Dr. Hawas: Pharaonic Antiquities Egypt's Envoy

In his interview with Egypt magazine, Dr. Zahi Hawas, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, emphasized that the Egyptian antiquities have contributed to consolidate co-existence among peoples, cultures and civilizations. He mentioned that an Egyptian exhibition entitled " Looking for Immortality" has been touring the American cities recently.

The exhibition conveys a message to the Americans that ancient Egyptians had ruled the whole world through wisdom, justice and righteousness, not by absolute force. Dr. Hawas said that a number of Egyptian exhibitions were also touring the world in France, China and Spain.

He also stated that Egypt obtained a large number of monuments which made Egypt an open archaeological museum. He added that the Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Christian and Islamic ages had enriched Egypt with different monuments, and he stressed that Egypt was working to attract ten million tourists who are interested in historic and cultural tourism.

Dr. Hawas noted that the Supreme Council for Antiquities is undertaking huge projects in the main archaeological sites for furnishing them with all necessary services. He added that most of those projects were located in the Pyramids plateau, the Valley of Kings, Sakkara, Luxor Temple, Idfu Temple and the Incomplete Obelisk in Aswan, and he disclosed new regulations on the work of foreign missions in Egypt. He also pointed out that the Supreme Council for Antiquities decided to suspend licenses for any excavation mission in Upper Egypt, encouraging those in Lower Egypt, Delta, and the desert. In addition, he noted that 300 Egyptian and foreign missions were working in Egypt these days.

Interview by: Fathe el- Saihe
Dr. Hawas referred to many measures taken for preserving the Egyptian monuments and the amendments to the antiquities law No. 177 of 1983. He also highlighted the achievements of the Supreme Council for Antiquities to inaugurate new museums in Cairo and Alexandria.

Following is the full text of the interview
New Additions in Celebrating the Centennial of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
In December 2002, we celebrated, along with the whole world, the centennial of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which was built in 1902. The Egyptian Museum was originally built to be a museum, unlike the other world museums that were established in palaces. As we are now in the 3rd millennium, we had to develop the Egyptian Museum, especially after establishing the great Egyptian museum that is being built near the Pyramids and is expected to be inaugurated five years later.

Currently, we are trying to cut down the number of monuments exhibited in the Egyptian Museum by one third in order to exhibit the other monuments according to the modern world exhibition techniques. The new museum will exhibit the collection of King Tut, whereas the National Museum for Civilization, in Fustat in Cairo, will exhibit the royal mummies that are currently being exhibited in the Egyptian Museum. So that, all monuments in the museum will be exhibited according to the most scientific and modern world exhibition techniques.

An annex will also be built in the western side of the Egyptian Museum. It will include a specialist museum for children, lecture auditorium, reparation lab, tourist services, and sites for selling books, presents and souvenirs produced by the Ancient Egyptian Art Revival Center.

In short, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo will be one of the world rare museums exhibiting the arts of the ancient Egyptian civilization.

Egyptian Immortal Monuments and Globalization

For a long time, the Egyptian monuments have always been playing a vital role in this respect (globalization), and I can say that the Egyptian monuments contributed to co-existence among peoples, and bringing cultures and civilizations together.

Actually, the Egyptian civilization is an image of approachment among civilizations. This is due to the diversity of the Egyptian historical ages, e.g., the Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Christian and Islamic eras which show the unity of the Egyptian civilization and co-existence among cultures. The Egyptian monuments are always the centre of world attention through the archaeological exhibitions Egypt organizes in cooperation with a number of friendly countries, which has materialized in the flow of great numbers of foreign visitors. The best example was the exhibition of King Tut, which toured a number of European, American, Canadian and Japanese cities during the 1970s.

Recently, an Egyptian exhibition titled " Looking for Immortality" has been touring a number of American cities for a term of five years. There are also several exhibitions that will tour a number of countries such as China, which will host an Egyptian exhibition in November, as well as Spain, which will host an exhibition also in November. Also, there are three other exhibitions that will be held in France, one on the occasion of the 9th Egyptology conference in Greenovele, another in the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the French archaeologist, Mariette, and the third will be held in the Institute of the Arab World.

All these exhibitions aim at promoting relations among Egypt and the world countries as well as promoting tourist and media propaganda for Egypt.

Egyptian Monuments... Open Museum
There is no precise calculation of the amount of the world monuments. However, I agree that Egypt owns large numbers of monuments, which occupy most of the geographical space of Egypt.

