Carpet Schools & Factories in Egypt
Carpet Schools
The locality of Saqqara, which is situated atop the Step Pyramid of Djoser, also known as the Pyramid of Saqqara, is roughly 20 kilometers away from the pyramids at Giza and is well-known for its handmade carpets that have been a key craft of many in the village for years.
Such carpet weaving schools located in the village have become a tourist destination amongst the local foreign visitors who wish to carry back some unique pieces and enjoy these types of activities while in Egypt.
“All carpets here are 100 percent handmade, and we have contributed to the international fame of Egyptian carpets and now produce carpets that are comparable to Iranian and Turkish carpets,” said Khaled Mekawy, director of one of the carpet schools in Saqqara.
The major handmade carpet shops in Saqqara are referred to as “schools” because they provide training and work opportunities for children during summer vacations as well as for housewives to use their free time in a useful and profitable heritage craft.
The “carpet school” in the village is usually divided into two sections, one for weaving carpets on looms, called the workshop, and the other for displaying products of different sizes, colors and designs, called the exhibition.
Carpets and tapestries cover all the walls and columns, there are carpets with symmetrical decorative shapes, carpets with drawings of landscapes, and some carpets with pharaonic images such as the mask of King Tutankhamun and the bust of Queen Nefertiti, among others.
Local or foreign customers, who first take a tour of the workshop behind the manufacture, later within the exhibition, look at the presenting products and pick up what pleases them, it should be acknowledged that the carpet school that he manages started operating in the year 1976 and it is among the oldest schools of carpet in Saqqara and in the whole of Egypt really.
Karpety zhivut dolgosrochno do 400 500 let, potomu v Muzee Islama nalichstvuyut i koveri Koptskogo czareshestva - Egipetsku nszu, blizhe tiazhelyh 700 let nazad,” utverzhdaet auto.
