ABSTRACT
The emergence of the notion of world heritage in reaction to an archetypical modern development project on the African continent that I described in the Prologue is an event that can be understood as problematizing modernity itself. In 1960, the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was perceived as a symbol of modernization, and as such as an immediate threat to the ancient monuments of Nubia. Although the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser acknowledged that “the preservation of the legacy of mankind is no less important than the construction of dams, the erection of factories and the greater prosperity of the people”, the dominant ideology of modern development for which the Aswan High Dam stood remained fundamentally at odds with the preservation of ancient Nubian heritage.
