14 DAY TRIAL // An abandoned movie theater hidden deep in Egypt's Sinai desert has recently been discovered by an Estonian photographer.
Kaupo Kikkas decided to embark on a long and difficult journey into the middle of the Egyptian desert and managed to capture some amazing photos of an unusual spot – an old outdoor cinema located deep in the heart of the desert, a few miles away from the popular tourist resort.
According to the photographer, who explains the story as he heard it, the movie theater was built by a wealthy Frenchman at the turn of the millennium. He reportedly bought theater seats and projector equipment from an old cinema in Cairo and transported them to Sinai.
Then, he brought in a generator and a tractor to pull up the screen, which was like a gigantic sail. The man wanted to create an outdoor cinema hidden in the desert.
However, things didn’t go according to his plan. No film was ever shown there because on the night of the premiere something went wrong, and the generator powering its grand debut wascut out.
Apparently, the local authorities weren’t very excited about the idea of having a theater in the middle of the desert, and it is suspected that they might have had something to do with the premiere’s incidents.
Although now it seems a totally insane idea, the Frenchman must have had a strong ambition and of course a lot of money to start such an unusual project. But his crazy desert movie dreams were frustrated and the auditorium has been left there ever since.
The abandoned and discolored 150 wooden seats are still in place and waiting for an audience that never came. The construction is now referred to as the “End of the World Cinema.”
“Egypt is and was kind of a police state. In Sinai it's actually forbidden to go to the desert if you don't take a tour or organized trip. These tours and trips take you to all the same places and actually one route is just two miles away from the cinema,” Kikkas said in a statement to Dazed Digital.
“I think most of the locals know about this place but because of the ‘confusion’ between this Frenchman, local government and Bedouins, it's a topic that's not really talked about,” he added.
If you have doubts about the existence of this outdoor cinema, which has mysteriously been kept a secret, you must know that a blogger has found further evidence to prove that it is real. He discovered the Google Maps location of the abandoned cinema which shows an aerial view of the construction.
Check out some of Kikkas' photos below.
