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Several rejuvenation projects undertaken by the Ministry's Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) will be inaugurated by the end of this year, including the temples of Al-Sibou'a Wa Omda in Aswan. A road linking these temples with those of Abu Simbel will also be constructed. Al Sibou'a Wa Omda is composed of five huge temples and a tomb to be refurbished soon, the Minister said, adding all these temples date back to the 18th and 19th Dynasties while the tomb dates to the Late Period. |
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| In his regular Dig Days column in Al-Ahram Weekly Dr Zahi Hawass has written an interesting article - Protecting History, which proffers his views on site management.(http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/770/he3.htm) |
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| In May 2005 the government began implementing an ambitious LE863 million programme to restore the civilised face of the capital. This will be achieved through an effort to limit pollution, over-population and traffic jams, as well as giving a face-lift to some of the more run-down areas of the city and re-landscaping some of the gardens along the Corniche. The new programme is being executed in cooperation with the private sector in the framework of the new millennium development goals which include protection of the environment. |
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| Switzerland has recently ratified the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. This agreement will give the Egypt a legal right to demand the return of illicit antiquities that have been smuggled to Switzerland. Switzerland in the past has been famous for illicit antiquities auctions. The signing of the agreement is a severe step forward in the fight to stop antiquities smugglers. |
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| Mrs Suzanne Mubarak hosted a meeting for the British-Egyptian committee which was formed to consider the further expansion of Suzanne Mubarak's Children Museum within the framework of the society's activities. The Children’s Museum received more than 100,000 visiting children last year. The museum gives the child an overview of Egypt's ancient history as well as geographical milieu such as the deserts, rivers, seas and oases through state-of-the-art audio-visual media. |
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| In March 2005, the SCA has approved a plan to retrieve the 12 pieces of the Pharos gate from the sea bed of Al Silsilah Bay. Once rescued it will be used as the main gate at the entrance of the park facing the Bibliotheca. The project will be headed by teams from Marseille University and the French Alexandrian Studies Centre. Supervising the salvaging process is a group of archaeologists from Marseille University and the French Alexandrian Studies Centre. |
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| The Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni said restoration works are underway in 150 Islamic monuments inside Old Cairo, in addition to 22 others scheduled to finish in July 2005, including that at Bab el-Azab. |
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| Two artefacts, a pottery jar and a statue of Anubis, have been recovered from the US by an Egyptian legal team. These objects had originally been stolen from an SCA magazine. They were eventually found in New York at the Metropolitan Museum and an auction house. The chief of the Egyptology Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dr. Arnold, gave the Egyptian team the First Dynasty pottery vessel at a news conference in New York. The Anubis statue was rescued from an auction house just before it was sold. This piece dates back to the Third Intermediate Period. |
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| In December 2004, Egyptian lawyers brought back an ancient mural from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In press statements on this occasion, the Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni said that the mural, discovered in Helwan, Egypt by archaeologist Ibrahim Zarqana, was among 12 pieces that were auctioned off in Bonham’s, London in October. He continued, when the Metropolitan Museum discovered that the mural, which dates back to the Early Dynastic Period, was stolen from Egypt; it immediately contacted the Egyptian authorities. Zahi Hawass formed a panel of archaeologists to examine the mural in the US before bringing it back to Egypt. Ibrahim Abdel Meguid, director of the restored monuments department, said that the other 12 antiquities were also stolen from Egypt, adding that Egypt succeeded in stopping the sale of three of them in October 2004. A detailed report on the rest of the stolen pieces was sent to Scotland Yard in preparation for sending them back to
Egypt. The Egyptian Embassy in London received seven artefacts in February 2005 that date back to the Predynastic Period, from Bonham’s after intensive contacts with the British authorities and the auction hall officials. The Egyptian Ambassador in London, Gihad Madi, said these pieces were stolen from the museum of the Cairo University, Faculty of Arts in 2002, adding that documents and evidence proving Egypt's rights were offered to the British authorities and the auction hall. Thanks to this Anglo-Egyptian cooperation the artefacts are all now safely back in Cairo University’s Archaeological Museum. |
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