The Qatari princess, Angelina Jolie and the battle of the pyramids

Reports that Hollywood star Angeline Jolie is planning to make a movie about Sudan's history have sparked a row with Egypt, and BBC Africa's Mohanad Hashim says it is about much more than who has the biggest pyramids.

The latest twist in a long-running feud between Egyptians and Sudanese is over controversial claims that a film is to be made in Sudan to showcase the country's contribution to human civilization.
Various media have reported that a Qatari production company would fund the film, which would apparently feature Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Leonardo Di Caprio.
It is meant to promote historical tourism in Sudan by narrating the country's ancient Nubian history.

 The claims were so widespread that even the British ambassador to Sudan was caught up in the fray, tweeting on the story:

 Sudanese tweeters published memes showing Jolie depicted as a Nubian queen and shared reports of press conferences confirming the Hollywood star and UN ambassador would visit the country in May to scout the film's locations.

An Egyptian TV channel even interviewed Sudanese designer Samar Darwish who was reported to be the costume designer for Jolie.
However, none of this has been confirmed. A princess desert tour sparks controversy
The row kicked off in March, when the wife of the former Qatari Emir, Princess Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, visited Sudan as a United Nations ambassador.

Photos of Sheikha Moza's visit to the al-Bajrawyah pyramids, a site that houses several Meroitic pyramids that date from 320 BC - 50 AD, were widely publicised by Qatari-owned Pan-Arab networks. The pictures were widely circulated on social media too.
But across Egypt's TV networks, the visit was ridiculed and criticised.
Qatar's move to invest $135m (£100m) in projects to develop Sudan's archaeological sites is seen by many in Cairo as an attempt to undermine the struggling tourism sector in Egypt and part of ongoing efforts by the Gulf emirate to discredit Egypt and its leadership.

Pyramid size matters?

Reacting to the pictures of the princess by the Sudanese pyramids, Azmi Mujahid, a talk-show host on Egyptian Al-Assema TV mocked the Sudanese pyramids.
"All the world's stars have had their pictures taken by the [Giza] Pyramid but Sheikha Moza had a picture next to two [cheese triangles] in Sudan," he said.
The barrage of ridicule aimed at the size of the Sudanese pyramids made the Sudanese minister of information weigh in.
Ahmed Osman said: "Sudan's pyramids were older than Egypt's by 2,000 years", a claim disputed by archaeologists.
Other Sudanese were quick to point out that their country has a much larger collection of pyramids - 230 in total.

Egyptians vexed: Sudan the 'mother of the world'

Egyptians have always prided themselves in claiming that "Egypt is the mother of the world".
Any visitor to Egypt would recognize the claim made and perpetuated by the official and popular narrative that Egypt is a "7,000-year-old civilization".
This is why a hand-written note written by the Qatari princess that Sudan was the "mother of the world" fell foul of Egyptian commentators and social media users.

Ketchup ban

This war of words between the two neighbours shows increasing tension over conflicting positions on issues such as:
Recently, President Omar al-Bashir accused Egypt of "stabbing his country in the back when it occupied" Sudanese territory in the mid-1990s.