The monuments of the Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Christian and Islamic ages enriched the Egyptian lands which brand Egypt as an open museum. A new technique was adopted for preserving the archaeological sites, which we call "Archaeological Site Management", by which we determine the sites, and for establishing visitor centers through which we can describe the archaeological site in detail by means of screening documentary films in addition to providing the tourists who are not present in any archaeological site with a group of facilities.

Such a project was carried out in locations in Aswan as the Incomplete Obelisk, Idfu Temple, Kom Ombo Temple and in Luxor Temple. There are also other huge projects underway in the locations of the Pyramids in Giza, Islamic Cairo and the area of Old Cairo, which includes Christian monuments; such as churches and monasteries. There are also the Christian monuments in Sinai such as Saint Catherine monastery and the monastery of Bishops Anthony and Pola in the Red Sea area. Such huge projects are simultaneously underway as we are racing against time to preserve the Egyptian archaeological treasures that concern not only our generation and our children but also our friendly nations all over the world.

Egyptian Monuments and National Income
Certainly, most of the tourists coming to Egypt seek to visit the Egyptian monuments and museums. Although cultural tourism ranges between 10% to 15% of the world tourism, we are planning to attract a large percentage of the world tourism that could reach 45-50 million tourists.

Egypt can attract 10 million tourists interested in the historic and cultural tourism. I believe that Egypt represents a cultural heavyweight country as it obtains cultural treasures such as temples, cemeteries, churches, mosques and archaeological, historical, ancient and modern art museums.

The Supreme Council for Antiquities is carrying out huge projects in the main archaeological sites in Egypt for furnishing them scientifically with the necessary tourist services. The foremost of these projects are in the Pyramids plateau, the Valley of Kings in Luxor, Saqqara, the Luxor temple, the temples of Idfu and Dandara and the Incomplete Obelisk in Aswan. Here I also refer to the project of developing the two temples of Abu Simbel in Aswan.

Thus, we realize the role of the Supreme Council for Antiquities in order to prepare the archaeological sites and areas to the world tourism.
Archaeological Documentation Regulations 

Eighteen months ago, we set new regulations for the work of foreign missions in Egypt. These regulations define the commitments of all parties. We have also decided to suspend licenses to excavation missions in Upper Egypt, rather we encourage excavations in Lower Egypt, Delta and the desert. Around 300 Egyptian and foreign missions have been working all over the country. We have suspended the licenses of 13 foreign missions and a number of archaeologists who breached the rules of archaeological work.

The new regulations set forth that missions have to abide by the archaeological documentation and registration of all monuments, in addition to preserving and repairing the discovered monuments and conducting the archaeological scanning with modern techniques under the supervision of the Supreme Council for Antiquities.

Missions have also to hand over copies of their work in Arabic and English or any other foreign language, and to abide by declaring their discoveries only through the Supreme Council for Antiquities.

Monument Smuggling
This is an extremely serious issue as it ranks high on the Supreme Council for Antiquities agenda. Since I took office in 2002, I decided to establish an independent body " The General Department for Restored Monuments" to be responsible for the smuggled Egyptian monuments exhibited abroad.

During the past 18 months, we tackled this issue successfully, as we sent messages to the world museums and research centers to warn them against buying any stolen Egyptian monuments. We have also decided to suspend the scientific and archaeological relations with any museum or foreign institution that exhibit our stolen monuments. In this regard, we have received satisfactory replies from most of the world museums. Currently, we are establishing a scientific data base that includes a record of the smuggled Egyptian monuments exhibited in auctions abroad for taking the necessary legal measures to restore them. Unfortunately, most of the pieces abroad were smuggled due to the absence of archaeological awareness over the past three centuries. Such pieces were sold according to the Egyptian law that allowed the monuments trade until 1983.

Some of these monuments were also smuggled due to illegal excavations. However, we succeeded in restoring several pieces such as retrieving parts and tableaus stolen from the cemetery of King "Siti I", in Luxor, from an American museum. We have also restored the mummy of Ramses I after an agreement was reached with the officials of the "Michael Carlos" museum in the USA to give it back to Egypt. In addition, we have taken the necessary legal measures against smugglers such as the American smuggler "Fredrik Sholter", who was charged and sentenced for smuggling Egyptian monuments.

