For over a decade, the Egyptian Museum has been a lightening hub reflecting the glorious ancient gems from ancient Egypt. Celebrating its 117th anniversary, the Ministry of Antiquities inaugurated on Friday two temporary exhibitions at the museum.
The celebration was attended by the Minister of Antiquities Khaled Anany and the Minister of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriate Affairs Nabila Makram, along with 40 foreign ambassadors and public figures.
The first exhibition tackles education in Egypt’s various eras, and the second exhibition features the unearthed discoveries of the mummies found in one of the 21st dynasty’s cemetery.
Anany explained that the Egyptian Museum is considered an ancient monument that was established even before museology itself, and it reflects one of the most glorious and ancient civilisations throughout history.
He further stated that the museum is planned with the help of the Louvre, the Egyptian Museum of Turin (Museo Egizio), Egyptian Museum of Berlin, the British Museum, and the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, in addition to the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, to be renovated.
The renovation plan aims to list the Egyptian Museum on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The operations are funded by a European Union grant of €3.1m. The new applied systems aim to put the museum back on the top attraction touristic spots after the artefacts collection of King Tutankhamun were transferred to the Grand Egyptian Museum, preparing for its opening in 2020.
The education exhibition comes within the context of dedicating 2019 to be the year of education. It displays the tools which we used as a part of the educational system over the eras.
Among the mummies showcased in the second exhibition are the ones which were discovered earlier this year in Al-Assasif necropolis. El-Assasif is located South of Dra Abul-Naga necropolis on Luxor’s west bank. It is known to be an enriching necropolis containing a number of individual cemeteries that date back between the 18th and 26th dynasties.
The 33rd dynasty mummies were buried one metre beneath the ground. The cachette found consisted of two lines, the first had 18 tombs, whilst the second had 12 tombs belonging to a number of women and three children. The tombs were buried by high ranking priests in a storage gated with lime to prevent robbery.
