The “golden parade” of the mummies of the pharaohs in Egypt recalled the ancient curse

Cairo hosted the “Golden Parade of the Pharaohs”: 22 mummies of kings and queens were transported from the old Egyptian National Museum to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

The mummies of the ancient Egyptian monarchs, 18 kings and 4 queens, were solemnly carried through the streets of Cairo in the chronological order of their reign, from the 17th dynasty pharaoh Taa Sekenenra II to Ramses IX, who ruled in the century XII BC according to the BBC. …

One of the main “characters” of the astonishing event was the mummy of Ramses II, one of the most famous pharaohs of the Egyptian New Kingdom, who ruled for almost seven decades. The other is Queen Hatshepsut, who became the ruler of Ancient Egypt, although according to the customs of that time, women did not become pharaohs.

Several million dollars were spent organizing the “Golden Parade of the Pharaohs” and there are tight security measures.

Along with 22 Egyptian royal mummies, 17 royal sarcophagi were also carried in a procession that traveled along the Nile River, accompanied by chariots and horses, according to the Egyptian online resource Ahram Online.

For transport, the royal mummies were placed in special containers filled with nitrogen to protect them from external influences. The remains of each ancient king were transported in a specially designed hearse equipped with special shock absorbers for their protection. The road along the entire route was carefully leveled to avoid tremors.

Dr. Mostafa Ismail, head of conservation of the mummy conservation laboratory at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, led a team of 48 people to prepare the royal mummies for “transfer.” He told CNN that the preservation process involves placing each mummy in an oxygen-free nitrogen capsule, “which can preserve it without being damaged by moisture, especially bacteria, fungi and insects.” Each capsule is surrounded by a soft material that distributes pressure and reduces vibration during transport.

Hearses with the names of the pharaohs inscribed on them (including ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs) were accompanied by a procession containing copies of horse-drawn chariots. The “parade” was greeted with a 21-gun salute, joined by a military band.

These mummies were discovered in the 1880s in two tombs near Thebes, the ancient capital of Egypt. They could be seen in the Egyptian Museum. Now, the country’s authorities hope that the new museum, which will open in April, will help revitalize tourism, which is the main source of foreign exchange earnings, but badly affected by political turmoil and the pandemic.

In the new museum, the remains of ancient Egyptian monarchs will be placed in the royal hall of mummies and will be presented to the public from April 18. This room is designed in such a way that visitors feel as if they are in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

“This majestic scene is a new testimony to the greatness of the people, the guardian of this unique civilization, rooted in the depths of history,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi commented on the “Golden Parade of the Pharaohs” on Twitter. . “I invite all Egyptians and the whole world to follow this unique event, awakening the spirit of the great ancestors who preserved their homeland and created a civilization of which all humanity is proud, to continue our path that we started: the path of construction and humanity. “

Meanwhile, even at the stage of plans to relocate the royal remains, ominous rumors began to circulate that this was not good. I quickly remembered the story of the “curse of the pharaohs”, and the warning, as inscribed in the tomb of Tutankhamun discovered by the Englishman Howard Carter in 1922: “Death will fly on fast wings who will be disturbed by the life of the king. Peace. “

And a series of tragic incidents Egypt has faced in recent days – resulting in numerous casualties in a train accident and the collapse of a building in Cairo – have served as a breeding ground for those sentiments. Even the congestion in the Suez Canal caused by the beached container ship Ever Given, which cost Egypt at least a billion dollars, was linked to the “curse of the pharaohs.”

I also remembered the story of how in 1980 the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, ordered the closure of the royal room of mummies in the Egyptian Museum on the grounds that it “desecrates the dead.” But Sadat’s wish to rebury the mummies did not come true: in 1981 he was killed in a terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, one of the organizers of the “relocation” of the royal mummies, the famous Egyptologist and former Egyptian antiquities minister Zahi Hawass, calls the curse of the pharaohs “empty nonsense”.

“This is just an assumption that people make and an illusion. Such talk will do no harm to the parade. Rather, they will add excitement and interest to the event, ”Hawass told ABC News.

“This is not the first time that mummies have been taken,” said the Egyptologist. – In 1881, the mummies were taken out of Luxor and placed in a boat for three days until they reached Cairo … and once the linen ribbons were removed from the mummy of Ramses II in front of Khedive Tevfik (ruler of Egypt in the late 19th century) and nothing happened. The curse is a myth and the inscription they speak of does not exist. “

“Even if the curse exists, it will not activate this Saturday, because the mummies know they are going to a new place where they will be honored,” joked Zahi Hawass.