Bab-el-Mandeb area.

The Bridge of the Horns is a proposed construction project to build a bridge between the coasts of Djibouti and Yemen across the Bab-el-Mandeb, the strait between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. It will be constructed by Noor City Development Corporation. The notice-to-proceed was issued by Middle East Development LLC, which is headed by Tarek bin Laden.

Prospective structure[link]

The length of the bridge is estimated at 29 km (18 mi), with a total cost of around US$20 billion. It has been proposed by a Dubai-based firm headed by Tarek bin Laden. Opening date is expected to be in the year 2020.

To clear submarine and surface vessels, the proposed bridge will have the longest suspension span in the world measuring 5 km (3.1 mi). The overall length of the entire bridge spanning the Red Sea, starting in Yemen, connecting to the island of Perim, and continuing on to Djibouti on the African continent, is expected to be roughly 28.5 km (17.7 mi). It must allow very large ships of the Suezmax size in both directions simultaneously.

It is expected that about 100,000 cars and 50,000 rail passengers will cross the bridge daily.^[1]

One slight worry is a history of volcanic eruptions in the area: see Perim and Jabal al-Tair Island.

Expected use[link]

Twin cities, referred to as Al Noor City, would be built on either end of the bridge; the prospective site's developers indicate that they will run on renewable energy. On the Djibouti side, President Ismael Omar Guelleh granted 500 km² (190 sq mi) to build Noor City, the first of the hundreds of Cities of Light which the Saudi Binladen Group envisions building. The developers state that they expect Noor City to have 2.5 million residents by 2025, and the Yemeni twin city to have 4.5 million, while they envision a new airport serving both cities at a capacity of 100 million passengers annually. A new highway connecting the cities to Dubai is proposed, though there are no plans for roads to connect sparsely populated Djibouti with the population centers of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia or Khartoum in Sudan. One of the uses that are imagined for this bridge is for easy transcontinental access to the Hajj in Mecca.

The Economist magazine, noting that developers state that the project will make Noor City the "financial, educational, and medical hub of Africa", commented, "Africans may wonder why the hub is not being built in a bit of Africa where more Africans live and which has food and water."^[2]

Timeline[link]

2009

Original planned start^[3]

December 2009

Yemen-Djibouti bridge gets go-ahead ^[4]

June 2010

Phase I of Yemen and Djibouti Causeway delayed ^[5]

2020

Planned end of construction ^[6]

See also[link]

• List of bridge-tunnels‎
• Transport in Djibouti
• Saudi-Egypt Causeway - costing about $4b.
• Qatar–Bahrain Friendship Bridge
• Gibraltar Bridge
• Sunda Strait Bridge

References[link]

External links[link]

• COWI link in English
• Noor City Development Corporation, company website.
• Notice-to-Proceed Launches Ambitious Red Sea Crossing
• Tarek Bin Laden's Red Sea bridge
• Proposed Yemen-Djibouti Bridge Threatens AFRICOM Security
• Lecture on Yemen-Djibouti bridge
• Can it really be bridged?
• A Vision to Connect Africa and Asia , Spiegel Online 22 August 2008
• YouTube: Al Noor City Djibouti and Yemen - containing Bridge of the Horns
• St Tropez in the Horn?
• Bin Laden’s Bridge over Troubled Waters , 8 May 2009

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A demonstration of the Sign of the Horns

The sign of the horns is a hand gesture with a variety of meanings and uses in various cultures. It is formed by extending the index and little fingers while holding the middle and ring fingers down with the thumb.

Superstition[link]

When confronted with unfortunate events, or simply when these are mentioned, the sign of the horns may be given to ward off bad luck. It is a more vulgar equivalent of knocking on wood. One can also "touch iron" (tocca ferro) or touch one's nose. Males in some countries may grab their testicles, which is considered very vulgar, but is perhaps the most common. In Peru one says contra (against). In Dominican Republic the expression is zafa, said against curses known as fukú. All of these gestures are meant to conjure supernatural protection. However, the sign of horns is used in Cuba, Brazil, Spain and Italy to indicate a man whose wife is unfaithful.

Such gestures are used when a black cat crosses one's path, when seeing a hearse, or when encountering anything believed to bring about bad luck. It was once thought to distract the effects of the evil eye or curses. The gesture was also directed at people suspected of being witches.

In Italy, pointing the index and little finger at someone is a common curse as well as an accusation of having an unfaithful wife. With fingers down, it is a common apotropaic gesture instead, by which superstitious people seek protection in unlucky situations (something like touching wood). Thus for example the President of the Italian Republic Giovanni Leone shocked the country when, while in Naples during an outbreak of cholera, he shook the hands of patients with one hand while with the other behind his back he made the corna. This act was well documented by the journalists and photographers who were right behind him, a fact that had escaped President Leone's mind in that moment. The gesture was interpreted as especially offensive for the patients.^[1] It is much more common in southern Italy, and is typical in the popular culture of Naples, where President Leone was born.^[2]

During an European Union meeting in February 2002, former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was photographed performing this gesture behind the back of the Spanish foreign minister. When questioned about the incident, he replied "I was only joking."^[3]

European and North American popular culture[link]

Music history and acoustics[link]

Daniel Speer (1636–1707) calls this sign "zwey quehr Finger" and designates it as a measure of the distance between adjacent positions on a tenor trombone. Literally "athwart two fingers" this primitive measure may rank along with the cubit in its antiquity. Michael Praetorius (1571–1621) uses this term in his Syntagma Musicum III to describe the pitch difference between "Choir tone (Chorton)" and "Chamber tone (Kammerton)." To find the difference between Chorton and Kammerton, one must lower the slide on a tenor trombone made in Nürnberg the distance of "zwey quehr Finger" which is one-half step; zwei quer Finger is German for "two across fingers".

