News: Egypt celebrates 118th anniversary of renowned Cairo museum.

Egypt celebrated late on Tuesday the 118th anniversary of the establishment of the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo.
Held at the museum in Tahrir Square, the celebration was attended by Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anany, government officials and a number of foreign envoys, including the Chinese ambassador to Cairo Liao Liqiang.
The celebration witnessed the opening of two exhibitions at the museum.
During the event, al-Anany delivered 100 ancient coins that belong to China, Saudi Arabia and India.
“This is the second time that the Egyptian government returned smuggled cultural relics to the Chinese government,” Liao told Xinhua.
He also congratulated al-Anany for the major discoveries that have been made in Egypt recently.

Al-Anany said in a speech that the main artifacts at the Egyptian Museum will remain, except the collection of King Tutankhamen and the renowned Royal Mummies, which will be permanently displayed at the under-construction Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
Over the past few years, the Ministry of Tourism Antiquities has been moving a lot of its unique artifacts to the GEM near the Pyramids Plateau in Giza.
“The Egyptian Museum will never die, even after the transfer of Tutankhamen collections and the Royal Mummies to other museums,” Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Xinhua.
Sabah Abdel-Razek, director-general of the Egyptian Museum, said that the museum is going through an all-out development process to restore its original historical character.

“We are currently working to restore its original shape and color … we are also developing the exhibition halls,” she told Xinhua. 

“We have a complete development plan for the museum that will be carried out soon in cooperation with major international museums.”

The two-storey museum was built during the reign of Khedive Abbas Helmi II in 1897 and opened for visitors in mid-November 1902.
The ground floor is specified for featuring heavy monuments such as large statues, coffins, wall inscriptions and others, while the upper floor showcases drawings, small statues, ancient tools, in addition to the complete set of ancient King Tutankhamen’s artifacts.

Source:africa.cgtn

News: A tour of the Royal Chariots Museum shows off the Muhammad Ali dynasty.

The Royal Chariots Museum in Bulaq Abul-Ela has opened its doors to allow visitors to spend a day and experience the majestic lifestyle of the Muhammad Ali dynasty.

Considered one of the oldest qualitative museums in the world, the museum is also one of the most important museums dedicated to chariots globally. It had been under restoration and development until recently, with the restoration having started in 2001 and suspended several times until properly resuming in 2017. Development included rehabilitation of the building and its structural support, the restoration of its façades, and finalizing all architectural finishes.

The museum’s various collections grant visitors a glimpse into royalty, with celebration halls resembling old Egyptian streets filled with royal carriages of various sizes and types, dating back to the reign of Muhammad Ali Pasha’s family.

The basalt on the floor of the hall remains the same since the museum was first established during the reign of Khedive Ismail (1863-1879).

The museum includes a collection of horse gear and supplies, and clothing for carriage workers. It also features a collection of oil paintings depicting kings and princesses from the era.

The Royal Chariots Museum’s main purpose is to shed light on unique artifacts through the museum’s five exhibition halls, and plays a role as a strong and important addition to Egypt’s archaeological sector.

The first hall is the gift hall, in which the vehicles gifted to the Muhammad Ali dynasty are displayed during various occasions, mostly notable of which being a caravan presented by French Empress Eugénie de Montijo to Khedive Ismail on the occasion of the opening of Suez Canal.

The second hall is an open-air exhibition hall in which the rarest types of vehicles are displayed such as the Alay chariot, horse-drawn carriages manufactured with certain specifications for kings and senior statesmen.

The third hall is the main hall of the museum. It displays the carriages used by members of the Muhammad Ali dynasty during various official occasions, in addition to oil paintings of the dynasty’s royal family members.

In the fourth hall, you will find the clothes of stablemen, and a set of special accessories used to decorate the horses in the fifth hall.

A special celebration was held for opening the Royal Chariots Museum, launched by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, in the presence of many ministers, public figures and 50 ambassadors from different countries. Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled al-Anany, said that the museum enjoys the possession of purely Egyptian antiquities.

Source: egyptindependent

New Discovery, Saqqara "3": Mummy count continues to grow at ancient Egypt burial site.

The number of mummy-filled coffins found in a series of burial shafts at Saqqara in Egypt keeps growing, archaeologists with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities reported.

