Recovered Antiquities, Cairo: Lamps Stolen From Cairo's El-Refai Mosque Recovered

Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Police has recovered six Khedivate-era lamps that were stolen late December from the El-Refai Mosque in Cairo’s El-Khalifa district, with the culprits behind the theft arrested earlier this week, the Ministry of Antiquities said on Tuesday.

El-Saeed Helmy, head of Islamic and Coptic Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, told Ahram Online that a committee of archaeological experts has confirmed the recovered lamps’ authenticity.

Mona Ahmed, a restorer at the Museum of Islamic Art who specializes in glass artefacts, told Ahram Online that the lamps are in good condition, and that they bear the rank of Khedive Abbas Helmy II, who ruled Egypt and Sudan from 1892 to 1914.

The Tourism and Antiquities Police say that the people who stole the lamps were working with a film crew that was shooting inside the mosque.

The police arrested two suspects, one of whom is an antiques dealer, while a third is at large. Police say the suspects intended sell the lamps for EGP 900,000. Helmy says the six lamps were among 15 adorning the ceilings of the mausoleums of King Fouad and Princess Ferial at El-Refai Mosque.

The lamps, which date to 1910, are made of glass adorned with a Quranic verse written in Mameluke raised script. “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp,” says the verse from the Surat An-Nur.

Helmy says the lamps were recovered quickly due to the swift action by the antiquities ministry, which was quick to report the theft, and that the minister of antiquities has taken measures to prevent similar thefts in the future.

Source: Ahram Online

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News, Aswan: Swedish Ambassador Visits Lund University Archaeological Mission in Upper Egypt

Swedish ambassador in Egypt visits Gebel Silsila archaeological mission of Lund university.

Following the astonishing discovery of 12 New Kingdom tombs by Lund university mission directed by Dr. Maria Nilsson, H.E. Charlotta Sparre paid her second visit to the site during the 9th season of the mission's work on Saturday 21st. The first visit was in May 2015.

Moamen Saad, PHD researcher at Gebel Silsila and head of inspectors in Karnak temples complex, told Luxor Times "The work of the Swedish mission in cooperation with the ministry of antiquities is shedding the light on this important site which would result in attracting tourists."

Mr. Saad also said that H.E. expressed her content of the volume of Swedish-Egyptian cooperation in archaeology and historical studies. She also praised the work she witnessed between both sides and the support of the ministry under the patronage of Dr. Khalid El-Enany.

Mr. Nasr Salama (director of Aswan antiquities), Ahmed Said (director of Gebel Silsila), Khalid Shawky (head inspectors of Gebel Silsila) and Mohamed Ibrahim (Kom Ombo antiquities inspector) accompanied the ambassador during the visit.

Ahmed said told Luxor Times "The discoveries of the mission during the past seasons of work has contributed in reshaping the knowledge of scholars of the site of Gebel Silsila as it is not just a quarry site."

"The mission has been training the inspectors of the area which allow to exploit their abilities and give them experience to work on different sites in the grounding Aswan area." Mr. Shawky told Luxor Times.

Source: luxor Times Magazine

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Our Exhibition Abroad, Japan: Pyramids Treasure in Toyama

Nevine El-Aref enjoys a trip back to the age of the pyramid builders in the Japanese city of Toyama.

Residents and visitors to the Japanese city of Toyama fell under the spell of the Giza Pyramids last week on the opening of the sixth leg of the Golden Pharaohs and Pyramids touring exhibition in Japan.

Posters of the Great Pyramids at Giza, the pharaoh Khufu’s solar boat, the golden mask of Amenemopet, the limestone pyramidion of Ry and Maya, the black basalt statue of Khafre and jewelry embellished with precious stones have been decorating the walls of Toyama train station, shops, hotels and streets.

For the next two months, Toyama residents will be able to travel back in time to the ancient Egyptian civilisation and explore one of its most important and powerful eras – the Old Kingdom, the age of the Pyramid builders.

A gala ceremony was organised at the Toyama Civic Centre last Friday to celebrate the opening of the exhibition, with Japanese officials, Egyptologists and curators gathering to attend the inauguration. 

Among them were Kiyotsugu Yamashi, president of Tulip TV which organised the exhibition, and Osamu Yamamato, director-general of civic affairs and culture at the Toyama prefectural government.

The Egyptian delegation was headed by Gharib Sonbol, head of restoration at the ministry of antiquities in Cairo. The present exhibition is the first ancient Egyptian exhibition to tour Japan after a three-year hiatus following the Tutankhamun: Golden Age of the Pharaohs touring exhibition in 2012. 

