After its successful tour in Paris and London, Osiris Egyptian Sunken
Secrets Exhibition was hosted by Rietberg Museum in the Swiss city of Zurich
between 10 February and 12 July.
In a big press conference that was covered by
a number of local and international media outlets, the Egypt Minister of
Antiquities, Khaled El-Anany, provided information about the importance of the
exhibited pieces that tells the mythical story of Osiris, the ancient Egyptian
god of rebirth, and were found in the old cities of Thonis-Heracleion, Canopus,
Abo Qeir, and Alexandria eastern port.
“The exhibition hosts 319 relics that
were found below the Egyptian coasts, starting from the 2000s and going back to
the Pharaonic, Roman, and Greek eras,” Elham Salah Al-Din, head of the museum
sector in the Ministry of Antiquities, said. The relics were chosen from the Egyptian
Museum in Cairo, the Graeco-Roman Museum, the Alexandria National Museum, and
the Bibliotheca Alexandria Museum. The process of hosting such rare pieces is
not an easy task.
“The exhibition has been held many times
before in many countries around the world. We never deal with individuals, we
always communicate with authentic governmental institutions which provide some
offers for receiving the relics. We always deal with reliable insurance and
packaging companies. The relics must be shipped on EgyptAir flights to
guarantee their security,” she added.
According to MySwitzerland.com, the exhibition features some outstanding
exhibits, such as the colossal statue of Hapy, the personification of the
inundation of the Nile, which is more than five meters tall; the life-sized
sculpture of the sacred Apis bull; the shrine with the oldest Egyptian
calendar; and the statue of Queen Arsinoe II, that testifies to unique
sculptural skills.
The exhibition is open for visitors from all nationalities for six months.
An official from the Ministry of Antiquities must accompany the relics in
exhibition for the whole scheduled period. “Foreigners are obsessed with
Egypt’s ancient era and when we announce holding any Egyptian exhibition in any
country, we usually receive a lot of attention and positive feedback. This can
be a great way for reviving the tourism sector in Egypt again and attracting
bigger numbers of tourists,” she added.
In her opinion, this exhibition would benefit Egypt on many different
political, educational, cultural, and economic levels. “The exhibition is not
only a good source of income, it also introduces Egypt’s name and civilisation
to people in many different countries and sends an important message about the
stability and security of Egypt’s current circumstances. It also builds strong
connections between Egypt and the major countries where people study Egypt’s
ancient history in their educational curriculum,” she explained... READ MORE.
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