The Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria received ten heavy artefacts to display as part of preparations for the museum’s opening after the completion of its development project.
Hisham Samir — Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for Projects — explained that the transfer process took place in cooperation with the Armed Forces and according to pre-defined procedures that take into account all safety and security standards followed globally in the transfer of antiquities, detailing how these pieces were transferred from several places in Alexandria — namely the museum warehouses in Marina and Maria, the Kom Al-Shoqafa area, and the Maritime Museum.
Moamen Othman — the Head of the Museums Sector — explained that one of the most prominent pieces that were transferred from the Maritime Museum is the Isis Faria statue, which is one of the largest statues to be displayed in the museum, pointing out that it is made of pink granite and divided into three parts. One part is a crown of the sun disk surmounted by two Isis feathers. The second part consists of the head and chest, and is 265 cm long, 185 cm wide, and weighs seven and a half tonnes. The third part, which is the lower part of the statue, has a length of 380 cm, a width of 120 cm, and weighs about 10 tonnes.
He stressed that these parts would be assembled and restored using the latest scientific methods for the first time so that the statue appears integrated and is displayed as one piece in the museum’s garden.
Ali Dahi — the Head of the Central Department for Museums’ Affairs — pointed out that the statue of Isis Faria was discovered by archaeologist Kamel Abu Al-Saadat in the 1960s east of the Qaitbay Citadel and the eastern port.
In 1991, the statue was transferred to the Maritime Museum. The upper part of the statue and the crown was discovered by the submerged archaeological mission in the eastern port. It was then recovered, restored, and displayed in the theatre area of the Maritime Museum.
Walaa Mostafa — the Director-General of the Greco-Roman Museum — said that among the other pieces that were transferred is a marble statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius that is two metres high and weighs five tonnes, a marble statue of the hero Hercules that 2.15 metres high and weighs eight tonnes, a marble statue of the emperor Septimius Severus that is two metres high and weighs three tonnes, a limestone waterwheel, and a granite head of the Roman commander Mark Antony.