That exhibition was cut short and returned to Egypt before the end of the planned tour after some Egyptian archaeologists filed a lawsuit against the ministry in the aftermath of the 25 January Revolution. The lawsuit sought to end the sending of touring exhibitions of ancient Egyptian artefacts abroad.

The present exhibition was inaugurated in October 2015 in the Japanese capital Tokyo and is scheduled to tour seven other cities in Japan over a 25-month period, including Matsuyama, Sendai, Kagoshima, Kyoto, Toyama, Fukuoka, and Shizuoka. 

“The exhibition does not only shed light on the Old Kingdom and the age of the Pyramid builders, but also highlights the strong bilateral relationship between Egypt and Japan in all domains,” minister of antiquities Khaled Al-Enany told the Weekly. 

He added that the exhibition was a very good opportunity to promote tourism and to encourage Japanese tourists to return to Egypt.

Al-Enany said that Egyptian-Japanese cooperation in the cultural field was being seen in many distinguished projects. Among the most important was the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza Plateau which will put on display 100,000 artefacts and welcome millions of visitors every year. 

“This is thanks to the Japanese government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for their continuous efforts and support in offering two soft loans to complete one of the most important cultural projects in the world,” El-Enany said.

In addition, Japan had provided technical and scientific support through the provision of scientific equipment and materials to the GEM’s conservation centre. There are also many joint Egyptian-Japanese missions at various archaeological sites in Egypt that have yielded important results. 

Waseda University, for example, has been excavating in Egypt since 1966, and was amongst the first foreign institutions to introduce advanced technological tools to better understand Egypt’s archaeology.

One of the University’s recent projects is the exploration of Khufu’s second solar boat in its pit on the Giza Plateau. “The exhibition is the first of its kind in Japan,” Sakuhi Yoshimura, president of the Higashi Nippon International University in Japan and the exhibition’s supervisor, told the Weekly, adding that exhibitions featuring the Pyramids were rare throughout the world... READ MORE.

Source: Al-Ahram Weekly

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Re-Opening, Cairo: Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art to Open Friday After Two-Year Closure

The museum, badly damaged in a car bomb explosion in 2014, was inaugurated Wednesday by President Sisi and other top officials. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

Qur'an - ink on parchment, Abbasid 9th century

Egypt's Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in downtown Cairo's Bab El-Khalq area is set to open its doors to visitors Friday after two years of closure for restoration and repair.

On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany inaugurated the museum, in a ceremony attended by other top officials. The museum will offer admission to visitors free of charge beginning Friday 20 January, and continuing through Saturday the 28th.

The MIA sustained severe damage in January 2014 when a car bomb exploded outside the adjacent Cairo Security Directorate building. The blast destroyed the façade of the building, several columns, display cases and artifacts, as well as the nearby Egyptian National Library and Archives building.

In 2015, nearly a year after the blast, Cairo received a grant of EGP 50 million from the United Arab Emirates to restore the museum, in collaboration with Egyptian and foreign experts from Italy, Germany and the United States.

wooden Islamic boxes and tables

The UNESCO donated $100,000 for the restoration of the museum’s laboratories, while the Italian government contributed €800,000 to purchase new display cases and provide training courses to the museum’s curators.

The American Research Centre in Cairo, in collaboration with the Swiss government, contributed EGP 1 million to restore the museum’s façade. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, as well as the Metropolitan Museums in New York, Germany and Austria assisted with trainings for the MIA's curators and restorers.

“The inauguration of the MIA embodies Egypt’s victory against terrorism, its capability and willingness to repair what terrorism has damaged, and to stand against terrorist attempts to destroy its heritage,” El-Enany said at the opening ceremony.

On Thursday, the museum will host a musical ceremony to celebrate the opening, and allow media in to photograph the new and restored exhibits. Elham Salah, head of the Museums Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, told Ahram Online that the façade, building and halls of the MIA have been restored with state-of-the-art security and lighting systems installed. Some aspects of the layout have changed, he added.

metal pots and pans

The souvenir hall, previously located in the centre of the museum has been moved to the end of the visitors’ path in the museum garden. A hall displaying Islamic coins and weapons has been added, along with a hall for Islamic manuscripts. One hall showcases the daily life of Egyptians throughout the Islamic age, including instruments and children’s toys.

MIA Director Ahmed El-Shoki said the artifacts which were "damaged in the explosion, and which have been restored, are integrated into the new displays, but distinguished by a golden label placed beside them.”

