Uncovering of the second solar boat set for June 22

A delegation from Waseda University has completed its exploratory research along with the Japanese Institute for Restoration Research, and is prepared to lift a stone cover, consisting of 40 panels, on the southern side of Khufu pyramid (also known as Cheops, or the Great Pyramid).

The Japanese embassy has scheduled this event for June 22, 2011 at 10am at the Pyramids in Giza, inside the big tent for the second solar boat.

According to the Japanese embassy in Egypt, its Chargé d’Affaires Masami Kinefuchi, as well as the Minister of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass, and the Chief Executive Representative of the Nitori Holding Company, Akio Nitori, will attend the event.

The Waseda University delegation and the Japanese Institute for Restoration Research have carried out research on the second solar boat since 2008. The second solar boat was discovered in 1987 by a Waseda University delegation in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. The second solar boat lies to the west of the solar boat museum, which is situated on the southern side of the Great Pyramid in Giza.

Source: http://english.youm7.com

Memphis Tours Egypt since 1955.

Posted By: Mohamed Mokhtar

Egypt antiquities minister, Hawass on US lecture tour

Minister of State for Antiquities Zaki Hawass promotes tourism while on lecture tour throughout the US, stating it safe to come to Egypt

Minister of State for Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, is currently in the United States on a lecture tour. During a press conference at the Science Museum in Indianapolis, Hawass invited Americans to visit Egypt, reassuring the public that Egypt is now a safe place for tourism.

Hawass proudly announced that the young Egyptians who instigated the revolution on 25 January are the same ones who protected the Egyptian Museum during the lawlessness on 28 January, when protesters were attacked by policemen and hired thugs. It was a demonstration representative of the passion and care Egyptians hold for their heritage.

Efforts are currently being made to ensure tourists are safe and well looked after at popular sites. The army and police, on behalf of the Egyptian government, are working hard to protect Egypt and all who visit it.

The message is clear, said Hawass: Egypt is now able to welcome tourists. “The country depends on the income from tourism to support essential restoration and preservation projects at museums and sites. New museums will soon open and a number of exciting recent discoveries are to be announced,” said Hawass.

Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Hawass live on air for over an hour. He discussed Egypt, the ancient Egyptian civilisation, tourism, new discoveries and new projects. Most phone calls received during the interview inquired about current safety measures, to which Hawass could answer that considerable improvements have been made to national security and the tourist industry.

Hawass has been interviewed by key news agencies such as Fox 19, 700WLW-AM – the number 1 talk show radio station in Cincinnati, Twin Cities Pioneer Press, Star Tribune Newspaper. He is currently in Los Angeles presenting three lectures and several press conferences.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg

Memphis Tours Egypt since 1955.

Posted By: Mohamed Mokhtar

Hawass visits U.S. to encourage tourism in Egypt

Thursday  Jun 9, 2011 – 16:22

CAIRO: Egyptian Minister of State for Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, will fly to the U.S. to give conferences and lectures in five U.S. States. His visit aims to encourage tourism to Egypt.
The lectures will be given according to a deal made between Hawass and the Minister of Tourism, Munir Fakhry, with regards to increasing national and archeological income. This deal was made given that an increase in tourists will lead to more archaeological projects.
Hawass will discuss in the U.S. the role of the youth during the January 25 Revolution when they gathered around the Egyptian Museum to protect it.
He will also focus on the safety that tourists received as they left Egypt during the revolution. Egypt’s ancient history will attract more tourists after Egypt achieves democracy, said Hawass.
Hawass met with Germen and Belgian reporters, and discussed archeological projects especially those concerning Egyptian excavation missions in Wadi al-Molouk.

A scientific forum for archeologists of the Ministry of Antiquities will be held on June 12.
The forum will last for five days and will discuss around 60 scientific research projects related to Egyptology, Islamic and Coptic archeology and archaeological excavation.
Hawass said the forum will witness the announcement of the results of 29 excavation research projects.
A special committee will be formed to display the monumental pieces that were reclaimed after being stolen from the Egyptian Museum on January 28, said the rapporteur of the forum, Hesham el-Laithi.

Source: http://english.youm7.com

Memphis Tours Egypt since 1955.

Posted by: Mohamed Mokhtar

The BBC Satellite Project

The BBC Satellite Project

I was very pleased to be involved with this project, which will be aired in a television program called Egypt’s Lost Cities. Unfortunately, however, an inaccurate article about it was prematurely released, even before the BBC’s press release was checked by my Ministry.

 

The pyramid of Queen Sesheshet, near that of Teti at Saqqara. (Photo: Sandro Vannini, April 2009.)