At the start of September, the team had found 13 coffins with mummies inside. By the beginning of October, that number had risen to 59, and now the number is over 100, archaeologists reported in a statement issued Saturday (Nov. 14).

People are "asking how many coffins did we find. The answer is I don't know yet," said Mustafa Waziri, the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, in a video released by the ministry and the Smithsonian Channel, which is filming the excavations.

Inside the burial shafts, the team also found 40 statues depicting the deity "Ptah-Soker," the ministry said. This deity is an amalgamation of "Ptah," who was the god of Memphis, and "Soker," who was the god of Saqqara. Archaeologists also found 20 wooden boxes showing depictions of Horus — an Egyptian sky god with a falcon head. Additionally, two wooden statues are inscribed with the name "Phnomus," though the researchers are still trying to figure out who that person was in antiquity.

Numerous shabti figurines were also found. Ancient Egyptians believed that shabtis acted as servants for the deceased in the afterlife.

The various finds date back between roughly 712 B.C. and 30 B.C., according to the ministry statement. During this time period, ancient Egypt was occupied and controlled by foreign groups such as the Assyrians, Persians and Greeks. 

At times, Egypt would regain its independence only to lose it to another foreign power. Excavations continue at the site, and the archaeologists expect to find more coffins filled with mummies and other artifacts, said Khaled El-Enany, Egypt's antiquities minister.

The Smithsonian Channel is filming a documentary called "Tomb Hunters" and released a statement claiming that some of the artifacts date back 4,500 years — to around the time when the Giza Pyramids were being built. The antiquities ministry statement has not confirmed this claim.

Source:livescience

News: Egypt's tourism & antiquities min. embarks on an inspection tour to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

Egypt's Minister of Tourism & Antiquities Khaled el-Enany visited the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, in Old Cairo.

The museum is located on an area of ​​135 thousand square meters.

Enany visited the museum in order to follow up on the progress of work there in preparation for receiving the Royal Mummies Parade from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.

Enany also reviewed the work that is currently in full swing to equip the central exhibition gallery and the mummies gallery in preparation for their opening.

He checked the museum’s multimedia display, which is an integral part of the museum’s display scenario.

It relies on the dazzling display of content that paves the way for visitors to enter the museum’s most important gallery: The gallery of the Royal Mummies.

Furthermore, Enany was accompanied by Director of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization Ahmed Ghoneim, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri, Head of the Museums Sector Moamen Othman, Adviser to the Minister for Museums Display Scenario Ali Omar and members of the committee. 

During the visit, Enany instructed the staff to make some adjustments in the way some artifacts are displayed and rearranged them according to the museum's display scenario, in addition to adding some pieces to enrich the museum’s display. 

At the end of the visit, Enany held two meetings with the members of the museum’s display scenario committee, during which he discussed the display scenario of the artifacts in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, the Administrative Capital Museum in the City of Culture and Arts in the New Administrative Capital, and the Grand Egyptian Museum.

The project of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization will play a big role in introducing visitors to the various aspects of Egyptian civilization throughout history, with its manifestations of the richness and diversity of the Egyptian civilization from prehistoric times to the modern era, through its unique collections.

Source:egypttoday

New Discovery, Sakkara "2":Egypt unveils 2,500-year-old ancient coffins, statues found in Saqqara.

Egyptian antiquities officials on Saturday announced the discovery of at least 100 ancient coffins, some with mummies inside, and around 40 gilded statues in a vast Pharaonic necropolis south of Cairo.
Colourful, sealed sarcophagi and statues that were buried more than 2,500 years ago were displayed in a makeshift exhibit at the feet of the famed Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara.
Archaeologists opened a coffin with a well-preserved mummy wrapped in cloth inside. They also carried out X‐raying visualising the structures of the ancient mummy, showing how the body had been preserved.
Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany told a news conference that the discovered items date back to the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt for some 300 years – from around 320 B.C. to about 30 B.C, and the Late Period (664-332 B.C.).

