In a spectacular parade, 22 mummies of kings and queens of Ancient Egypt traveled through Cairo aboard armored vehicles with Pharaonic decoration, accompanied by horse guards and priests as in ancient times, to their new home, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. (NMEC).
The convoy transported 18 kings and four queens, mostly from the New Kingdom, from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square -in downtown Cairo- to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization -in Fustat-.
Authorities closed roads along the Nile for the ceremony designed to spark interest in Egypt’s rich collections of antiquities as tourism has almost completely stalled due to restrictions related to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic .
When the royal mummies arrived at the museum, which was officially opened on Saturday, the cannons fired a 21-gun salute .
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi watched the mummies as they paraded in vehicles adorned with gold pharaonic motifs.
The heads of the cultural agency of the UN, UNESCO and the World Tourism Organization were also present at the ceremony.
Each mummy was placed in a special nitrogen- filled capsule to ensure protection , Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said.
He added that they were transported in vehicles designed to wedge them and provide them with stability.
Civilized display
“We chose the Museum of Civilization because we want, for the first time, to display the mummies in a civilized, polite way and not for fun like in the Egyptian Museum,” explained Hawass.
Archaeologists discovered the mummies in two lots at the Deir Al Bahari mortuary temple complex in Luxor and in the nearby Valley of the Kings beginning in 1871.
The oldest is that of Seqenenre Tao, the last king of the 17th dynasty, who reigned in the 16th century BC and is believed to have suffered a violent death.
The parade also included the mummies of Ramses II, Seti I, and Ahmose-Nefertari.
Fustat, the home of the new museum, was the site of the capital of Egypt under the Umayyad dynasty after the Arab conquest.
“By doing so, with great pomp and circumstance, the mummies are getting their due ,” said Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University of Cairo.
These are the kings of Egypt, these are the pharaohs. It is a way of showing respect ”.