According to international agreements, we have the right to claim back the Egyptian monuments smuggled after 1983; when the UNESCO approved the right of countries to restore their smuggled cultural properties. I also wish the ancient heavyweight countries; such as Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, China, Greece and India, could develop mutual agreement, in cooperation with the UNESCO, to discuss the right of countries to restore their monuments, and I hope this idea gains due support.

As an Egyptian citizen, I hope to see all the rare Egyptian monuments such as Rosetta Stone, the Heavenly Dome and the Nefertiti Head returning to their homeland and exhibited in the Egyptian museums.

Monument Preservation
There are many procedures that have been taken for preserving the monuments, as follows:
1-Amending the monument protection law No. 177 of 1983 to deal with all the problems of monument protection in Egypt and the Egyptian monuments abroad, as well as keeping our legitimate right to restore the stolen monuments and our right to effectuate the World Trade Organization WTO agreement on the protection of intellectual and cultural properties. This amended law draft will be submitted to the state executive and legislative institutions in the coming year.
2-Building around 30 advanced warehouses in all the archaeological sites in Egypt for preserving the warehouse monuments. These monuments will be monitored and protected all the time.
3-Expanding the projects of establishing museums, and we are currently working as I said before, on more than 20 national and regional museums, which represent one of the monument preservation mechanisms.
4-Establishing a network under the project of the Archaeological Site Management, which determines the archaeological sites and establishes a security belt and advanced monitoring systems for these areas.
5-Establishing archaeological units in all Egyptian air, maritime and land ports, as well as establishing custom units for examining the exported packages as it is considered one of the monument-smuggling means. These procedures integrate together to protect our monuments against destruction and smuggling.

Future Plans
As I said before, there is an ambitious plan to develop the Egyptian museum in Cairo. Also, develop the Islamic Art Museum, in Bab El-Khalq in Cairo, for exhibiting the art treasures of the Islamic civilization, in addition to the archaeological pieces of the Islamic era in Egypt; such as textiles, pottery, glass, wood, metal artifacts, carpets and other treasures of the Islamic Museum.

Work is also underway to establish the Islamic architecture and museum in Al-qala'a (the Citadel) in Cairo. It is expected that the museum will be inaugurated in December 2004, on the occasion of celebrating the centennial of the Islamic Art Museum in Cairo. The celebrations will be attended by archaeologists and specialists of museums and Islamic arts and monuments from Egypt and other foreign and Arab countries.

Simultaneously, works are underway to complete developing the Coptic Museum in Cairo, which will exhibit the Coptic art and architecture according to the world modern exhibition techniques. The museum includes rare Christian art treasures; the Egyptian textile works and the Fresco which are tableaus of the 6th century on some Christian religious subjects such as portraying Christ and his disciples, the messengers, the angels, and Virgin Mary carrying Christ when he was a baby. The museum will also exhibit other arts such as the metal works, manuscripts, stones, crowns, which all focus on Christianity.

There are also other projects underway in Alexandria such as the Greco-Roman Museum, which is one of the most ancient Egyptian museums exhibiting the Egyptian monuments from the Greek and Roman eras.

Furthermore, there was inauguration of the National Museum in Alexandria, which includes archaeological collections of the pre-history, Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Christian and Islamic ages till the age of Muhammed Ali.

Monument Protection Mechanisms in Menya
The governorate of Menya has monuments from the Pharaonic, Christian and Islamic ages such as the cemeteries of the nobles and high-ranking statesmen in the area of Beni-Hassan, and a group of Pharaonic temples of the Amarrna period during which King "Akhnaton" ruled the country and made Menya a capital for Egypt. He established the city of Akhetatun which means the Atun horizon. This year, several steps were taken to select the company which would carry out the project of establishing the Atun Museum in Menya, a project which has touristic, social and cultural dimensions.

The project is to establish a huge building for exhibiting the monuments of the Amarrna period and the time of Akhinaton, and to establish a monument representation school, central reparation labs and a river anchorage for tourist ships. The monuments will be exhibited in the museum in a modern way in addition to holding an open exhibition in the museum park and establishing gift shops and fairs for exhibiting the traditional hand and plastic works of Menya residents.

As for Tal-el-Amarrna monuments in Menya, a huge project was set for furnishing the area with the necessary tourist services. The project will be carried out in the next year.
One of the archaeological mosques in Menya was also repaired and will be inaugurated in the coming few weeks.