The blast damaged 179 pieces, 169 of which were completely restored while 10 pieces, all carved in glass, were found to be beyond repair. Among the most important artifacts lost were a rare decorated Ayyubid jar and an Omayyad plate carved in porcelain.

The MIA is home to an exceptional collection of rare woodwork and plaster artifacts, as well as Islamic era metal, ceramic, glass, textile and crystal pieces from all over the world. The museum is housed in a two-story building, with the first floor open to visitors displaying 4,400 artifacts in 25 galleries.

Source: Ahram Online

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News: Russian Delegation And King Farouk’s Grandson Visit Mohamed Ali Palace

The son of Belarus President Nikolay Lukashenko visited the Giza Plateau. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

Shamel and Badawi (centre) along with the Russian delegate

Prince Shamel, the grandson of the late King Farouk of Egypt, along with a top Russian diplomatic delegation, paid a visit on Tuesday to the Mohamed Ali Palace in Cairo’s El-Manial, while the son of Belarus President Nikolay Lukashenko visited the Giza Plateau.

Walaa El-Din Badawi, director of the Mohamed Ali Palace, told Ahram Online that Prince Shamel, the son of King Farouk’s daughter Princess Fadia, came to Egypt along with a Russian delegation including top officials and friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Monday, Latvia’s ambassador to Egypt and the spouse of its former president also visited the palace. Badawi told Ahram Online that the visitors were keen to take photos in different sections of the palace, and promised to pay another visit Egypt soon.

Ashraf Mohi, director of the Giza Plateau, said that Lukashenko visited the Giza Pyramids and took photos in front of the Sphinx. Lukashenko, who Mohi says is fond of ancient Egyptian civilization, paid another visit to the plateau on the second day of his visit to explore the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

Source: Ahram Online

News: Egyptian Tourist Authority Gets Ready For ITB Berlin Exhibition in March - Official

The tourism movement coming to Egypt declined by 40% from 2015 to 2016 due to the suspension of Russian trips to Egypt since early November.

The Egyptian Tourist Authority is getting ready to participate in the ITB Berlin exhibition in the first half of March 2017, in order to increase the incoming tourism movement from the western European countries throughout next summer, according to an official in the authority.

The authority asked the Egyptian Travel Agents Association to get ready to participate in the exhibition and to coordinate with the authority to increase the tourism flow coming to Egypt, especially from the German market.

For the third consecutive year, the Egyptian Tourist Authority kept the price of participation with no increase, according to the official, adding that the price of participation is €1,350, compared to €2,350 two years ago, in spite of the increase of the cost of reserving the section in the exhibition.

The incoming tourism flow to Egypt retreated the last year to 5.3 million tourists compared to 9.3 million in 2015—a decline of 40%—due to the suspension of Russian trips to Egypt since early November 2015.

The official said that the cost of participation serves the interest of Egypt’s tourism sector in the end, in order to enable the companies to be present in the exhibition. The official expects the number of tourists coming from Germany during this year to reach about 800,000, given the resumption of trips from Germany in the last quarter.

He added that the expenditure of German tourists ranges between $70-80 per night, and that they are among the most important tourists coming to Egypt throughout the last 10 years. The most important tourist areas for Germans are both Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh, besides trips to archeological areas in Luxor and Aswan.

Source: Daily News Egypt

News, Cairo: Royal Golden Ring Stored In Egyptian Museum Not Stolen As Claimed

The Ministry of Antiquities denies claims on social media about the disappearance of a royal golden ring stored in the Egyptian Museum. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.

The Golden Ring

Elham Salah, head of the Museums Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, has told Ahram Online that claims published on social media that an ancient royal golden ring has been stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square are "unfounded." The ring remains in the store galleries of the museum.

Salah explained that the ring was among items selected to be on display in a special temporary exhibition in 2002 inside the museum, along with other objects from the museum's collection and artifacts from the store galleries of Saqqara and the Giza Plateau. Regretfully, Elham continued, the ring was not put on show and returned to the store galleries.

A few days ago, a researcher reportedly arrived to the museum and asked to examine the ring. The museum's curator asked the researcher to give them time to remove the ring from its wooden box in the store gallery, while most curators at time were busy filing an inventory of all the museum's treasured collection.

Rumors apparently started on social media saying that the ring had disappeared having been stolen. An archaeological committee was then formed to open the box and photograph the ring in order to prove that the ring is safe in the museum's galleries and is not stolen as claimed.

Source: Ahram Online

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