTONOV / AFP/File
The human inhabitants of Lopburi have long suffered from a growing and aggressive monkey population. Mladen ANTONOV / AFP/File
TT

Law and Disorder as Thai Police Station Comes under Monkey Attack

The human inhabitants of Lopburi have long suffered from a growing and aggressive monkey population. Mladen ANTONOV / AFP/File
The human inhabitants of Lopburi have long suffered from a growing and aggressive monkey population. Mladen ANTONOV / AFP/File

Police in central Thailand said they barricaded themselves into their own station over the weekend, after a menacing mob of 200 escaped monkeys ran riot on the town.
The human inhabitants of Lopburi have long suffered from a growing and aggressive monkey population and authorities have built special enclosures to contain groups of the unruly residents.
But on Saturday around 200 of the primates broke out and rampaged through town, with one posse descending on a local police station.
"We've had to make sure doors and windows are closed to prevent them from entering the building for food," police captain Somchai Seedee told AFP on Monday.
He was concerned the marauders could destroy property including police documents, he added.
Traffic cops and officers on guard duty were being called in to fend off the visitors, the Lopburi police said on Facebook on Sunday.
Around a dozen of the intruders were still perched proudly on the roof of the police station on Monday, photos from local media showed.
Down in the streets, hapless police and local authorities were working to round up rogue individuals, luring them away from residential areas with food.
While Thailand is an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, it has long assimilated Hindu traditions and lore from its pre-Buddhist era.
As a result monkeys are afforded a special place in Thai hearts thanks to the heroic Hindu monkey Hanuman, who helped Rama rescue his beloved wife Sita from the clutches of an evil demon king.
Thousands of the fearless primates rule the streets around the Pra Prang Sam Yod temple in the center of Lopburi.
The town has been laying on an annual feast of fruit for its population of macaques since the late 1980s, part religious tradition and part tourist attraction.
But their growing numbers, vandalism and mob fights have made an uneasy coexistence with their human neighbors almost intolerable.
Lopburi authorities have tried quelling instances of human-macaque clashes with sterilization and relocation programs.