A large parade will deliver 22 mummies of the ancient Egyptian kingdom in capsules specifically designed across Cairo on Saturday to a new museum house where they can be displayed in greater grandeur. The convoy will carry 18 kings and four queens, most of the new kingdom, from the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir Cairo Central Field to the National Museum of Egyptian civilization in Fustate, about 5 km (3 miles) the southeast.
The authorities turned off the road along the Nile for a complicated ceremony, designed to drive interest in collecting rich Egyptian antiques when tourism was almost completely jammed due to restrictions related to Covid-19. Each mummy will be placed in a special capsule filled with nitrogen to ensure protection, and capsules will be carried on a cart designed to carry it and provide stability, the Egyptian archaeologist said.
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“We chose the Museum of civilization because we wanted, for the first time, to display mummies in a civilized way, educated ways, and not for entertainment because they were at the Egyptian Museum,” he said. Archaeologists found a mummy in two batches in the Deir Al Maritime temple complex in Luxor and the nearest King Valley from 1871.
The oldest is that from Seqenenre Tao, the last king of the 17th Dynasty, who ruled in the 16th century BC and was considered to have fulfilled cruel death. The parade will also include Mummy Ramses II, Seti I, and Ahmose-Nefertari. Frustrated is the site of the Egyptian capital under the Umayyad Dynasty after the Arabic conquest.
“By doing it like this, with extraordinary splendor and circumstances, mummy gets maturity,” said Salima Ikram, an Egyptian expert at the American University in Cairo. “This is the King of Egypt, and this is Pharaoh. So, this is a way to show respect.”