Contemporary use by musicians and fans[link]

The 1969 back album cover for Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls on Mercury Records by Chicago-based psychedelic-occult rock band Coven, led by singer Jinx Dawson, pictured Coven band members giving the "sign of the horns" correctly and included a Black Mass poster showing members at a ritual making the sign. Starting in early 1968, Coven concerts always began and ended with Jinx giving the sign on stage. Incidentally, the band also recorded a song called "Black Sabbath" on their 1969 album, and one of the band members is named Oz Osborne, not to be confused with Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath.

On the cover of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine album (1969), the cartoon of John Lennon's right hand is making the sign above Paul McCartney's head. For many fans, this was one of the many "Paul is dead" clues. Some may think it is possible that the cartoonist misrepresented the sign for "I love you", which is very similar and more in keeping with the band's public message and image. However, the 1969 cartoon is based on many photos of John Lennon making the hand sign in 1967. One of these photos of Lennon doing the hand sign appears on the cover of a Beatles single release shortly after, making it the first time the hand sign appears on a rock release.

Beginning in the early 1970s, the horns were known to some as the "P-Funk sign" to fans of Parliament-Funkadelic. It was used by George Clinton and Bootsy Collins as the password to the Mothership,^[4] a central element in Parliament's science-fiction mythology, and fans used it in return to show their enthusiasm for the band. Collins is depicted showing the P-Funk sign on the cover of his 1977 album Ahh... The Name Is Bootsy, Baby!

Frank Zappa can be seen making the gesture in the 1977 film Baby Snakes.

Music fans sometimes brandish this sign, often accompanied by headbanging, to signify that they enjoy the music they are listening to, mostly when the music is of the rock or metal genre (see below).

Heavy metal subculture[link]

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Ronnie James Dio making the sign at a Heaven and Hell concert.

It also has a variety of meanings in heavy metal subcultures, where it is known by a variety of terms, most commonly maloik, metal sign, horns, Leviathan Horns or metal horns, among others.

A March 31, 1985 article in Circus by Ben Liemer states that Gene Simmons of Kiss was influenced by Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P. in 1977 after watching Sister perform in Los Angeles. Blackie had come across a hand salute known as the corna in an occult book and had started using it during live performances. Though this is thought to be untrue as Gene can clearly be seen making the gesture in a well-known 1975 live concert filmed at the Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco.

Simmons appears to be making the sign with his left hand on the cover of the 1977 Kiss album Love Gun. Simmons has later claimed—noticeably in the special features segment "Satan's Top 40" in the movie Little Nicky—that he plays his bass with his plectrum in his middle two fingers so when he raises his hand, he automatically draws the horns.

It is often thought that Gene was inspired by Spider-man (Marvel Comics) to throw the "devil horns".

Steven Tyler, during the pre-ride film for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, displays a sign of the horns on his forehead, along with the line "Wait a minute, I love that idea!"

Ronnie James Dio was known for popularizing the sign of the horns in heavy metal.^[4][5] His Italian grandmother used it to ward off the evil eye (which is known in the Italian culture as malocchio). Dio began using the sign soon after joining (1979) the metal band Black Sabbath. The previous singer in the band, Ozzy Osbourne, was rather well known at using the "peace" sign at concerts, raising the index and middle finger in the form of a V. Dio, in an attempt to connect with the fans, wanted to similarly use a hand gesture. However, not wanting to copy Osbourne, he chose to use the sign his grandmother always made.^[6] The horns became famous in metal concerts very soon after Black Sabbath's first tour with Dio. The sign would later be appropriated by heavy metal fans under the name "maloik", a corruption of the original malocchio.

Terry "Geezer" Butler of Black Sabbath can be seen "raising the horns" in a photograph taken in 1971. This would indicate that the "horns" and their association with metal occurred much earlier than either Gene Simmons or Ronnie James Dio suggests. The photograph is included in the CD booklet of the Symptom of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath 1970–1978 compilation album.

From a 2001 interview with Ronnie James Dio on Metal-Rules.com:

Metal-Rules.com – "I want to ask you about something people have asked you about before but will no doubt continue to talk about, and that is the sign created by raising your index and little finger. Some call it the "evil eye." I would like to know if you were the first one to introduce this to the metal world and what this symbol represents to you?"