According to Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) regulations, it is prohibited for anyone to announce a discovery before notifying and obtaining the approval of the Ministry first. This procedure is in place to ensure that any discoveries people want to announce are real and have been officially verified. If every mission authorized to carry out work in Egypt was allowed to announce things without them being checked first, there could potentially be lots of false claims made all the time.

 

Sadly, this was the case with the BBC. I am disappointed that not only was the report published without the approval of the MSA, but also that its announcement was not accurate, showing how important it is to follow the proper protocol. The draft press release reported that 17 new pyramids and thousands of ancient Egyptian settlements have been discovered by the University of Alabama using infrared satellite images and that the last major pyramid find was made over 20 years ago.

Although satellite imaging is useful for discovering new sites and monuments, interpretation of the images is not straightforward. No one can say with certainty that the features displayed under the sand are actually pyramids. Such anomalies could be houses, tombs, temples, pyramids, buried cities or even geological features. The only way we can definitely identify what is there is by excavating it – by investigating it physically. This was not made clear in the article.

A few months ago, satellite images of the necropolis of Saqqara South revealed the existence of three substantial anomalies. Archaeological inspection revealed that they are the remains of three pyramids previously excavated by the French Egyptologist, Gustave Jéquier (1868-1946). Among these three pyramids is one belonging to a 13th Dynasty king, Khendjer (c. 1764-1759 BC).

In addition, over the last 20 years two new pyramids have been discovered by archaeological teams led by me in Giza and Saqqara. The first was found beside Khufu’s pyramid in Giza (c. 2551-2528 BC) and the second is next to Teti’s pyramid in Saqqara (c. 2323-2291 BC). The base of a new pyramid at Saqqara has also been found, of an unknown owner, which we are still excavating.

Both the head of the mission, Dr Sarah Parcak, and the producer of the BBC Satellite Project, Mr Harvey Lilley, have expressed their regret about the situation.

The MSA is the government department responsible for protecting the countries’ antiquities. I hope that all news agencies will remember to check the facts regarding new discoveries in Egypt with the Ministry, to ensure that they do not mislead the public.

Source:http://www.drhawass.com

Memphis Tours Egypt since 1955.

Posted By: Mohamed Mokhtar

Activists decry Zahi Hawass’ use of artifacts to promote menswear line

Egyptian activists and media professionals launched a signature-gathering campaign to sue former Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass for “endangering Egyptian artifacts.”

Haitham Yahia, an activist and blogger, posted a form on his Facebook and Twitter accounts for people wishing to join the campaign to sign. Yahia then plans to file a report with the attorney general against Hawass, who is currently jailed for an unrelated crime.

Yahia said Hawass allowed the illegal use of Egyptian artifacts for the promotion of a menswear fashion line that carries his name and is produced by a company named Art Zulu.

Photographer James Weber, who carried out the photoshoot, posted the pictures and an interview about them on his blog on 23 November last year. He said the crew was allowed into the King Tut exhibit in New York City on 7 October.

In an interview posted on his blog, Weber says that Hawass did not attend the photoshoot and that security from the museum was present to protect the artifacts. He said most items in the pictures were replicas, and original artifacts were used as backdrops and never touched.

The photographer also said that he understands why people would question the use of antiquities for Hawass’ personal gain, and felt glad that people can now discuss such issues openly.

“The artifacts were never in any danger of damage from heat or being touched,” Weber said, pointing out that the exhibition was temperature controlled.

Dozens of people signed Yahia’s petition in the first few hours of its posting on the internet.

The official website for Art Zulu published photos for the new line. They show a model posing with pharaonic relics in the background, which is a violation of Egyptian law. The photos show, among other things, pharaonic murals and a model seated on King Tutankhamun’s chair.

Egyptian law bans touching relics, taking photos of them or using them for commercial promotions.

Hawass was this week sentenced to one year’s hard labor and a LE1000 fine for failing to fulfill a court ruling over a land dispute.

from http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en

Memphis Tours Egypt since 1955

Update on the current state of antiquities

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, announced today that a committee of archaeologists completed a preliminary search of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo and its grounds. The missing Heart Scarab of Yuya was recovered on the west side of the museum gardens, near the new bookshop. Wooden fragments belonging to the damaged New Kingdom coffin, still on the second floor of the museum, were also found in this area. The search team also found one of the eleven missing shabtis of Yuya and Thuya underneath a showcase. Fragments belonging to the statue of Tutankhamun being carried by the goddess Menkaret have been found; all the located fragments belong to the figure of Menkaret. The small figure of the king has not yet been found.

