Egypt : The impressive parade of mummies in Cairo

The repatriation of 22 Egyptian royal mummies from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, in the center of Cairo, to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fostat was the source of a great staging that attracted the world’s attention, and for good reason.

What could have been a mere formality was instead a real light and sound show, a parade in which the kings and queens of old regained all their stature and glory.

Important people in the stands…

The ceremony, which lasted more than four hours, saw a succession of extras in costumes, modern floats specially chartered for the occasion, and even processions of ancient chariots, pulled by horses, all under the gaze of officials of the UN cultural agency, UNESCO, and the World Tourism Organization who were present at the ceremony, as well as other personalities like President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

As for an official ceremony, 21 cannon salvos rang out as the mummies arrived in the new museum.

 

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… and on the track

On the side of the relics, everything justifies that such a device was set in motion. One of the pharaohs transported during the ceremony was none other than King Ramses II, who was very popular with ancient history buffs, reigned over Egypt for 67 years and signed the first peace treaty. The oldest of the relics to have passed through Cairo before the eyes of the world is Seqenenre Tao, who reigned in the 16th century BC.

If the objective of the ceremony was indeed to transfer the pharaohs in a more modern museum, the Egyptian authorities had in heart to show the country under its best day in order to boost its attractiveness, hoping that this spectacle will allow to revitalize the tourism in a country still bruised by the political troubles and the pandemic of coronavirus.