R.J. Dio – "I doubt very much if I would be the first one who ever did that. That's like saying I invented the wheel, I'm sure someone did that at some other point. I think you'd have to say that I made it fashionable. I used it so much and all the time and it had become my trademark until the Britney Spears audience decided to do it as well. So it kind of lost its meaning with that. But it was...I was in Sabbath at the time. It was symbol that I thought was reflective of what that band was supposed to be all about. It's NOT the devil's sign like we're here with the devil. It's an Italian thing I got from my Grandmother called the "Malocchio". It's to ward off the Evil Eye or to give the Evil Eye, depending on which way you do it. It's just a symbol but it had magical incantations and attitudes to it and I felt it worked very well with Sabbath. So I became very noted for it and then everybody else started to pick up on it and away it went. But I would never say I take credit for being the first to do it. I say because I did it so much that it became the symbol of rock and roll of some kind."^[7]

Whatever the derivation may be, the sign eventually came to signify, variously, that the one gesturing is rocking him or herself, is encouraging the recipient of the gesture to rock, and/or that he/she emphatically appreciates the rocking that has already commenced.

Beavis and Butt-head are frequently depicted using the sign when head banging to music videos.

Existing most often within the metal subculture is a variation in which both hands are used. All digits, with the exception of the little fingers, are closed and the hands are then brought together; thumb on thumb. This technique is often employed by Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Butch Walker and other musicians. A similar sign can be made by crossing the hands and extending both index fingers.

Another form used by the metal subculture (such as the Brazilian band Angra) is similar to the version depicted above, except that all digits except the index finger are closed and the hands are brought together with thumbs pointing in opposite directions. One form features the forearms crossed, the pinkies interlocked, and both thumbs and index fingers extended (sometimes referred to as the "Super Ozzy").^{[citation needed]}

There is a two-person gesture known as the "rock lock", where a second person makes a hand with the second and third finger extended (rather than the first and fourth), and grabs the first person's metal gesture from the front in an interlocking fashion. The meaning is essentially an affirmation or reply to the original gesture made by the first person, something like a heavy metal high five. Another variation can include the second party forming a traditional "devil horns" sign and rotating it 90 degrees, interlocking at the knuckles. This sign can have the meaning of asking the performer to play two more songs as an encore.

Angus Young holds both his hands to the sides of his head with index fingers extended to create "Metal Horns".

Politics[link]

A variation of the gesture, touching both the middle and ring fingers with the thumb while the index and pinky fingers are pointing upwards, to give the hand the look of a "wolf", was adopted as the symbol of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party and it is used throughout most of the nationalists in Turkey to show their political identities, such as in meetings.

Naval Helicopter Crewmen have also been known to use this symbol against fellow Camera photographers.

Sports[link]

In baseball, the hand gesture is used by players to signal to other players how many outs there are; using this gesture signals that there are two outs. The signal is used because the space between the two fingers makes it easier for players far away to see the two fingers. For the same reason, this hand gesture is also used by many American football officials to signal that the next play will be a second down play.

The sign has been used in professional wrestling. It was adopted in the early 1990s by Bret Hart in the WWF, with the two extended fingers standing for the initial of his surname. Later on, a variation was used by The Kliq, a backstage group composed of Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman and Triple H) adopted a variation of the horns to identify between them. Hall and Nash used the wolf-like variation after they moved to WCW and formed the nWo stable in 1996. Former WWE performer Edge also began using it prominently with his "Rated-R Superstar" moniker in late 2006.

The sign is also used by some college and high school sports teams, such as the Texas Longhorns and the University of South Florida, fans during athletic competitions. The fingers usually stand for a type of horn such as longhorn or a bull's horn. The Longhorns' use typically accompanies the exclamation, "Hook 'em, Horns!".^[8][9]

Electronic communication[link]

In electronic communication, the sign of the horns is represented with the \m/ or |m| emoticon and sometimes \,,/ and /,,/..

Regional Culture[link]

In Cleveland, Ohio, along with Chicago and the surrounding area in the 1950's and 1960's this gesture was used in teen culture to mean "bullshit".^{[citation needed]} Any time one wanted to reject a statement of someone as false or hypocritical, one only needed to flash this gesture. There was no need to make the criticism more overt by verbalizing it.

See also[link]

• ILY sign is sometimes confused with this gesture because many users tend to do the sign improperly by extending their thumb.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Horn gestures

• Rock and Roll Confidential on their logo
• Haverty, Neil (2002-05-30). "Ronnie James Dio Re-Claims the Devil Horns". Chart. http://www.chartattack.com/news/31464/ronnie-james-dio-re-claims-the-devil-horns. Retrieved 2009-09-27. 
• President George W. Bush, gestures the "Hook 'em, horns," the salute of the University of Texas Longhorns.(...)
• Odyssey of the Devil Horns: Who is responsible for bringing metal's famous hand signal to the tribe? Los Angeles CityBeat, Sept. 9, 2004
• "Metal Council Convenes To Discuss 'Metal Hand Sign' Abuse" (satire) from The Onion, 9 November 2005: "If your head is neither banging nor thrashing, you should not be throwing the sign."