Interview: Hawass on the latest discoveries and activities in Egypt

guardians.net

Many thanks to Fred Sierevogel for sending me the link to this recent inverview with Zahi Hawass (28th July 2008). The interview was conducted by Andrew Bayuk with the assistance of Whitney Bayuk. The website above is the official website of Hawass. The interview is stuffed full of very useful information.

My 7th Interview with Dr. Hawass, conducted on 28 July 2008, took place again at his office at the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Zamalek. We started out with some catching up:

Andrew: Hi Zahi. It seems like lots of exciting things have been happening in Egypt since we last spoke. Tell me something new and exciting.

Zahi: At Saqqara we have just found a pyramid of a queen, she was one of the queen’s of King Teti but we didn’t announce this formally yet. We also found other tombs that we haven’t yet announced at Saqqara.

At the Valley of the Kings, we are excavating now, we found the entrances of 2 tombs, KV 64 and KV 65 and in October we will start the excavation.

Andrew: Do you believe that one of these tombs belonged to Ramesses VIII?

Zahi: Yes, the one between Merneptah and Ramesses II could be the Tomb of Ramesses VIII.

Andrew: What about the (undiscovered) Tomb of Amenhotep I?

Zahi: Amenhotep I should be at Deir El Bahri because they found evidence there of the beginning of a temple, we believe that this tomb should be located behind the temple. The temple was built after that. But in the Valley of the Kings should be Queen Nefertiti, Thutmose II, Ramesses VIII and all the queens of Dynasty 18, they were not buried in the Valley of the Queens because the Valley of the Queens was started in Dynasty 19, and therefore we are open to finding anything.

Andrew: Its very exciting what you’ve done in the Valley of the Kings, with the new improvements, it looks beautiful.

Zahi: You like the valley? We have these big changes everywhere.

There are also big things happening at the Unfinished Obelisk in Aswan, Edfu, Kom Ombo. At Kom Ombo, when you arrive you see the temple from the water, when you exit the temple now we have a museum opened just this week, called the Crocodile Museum. This museum is telling the story about the crocodiles. And we have (improvements at) Dendera. And at Saqqara you saw we have these big changes, did you go to the museum? Did you see the cafeteria? Behind we have storage for antiquities, big things.

We are restoring the Step Pyramid, the Serapeum, the South Tomb. Big things. At Giza you saw the entrance? Now they have security, x-rays, clean bathrooms, we are making these improvements all over Egypt.

See the above page for the full interview.