He said they would move the artefacts to at least three Cairo museums including the Grand Egyptian Museum that Egypt is building near the famed Giza Pyramids. He said they would announce another discovery at the Saqqara necropolis later this year.
The Saqqara site is part of the necropolis at Egypt’s ancient capital of Memphis that includes the famed Giza Pyramids, as well as smaller pyramids at Abu Sir, Dahshur and Abu Ruwaysh. The ruins of Memphis were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1970s.
Egypt frequently touts its archaeological discoveries in hopes of spurring a vital tourism industry that has been reeling from the political turmoil following the 2011 popular uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The sector was also dealt a further blow this year by the coronavirus pandemic.

Source:stuff

New Discovery, Sakkara "1": Egypt announces the biggest archaeological discovery in 2020 at Saqqara Necropolis.

A collection of 100 intact 26th Dynasty coffins were unearthed in Egypt's Saqqara Necropolis, in addition to golden funerary masks and a collection of 40 wooden statues of Saqqara goddess Ptah Soker, some of which are gilded.

Excavations conducted by the Egyptian archaeological mission working in the Saqqara Necropolis resulted in the discovery of three 12- metre deep shafts, closed for more than 2,500 years, containing 100 intact, sealed and painted anthropoid coffins.

During the announcement, a CT- scan was conducted on a mummy in one of the coffins. It was revealed that the deceased died in his 40s, was 175 cm tall, healthy, and did not suffer any fatal diseases.

Bassem Gehad, who conducted the scan, said the deceased was perfectly mummified with his arms crossed on his chest, in a position known in ancient Egypt as the Osiris shape.

“It is a great discovery in 2020, but it is not the last one,” said khaled El-Enany, the minister of tourism and antiquities.

"We have discovered only one per cent of the antiquities buried in the Saqqara Necropolis," he added, pointing out that many other discoveries will follow.

El-Enany stated a discovery made by renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass will be announced soon in Saqqara. 

He explained the coffins will distributed among the Cairo Museum in Tahrir, the Grand Egyptian Museum, and the National Museum of Egyptian civilization.

The Egyptian archaeological mission made throughout the past years a number of important discoveries in Saqqara, the last of which was in October when the mission unearthed 59 painted coffins with mummies in a good condition of top officials and priests from the 26th Dynasty. 

A short film released by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to coincide with the discovery described the Saqqara Necropolis as a “sacred place where the rich and powerful wanted to be buried."

The video showed many statues of animals, figurines, as well as intact and sealed coffins.

“That is what we were expecting; the coffins were well-sealed, no chemical reaction, no air inside, nothing, that is why it is all in perfect condition of preservation,” the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziry, explained in the film.

Source:ahramonline

New Discovery Saqqara "2': Ancient Egyptian coffins unearthed 400 years ago ‘virtually’ opened to reveal ‘bodies buried with organs’ and gold coins.

Scientists were able to peer inside the ancient coffins without opening them thanks to a few CT scans.
Two of the coffins were found 400 years ago in a rock cut tomb at the Saqqara necropolis in Egypt.
Only three of these coffins are known to still exist and the third one was also found at Saqqara at a later date.
They're known as 'stucco-shrouded portrait mummies' because the outside of the coffin supposedly depicts what the people inside looked like when they were alive.
One contains a male and the other two contain females, one of which is a teenager girl.
These mummies were unusual because they were placed on wooden boards, wrapped in decorative shrouds and then covered in plaster on which a whole-body portrait and gold was added.
CT scans showed that the teenage girl mummy was definitely buried with all of her organs inside.
That includes the brain, which was often removed during standard mummification.
Researchers think all of the mummies may have been left with their organs inside, which then decayed.
Both women were buried wearing multiple necklaces and all of the coffins contained artefacts that Egyptians may have thought were useful in the afterlife.
These include coins that might have been intended for paying Charon, a god believed to carry souls across the river.
All the mummies date to the late Roman period in Egypt, which was around 30 BCE to CE 395.
It's thought they were all fairly wealthy when they were alive.
The two famous mummies found together in Saqqara were X-rayed before in the 1980s but the CT scans revealed much more.
For example, we now know the woman died in her 30s and was around 4'11".
She is also thought to have suffered with arthritis.
The teenage girl died between the ages of 17 and 19 and had a benign tumour in her spine.
The male was around 5'4" inches, died around the age of 25 and had some quite bad dental issues.
The teenage mummy is on display at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Cairo, Egypt.
The other two can be found at an exhibition in Dresden in Germany.
This research has been published in the journal PLOS One. 

Source:thesun