by
Laura Lai/Review
These precise virtual tours of the
archeological sites in Egypt constitute also the subject of a CNN invitation. The Ministry of Tourism and Archeology in Egypt has recently
released also an invitation to the Grand Egyptian Museum – the greatest
archeological museum. The hosts, Fatma Abdallah and Walid El-Batouty, picked up
twenty pieces of the several thousand exhibited – though choice!
One
of the pieces is an alabaster jar with fine bird details. Alabaster was
a material that was used a lot in those times. There are, for example, until
the end of the 17th dynasty and the beginning of the 18th
dynasty representations of hippopotamus (the male had a negative connotation,
the female a positive one); the eyes of Queen Akhotep, the make-up of King Tut
are said to have been made of alabaster.
Another
exhibited piece is a gold collar of Psusennes I (21st
dynasty). King Tut himself had a colorful collar, on his mask there was also a
gold inscription indicating that the pharaoh was protected by gods. These jewelries and collars prove the technological level the Egyptians reached in
those times to work out not only metal, but precious metals, too. This type of Psusennes
I collar was seen in different wall paintings and it is said that it was
usually offered by the king to some of his people as a reward.
One
last ‘mesmerizing’ piece – as Walid El-Batouty said – is a sculpture of Nefertiti, the wife of King Akhenaton IV (18th dynasty). During his
reign, the god Amon-Ra became the only god of Egypt – there is also a sculpture
with the King with his wife Nefertiti and their two daughters, in which the
King gets the ‘life’ and ‘power’ from Amon-Ra. Akhenaton becomes the capital of
Egypt, but twenty years later, after the death of this king, the capital moves
to Theba. The point is that under King Akhenaton IV religion and arts
progressed. This sculpture of the head of Nefertiti is special because the eyes
and the eyebrows are sculptured, not drawn, then the stone it was made of gives
a living aspect to the face. It is said that it is possible that the sculptured
eyes and eyebrows to have been filled with glass or alabaster (the eyes of the
golden mask of King Psusennes I were made of glass, too). If true, this would
have given this sculptured face of Nefertiti an even more living aspect. On
King Tut’s collar – that is sensational – there is a representation of god
Amon-Ra, too blessing Tutankhamen with power.
I think these short guided videos
of the Grand Egyptian Museum are released on a double occasion: first, it is
about the world slogan on the pyramids (maybe coming from the inside of them,
too J)
to ‘Stay Safe. Stay Home’; and second, it must be about the opening of the new
headquarter of the Grand Egyptian Museum planned for December 2020. So, we were
given only ‘a flavor’ of the museum.
The
Grand Egyptian Museum is the greatest archeological museum in the world. All
along the history it had several headquarters itself because more archeological
sites were discovered, more place it was needed, in order to exhibit all the
artifacts. So happened, for example, in 1922 with the discovery of the Tomb of
King Tutankhamen and the enormous treasure he was buried with.
Until
1835 many of the Egypt’s Antiquity artifacts were sent abroad or simple got
lost. In 1835 Egypt was still a monarchy and the king passed a law to forbid
the export of Egyptian antiquities. However, it is the French Egyptologist
Auguste Mariette (who worked at Louvre Museum and who came to Egypt in 1850) who
put the basis of the first headquarter somewhere near the river Nile in 1863.
But a few years later, in 1878, the museum is flooded and many artifacts lost
forever. A second headquarter of the Grand Egyptian Museum was one of the
palaces of the King. And it was still not enough. A French architect, Marcel
Dourgnon, was in charged with the making of another headquarter far from the
river Nile. It was inaugurated at the beginning of the 1900s and is the Grand
Egyptian in the el-Tahrir Place (Liberty Place). After the discovery of King
Tut’s tomb in 1922 the museum in el-Tahrir Place needed more space and it was
re-drawn, new chambers were added. I think there were discussions about moving
it again and the inauguration is now postponed for the end of 2020. Indeed, the
Grand Egyptian Museum has itself its own long and fascinating history.
One last thought crosses my mind
now, besides ‘staying safe and visiting Egypt from home’: to dare and make a
computer drawing of King Tut, while listening to Louis Armstrong’ s song ‘What a Wonderful World’ this Antiquity world. And the Egyptian traditional
falafel dish would also be good, but I will leave this for when I will afford
visiting the Grand Egyptian Museum and Egypt’s archeological sites and sing to
myself:
‘I’ll learn much more, than I’ll never know.
And I think to myself what a
wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself what a
wonderful world […this Antiquity World]’
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