Page "Mohamed Atta" Paragraph 11

In 1994, Atta's professor, Dittmar Machule, invited him to Aleppo for a three-day archaeological visit.

Atta ended up spending several weeks in Aleppo during August 1994, and visited again that December.

While in Syria, he met Amal, a young Palestinian woman, who worked there in the planning bureau.

Volker Hauth, who was traveling with Atta, described Amal as " attractive and self-confident.

She observed the Muslim niceties, taking taxis to and from the office so as not to come into close physical contact with men on the buses.

But, she was ' emancipated ' and ' challenging '.

" They appeared to be attracted to one another, but Atta regretfully explained to Hauth that, " she had a quite different orientation and that the emancipation of the young lady did not fit.

" This was the closest thing to romance for Atta.

During the summer of 1995, Atta spent three months with co-students Volker Hauth and Ralph Bodenstein in Cairo, on a grant from the Carl Duisberg Society.

They looked at the effects of redevelopment in the Islamic Cairo old quarter which the government wanted to develop for tourism.

Atta remained in Cairo to stay with his family, after Hauth and Bodenstein returned to Germany.