Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Returning mummies to their tombs

Egypt Daily Star New

A tourist guide is planning to launch a campaign to send back all the Egyptian mummies exhibited in museums to their original tombs.

Targeting local cultural and antiquities authorities, guide Bassam El Shammaa is presently waiting for the response of the religious authorities to his proposal.

His suggestion includes returning mummies to their original tombs in Luxor amid a venerable procession similar to that which marked the transportation of the statue of King Ramses II from Ramses Square to Remaya Square.

Such a procession would, he suggests, serve as a major tourist event.

“Each mummy should be wrapped in a proper coffin again and placed in the glove case that’s equipped with the gadget necessary for controlling air and humidity. The mummy of King Tutankhamun has been preserved in like manner within its tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Visitors enter the tomb and watch the king’s face from behind a glass barrier.

“Why don’t we do the same with the rest of the kings to safeguard the future of these mummies? Some tombs are closed simply because there is nothing to show in them. We can revive them by returning the mummies to them,” he argued.


See the above page for the full story.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's an interesting idea, but wouldn't that open the door for tomb raiders? It could stimulate the economy if multiple positions opened up for guards. The logistics could pose a problem. Spreading the mummies about, albeit in their tombs, would make it harder to protect them from vandalism and theft. Of course, I'm no expert. I've never even been to Egypt.