CAIRO -- In a workshop in the Khan Khalil bazaar in the heart of medieval Cairo, Atef Hamid unwraps three beautifully crafted copper plates, each with designs taken from ancient and famous mosques, on which his grandfather has been laboring.
"This one took him four hours a day for a month," he said, "but now I doubt if it will fetch more than $50." So scarce are tourists since Sept. 11.
Tourism is the whole or partial livelihood of several million people. The country's largest source of hard currency, it brought in $4.7 billion last year; it will earn well under half that this year. A whole wing on the Nile River side of a Marriott luxury hotel has closed down; Red Sea coastal resorts are almost empty.