The Beauty of Simple
Basket Weaving Aswan & Dakhla
- Governorate: Nile Vally, Eastern Desert
- City: Dahkla, Aswan
- Dakhla Coordinates: 25.5192° N, 29.1262° E
- Aswan Coordinates: 24.0889° N, 32.8998° E
Basket weaving is one of the most ancient forms of craft, and part of the Egyptian heritage from the Ancient Egyptian tradtion. There are generally categorized into tree types, coiled, twined and plaited, and all techiniques descend directly from the Pharonic times.
A range of natural raw materials were used, and still are used today to produce the woven baskets, such as the leaf of the date palm, and the dom Palm, both used especially for the coiled baskets.
But also grasses, above all the tough halfa varieties, sedges, reeds, stalks such as flax, twigs were twisted into cordage. Sedges (payrus), Rushes, flax, and woody shrubs were also widly used due to their abundance.
These baskets were utilitarian, in that they mainly served the domestic purpose for storing and transporting, as they are unbreakable and very lightweighted. but it also allowed for artistic expression and took on different shapes and forms according to the different places it was made. They often include ornamental stichining, geometrical patterns, and used natural dyes for the stiches, plaits or theads.
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