Archive photo of one of the eleven missing shabti’s belonging to Yuya. (Photo courtesy of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo)

Dr. Hawass said it seems the looters dropped objects as they fled, and every inch of the museum must be searched before the Registration, Collections Management, and Documentation Department, which is overseeing the inventory, can produce a complete and final report of exactly what is missing. The museum staff is not yet able to move freely within the museum, and has, until now, had to walk in groups of 10-15 people, accompanied by soldiers. Unfortunately, this has slowed down the search, and made it very difficult to carry out a final inventory. The army is allowing very few people into the museum, and the first time the museum’s office staff was allowed in was on 6 February 2011. The list announced in the press release of 12 February, 2011 is preliminary, and will continue to be updated as new information comes to light. As Dr. Hawass has previously stated, until a full and thorough search of the museum and its grounds has been completed and all of the damaged vitrines inventoried, a list of missing objects cannot be finalized.

King Tut carried by Menkaret

Dr. Hawass would like to clarify earlier statements in which he announced that nothing was missing. During the first pass of the search committee through the museum, objects that were at first thought to be missing were found thrown into trash cans and corners far from their original locations, and he had been led to believe that a full sweep of the museum might well succeed in locating all of the missing objects. Professionals out to steal would normally be careful not to damage the objects they were planning to take, so the initial impression was that the attackers were vandals rather than thieves. He was also misinformed by one of the museum staff about the statue of Akhenaten as an offering bearer; he was told that this was only damaged when it was, in fact, missing. In addition to expressing what he then firmly believed, which was that museum staff would continue to locate the missing objects, his intent in these earlier statements was to reassure the world that the damage at the museum, while tragic, was far less widespread than originally feared, and to make clear that the museum’s most major masterpieces, such as the Golden Mask of Tutankhamun, were safe.

AFP (not, as reported in the Egyptian press, CNN) has reported that the famous golden mask of Tutankhamun was stolen. This is completely untrue. Last week, Dr. Hawass took several representatives of the press, including ABC World News, NBC, Associated Press, and Reuters, among others, to the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. All of the reporters and journalists were able to see, photograph, and film the mask still safely in its gallery, which is behind an iron gate that the looters were not able to penetrate. In addition, the two gold coffins and the items Howard Carter found on the mummy in 1925, all of which are in the same gallery, are safe as well. Dr. Hawass expressed his disappointment in AFP for announcing such a sensationalized story without first checking the facts. At 1:30 pm yesterday, Dr. Hawass received a call from Mr. Riad Abu Awad, the head of the AFP office in Egypt. He denied that his agency broke the story. However, many online newspapers seem to have quoted the AFP directly (North Korean News, Caribbean News, All Voices, Nvision UG Monitr, Nevada State News) Today, Dr. Hawass took members of the press to the museum to show them that the mask is safe.

On Sunday, Dr. Hawass received the report prepared by the committee he had sent to check the De Morgan magazine in Dahshur; according to this report, all of the large and small blocks are safe. The only missing items appear to be small amulets. Archaeologists at the site had previously installed an iron gate and ensured that guards were on duty guarding the magazine. Despite these precautions, Dr. Hawass announced that the magazine was attacked for a second time Monday night, and the thieves were able to overpower and tie up the guards. Dr. Hawass has appointed a new committee to determine the current state of the magazine.

A committee to review the magazine at Qantara East in the Sinai, has also been appointed by Dr. Hawass. This magazine suffered a break-in on the night of 28 January, 2011; looters stole boxes full of objects, of which, to date, 298 have been returned. The committee will take a full inventory and compare it to earlier inventories to determine whether or not everything has been returned.

Dr. Hawass said the most important news for today was that the Heart Scarab and the shabti were found on the museum grounds. He hopes that the committee still searching the museum will be able to locate more of the missing objects.

 

Memphis Tours Egypt since 1955
Posted by: Shaimaa Ahmed
Reference: drhawass.com

Restoration continues at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

I would like to begin by apologizing for not posting a statement yesterday; I gave several interviews from the conservation lab at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo in the morning, and had to attend a cabinet meeting in the afternoon that lasted most of the day. The conservation lab team has divided the objects affected by the disturbances in the Museum two weeks ago into several groups depending on their nature and damage sustained. The first group contains pieces that are all in good condition and do not need any restoration work.

