Egypt’s gold country

The entire culture of the Ancient Egyptians revolved around the sun, with the sun god, Amun-Ra, being the most powerful of their gods. Because the polished surface of gold is similar to the brilliance of the sun, gold for them represented a real-life manifestation of their beliefs, and was called ‘the flesh of the gods’. It was considered a divine metal and it represented immortality in the afterlife and it still holds magic today, as Lorraine Chittock discovers in Cairo’s gold market.

Though the techniques of goldmining and goldsmithing have changed since ancient Egyptian times, many of the styles of jewellery that are seen shimmering in the gold workshops of Cairo today are inspired by actual artefacts or are from scenes painted on tomb walls. All the pieces made and sold in the markets of Cairo are, at their roots, treasured survivors from Ancient Egypt. Cairo’s current gold market is in fact a complex web of skilled artisans and sharp business minds dating back to ancient times.

Though some designers today use computers to introduce elaborate designs and forms to the field, many believe that these techniques do not contradict a commitment to faithfully adhere to Egypt’s heritage.

Ahmed Wahid Mustafa, a professor of computer-aided jewellery manufacturing at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Cairo, says: ‘In the Middle Kingdom, hollow gold beads, carnelian beads and girdles of beads resembling shells can be seen from the treasures of Dahshur. The later periods have also left a rich collection of artifacts, and demonstrate an accomplished hand and a high degree of technical skill. We can still use these designs today.’Abdel-’ Aal Mohamed Abdel-’Aal, also a professor of jewellery at FAA, agrees that creating a beautiful design should derive inspiration from Egypt’s goldsmithing heritage but adds, ‘Designers should not replicate Ancient Egyptian necklaces but add their own styles.’ In ancient Egypt gold extracted from mines was called nub-en-set or ‘gold of the mountain’, and was found mainly in the Eastern Desert and Nubia. In fact, the oldest map of any type of mine in Egypt is that of a gold mine. Agatharchides of Cnidus, a Greek historian and geographer who lived and travelled extensively in the period 181- 146 B.C., wrote this description of the mines: ‘The galleries which they dig ... are not straight, but run in the direction of the metal-containing vein, and as the workers are in the dark in these winding tunnels, they carry torches which are affixed to their foreheads ... children enter these underground galleries ... and lift with great pains the loosened chunks of ore and carry them outside.’ Alluvial gold was named nub-en-mu, or ‘gold of the river’. It was extracted by taking auriferous sand, often from riverbeds, and placing it in a bag made of a fleece with the woolly side inwards. Water was then added and the bag vigorously shaken by two men. When the water was poured off, the earthy particles were carried away, leaving the heavier particles of gold attached to the fleece inside the bag.

Though vast quantities of gold were amassed by the pharaohs, the annual production of gold during pharaonic times in Egypt is thought not to have exceeded one ton. But all of it was pure to a degree of between 17 and 23 carats. Much of the actual gold used to create some of the finest examples of the goldsmiths’craft, such as statues, furniture, and the funeral masks of the pharaohs Tutankhamen and Psusennes, was not mined in Egypt but was received as gifts, captured in warfare or imported.

Controlling the gold resources from Nubia, in particular, was a priority throughout much of the pharaonic period.

The two methods the ancient Egyptians used to bond gold together were welding and soldering. As early as the Middle Kingdom the ancient Egyptian goldsmiths welded together small pieces of jewellery.

The part to be joined needed to have a melting point just below that of the main piece. Once that temperature was reached and the gold was malleable, it could then be attached. Then the entire piece was heated over a ceramic furnace, with a clay nozzle attached to a blowpipe being used to increase the heat when necessary.

Thousands of years later, in the days of Mohamed Ali, the inheritors of the intricate art of jewellery making had begun to disappear.

Noticing this shortage, Mohamed Ali established a school for teaching arts and crafts and also sent a group of 58 trainees to France in 1829 on a scholarship.

Two of the expedition’s members returned to Egypt to teach a new generation what they had learned.

Today, Ismail Makhoun, a gold jewellery wholesaler, is one of about 300,000 people who make up Egypt’s gold market. He is part of an intricate network of buyers and sellers, businessmen and artisans that form one of the world’s most active precious metal markets. The merchants of al-Sagha, or Goldsmith’s Street in Cairo’s Khan al- Khalili, are all members of a unique subculture marked by its own history, habits and language.

‘Wahid kilo,’ (one kilo) Makhyoun says to himself, noting the amount of gold sitting on his desk. He speaks in a secret code used by al-Sagha gold merchants known as loghat al souk. ‘Yaafit,’ (beautiful) he adds, putting the gold into his office safe.

Derived from Hebrew, loghat al souk originated with the Jewish merchants who once dominated Cairo’s jewellery market and it remains the preferred mode of communication for jewellers who do not want outsiders to understand their conversations.

‘We might discuss which customers seem serious about buying or discuss inventory matters in loghat al souk,’Makhyoun says.

The daily exchange of gold between buyers and sellers on al-Sagha is nonstop from ten in the morning until nine at night.

Tangles of glistening chains, bracelets, and earrings are casually plopped on scales for weighing and then stored in plastic bags.

One person’s favorite bracelet may be melted down into someone else’s wedding ring.

At the core of this continuous circuit of gold recycling are the five or so gold brokers on al-Sagha. The tiny brokerage offices have plain facades and inside, each one holds only a desk, a scale, a safe and several kilos of gold. Each broker makes his profit by adding ten piasters to the price of gold per gram published in the day’s newspaper and buys and sells the metal in various forms, whether it be jewellery, coins, nuggets or bars. Like everyone in the Egyptian gold market, no broker will say exactly how much he trades a day, but the range spans from five to ten kilograms.

From the brokers’ scales, the gold makes its way to the fiery furnaces of the souk’s several thousand jewellery studios. It’s hard to say how many Khan al-Khalili workshops there are since hundreds are tucked away in Old Cairo’s winding, dusty alleys.

In a tired building just minutes from al- Sagha, Makhyoun’s nine-person factory makes mass-produced, moulded pieces, all created by his partner, Adel Saber Ahmad.

While the smaller workshops opt to carve pieces by hand, the initial stages of production in each setting are the same.

Goldsmiths melt the gold down, usually a kilo at a time, and add various other metals such as copper and silver to make it the desired color and carat. They add copper for red and pink golds, silver and copper for yellow gold, copper, zinc and nickel for white gold and silver only for green gold.

Mr. Lotfi is the chief goldsmith in Makhyoun’s factory. This middle-aged artisan began his apprenticeship at the age of ten. Flecks of yellow shine from the creases of his callused hands as he carefully attaches a clasp to a bracelet. Gold lies scattered around the studio, with chunks and slivers on the worktables and gold dust mixed with dirt on the floor. Each day, Lotfi sweeps the floors and then separates the gold from the refuse using a water solution.

He also washes his hands in a special bucket from which the precious particles are extracted and melted down again for another day of jewellery making.

Once cut and assembled, Lotfi polishes individual pieces using a combination of sand and high-powered buffing machines.

When all is done, he packs them in small aluminum boxes and sends them to the Office of Stamp, Duty and Balance where they are tested and approved with the government authenticity stamp. The government’s testing process is rigorous and its control tight. If, after three tests, a sample still does not meet the requisite gold standard for its claimed carat, the jewellery is crushed into small pieces and returned to the jeweller.

Finally, the gold ends up temptingly draped in shop windows along al-Sagha and other souks in Egypt. The cycle is complete, each of the players having done their part in creating a cycle as valuable, continuous and enduring as the glittering gold bracelets and necklaces themselves: all timeless survivors of ancient Egypt.

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