 

Dr. Zahi standing in front of objects in the conservation lab in the Egyptian Mueum, Cairo. (PHOTO: Stephanie Sakoutis)

Most, if not all, of these objects date to the Late Period. The second group contains objects that need minor restoration work. Some of the pieces in this group include statues of gods and goddess in good condition, and a faience vase with one piece broken off; this vase has already been repaired. The third group includes the pieces of the broken statue of Tutankhamun standing on a panther. This beautiful statue of gilded wood displays the standing king wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt, holding a flail in his right hand, and a staff in his left. The statue seems to have been used to smash other showcases, and unfortunately the left arm, holding the staff, has been broken off. The panther is broken at the legs, and its tail and right ear have also been broken. Much of the gilding from the statue has also been broken off. I am happy to say, despite the extent of the damage, that this can be restored in a few days time. The fourth group contains the damaged mummy bands of Thuya. Thuya and her husband Yuya were the parents of Queen Tiye, and the great-grandparents of Tutankhamun. Thuya’s mummy bands are gilded cartonnage, and thankfully, only one section was damaged. The upper part of one god was broken off the open work of the bands, but luckily no other damage was sustained. This object can be restored very quickly. The fifth group of objects includes statues and shabtis belonging to Yuya and Thuya and some dating to the Late Period. All of these objects are currently undergoing restoration. The final group includes the pieces belonging to a wooden boat model and pieces from the model troop of Nubian archers, both dating to the Middle Kingdom. These objects will also be able to undergo a full restoration.

Damaged Middle Kingdom wooden boat model. (PHOTO: Stephanie Sakoutis)

I was able to visit the conservation lab at the Egyptian Museum yesterday with several members of the world wide press including, NBC News for the Today Show, ABC World News, Reuters, Associated Press, and journalists from Sweden, Japan, and Italy. I was pleased to show them the progress being made in the conservation lab, as well as the new showcases and the repaired New Kingdom coffin lid.

I spoke with Dr. Tarek El Awady, director of the Egyptian Museum, Dr. Yasmin el Shazly, head of documentation at the Museum, and database team; I have asked them to do a final check of the objects in the museum and the conservation lab against the database and prepare a report for me on Sunday. This report will confirm whether or not any objects have been taken from the museum.

A restorator working on the statue of Tutankhamun standing on a panther. (PHOTO: Stephanie Sakoutis)

Yesterday was the first time, since this crisis began, that I was able to take the time to closely examine each item that was damaged during the museum’s break in on Friday, 28 January, 2011. I also took time to speak to the commanders of the police and army stationed at the museum, and I asked them to update me on their investigations. I have heard so many differing stories about how the break in occurred, so I felt it was necessary to confirm the details with the police and army.

The information I have previously posted here on my website is very close to what the officers told me yesterday. At this point, the officers are not clear on exactly how many of the criminals actually entered into the museum, but ten people have been in custody since 28 January. One of these ten criminals was actually captured inside of the museum. This is the criminal I met when I arrived at the museum on the morning of Saturday, 29 January. In fact, he was still handcuffed to the iron bars of the exit doors to the new museum bookshop when I got there! This young criminal told me he had done nothing wrong; when I asked why he broke into the museum he began to cry and said, “They told me to.” I hope he will give the officers a detailed report of what had happened inside the museum.

While at the museum, I went and stood under the window that had been broken by the criminals. The distance between the window in the roof and the floor is nearly 30 feet! It seems that one of the criminals fell from the roof and landed on a glass case, so it was no surprise when we found blood on the floor throughout the museum. This trail of blood was helpful for the investigation, as it clearly showed which galleries the criminal had entered.

I received a report from the chief of the tourist police that criminals had entered the storage magazine in Tuna el Gebel. This report indicated that two mummies, dating to the Roman Period, were missing. However, the curator has also sent me a report saying that nothing actually happened at the magazine. I hope to receive further information on this matter very soon.

Memphis Tours Egypt Since 1955
Reference: drhawass.com
Posted by: Shaimaa Ahmed

Tutankhamun’s tomb will not be closed in the near future !

“Tutankhamun’s tomb will not be closed in the near future. It is a long-term plan that has not been decided upon yet,” Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News.

Many reports in the past two weeks announced the closure of this tourist magnet by the end of this year.

The long-term plan involves a $10 million project called the “Valley of the Replicas.”

Visitors will be directed to exact reproductions of the original tombs. The first three replicas will be the tombs of Tutankhamun, and the already closed burial sites of Seti I and Queen Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens.

The three original tombs will remain open to tourists willing to pay a very hefty fee, perhaps as high as $8,500 per visit.

 

Posted by : Yasmine Aladdin

Reference : allaboutegypt.org

Memphis Tours Eagypt since 1955.