These Decadent Mummy-Mobiles Will Parade Egypt’s Pharaohs and Queens This Weekend

his Saturday, almost two dozen ancient Egyptian monarchs will make a historic journey across the nation’s capitol of Cairo. The Pharaohs’ Golden Parade, as it’ll be called, will reportedly travel along the Nile to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, where its cast will be put on permanent display in nitrogen-filled capsules. And being royals, these mummies won’t make the trip in box trucks; they’ll travel in specially built parade cars fit for a pharaoh or queen.
According to Daily News Egypt, these mummy-mobiles, as we’ll call them, have been individually outfitted with logos and names of their occupants in Arabic, English, and hieroglyphs. Egypt Today reports the procession will consist of 22 such vehicles for an equivalent number of nobles, made up of 18 pharaohs and four queens, their remains reportedly dating as far back as Egypt’s 17th dynasty, spanning 1580-1550 BC.

VIA FACEBOOK | THE GRAND EGYPTIAN MUSEUM
Purpose-built The Pharaohs’ Golden Parade mummy-mobile

Judging from these photos, these larger-than-life chariots aim to be as extravagant as possible with their gold and black ornamentation. Even the wheels have gold (but probably brass) hubcaps that resemble Egyptian-style headdresses and jewelry.
It’s unclear what vehicles hide underneath these mummy transporters, but given their body size, wheelbase, cabin, exhaust pipe, and purpose, it’s safe to say that they’re some form of heavy-duty truck.
The parade will reportedly commence with a 21-gun salute, and be escorted from The Egyptian Museum by purpose-built, horse-drawn “war chariots.” It will reportedly circle the obelisk at the nearby Tahrir Square before running along the Nile and concluding at the mummies’ new, permanent home in Fostat, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. This parade will reportedly last around 40 minutes, and will likely resemble the rehearsal filmed in early December.

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Egypt Independent reports The Pharaohs’ Golden Parade will be broadcast on over 400 television channels, while Biblical Archaeology reports the event will also be streamed online via the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities’ Facebook page. A tweet from the Ministry also suggests a stream may go live on YouTube channel Experience Egypt, so if you care to see how the pharaohs roll in 2021, this parade should be hard to miss.

Source: The Drive

Ancient mummies are paraded through the streets of Cairo

(CNN) — Ancient mummies of Egypt’s royal pharaohs emerged from their resting places Saturday and were paraded through the streets of Cairo to a new home.
What sounds like the plot of a movie was part of a lavish celebration of Egypt’s history and a project to relocate some of its greatest treasures to a new high tech facility.
The mummies of Ramses the Great and 21 others were part of “The Pharaoh’s Golden Parade,” a highly anticipated event organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

The parade route took place between the Egyptian Museum, their old location near Tahrir Square, to their new home, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in Egypt’s first Islamic capital, al-Fustat.
“This majestic scene is new evidence of the greatness of [the Egyptian] people, the guardian of this unique civilisation that roots back into the depth of history,” Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Twitter.
“I invite all Egyptians and the whole world to follow this unrivaled event — evoking the spirit of the great ancestors who preserved the homeland and created a civilization in which all humanity takes pride — to keep on our path that we have started: the path of construction and humanity.”

The carriages carrying 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies depart from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the parade.
Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
Along with the 22 royal Egyptian mummies, 17 royal sarcophagi were also transported in the procession, which moved along the Nile River and was accompanied by chariots and horses, according to Egypt-run Ahram Online.
Sarcophagi are stone coffins often adorned with sculptures and inscriptions.
Among the mummies are those of kings Ramses II, Seti I, Seqenenre, and Tuthmosis III, in addition to four queens: Ahmose-Nefertari, Tiye, Meritamun and Hatshepsut.
The parade was saluted by 21-gun salutes and joined by a military band. The mummies were transported on special decorated vehicles with their names inscribed in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs as well as in Arabic.
The mummies who took part in the parade were discovered in two cachettes. The first was unearthed in 1881 at Deir El-Bahari in Luxor’s West Bank in tomb TT320.
All 22 royal mummies are from the New Kingdom, an era where tombs were built underground with hidden entrances to ward off grave robbers.
Preparing the mummies
The aim of the parade was to move the 18 kings and four queens of Egypt, along with their coffins and belongings, from their old home at The Egyptian Museum.

Performers dressed in ancient Egyptian costume march at the start of the parade of 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies departing from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Mahmoud Khaled/AFP/Getty Images
Dr. Mostafa Ismail, head of conservation at the Mummies Conservation Lab and Storeroom at the NMEC, led a team of 48 people to prepare the royal mummies.
The conservation process, he told CNN, involves placing each mummy in an oxygen-free, nitrogen capsule “which can keep it preserved without being damaged from the effects of humidity, especially we’re talking about bacteria, fungi, and insects.”
The capsule is surrounded by soft material that distributes pressure and reduces vibrations during transportation.
When the mummies arrive at the NMEC, the display units will have the exact same conditions as the nitrogen capsules. “So there will not be any shock for the mummy when we take it from the box and put it in these units,” Ismail adds.
Accompanying each mummy will be any belongings discovered alongside them, including their coffins.
Displays will also show CT scans which reveal what is beneath the wraps, and sometimes any breaks in bones or diseases that afflicted the royals.
Source: CNN



Egypt mummies pass through Cairo in ancient rulers’ parade



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Watch as 18 kings and four queens were carefully moved to a new museum in Cairo in a dazzling parade
Egyptians have been witnessing a historic procession of their country’s ancient rulers through the capital, Cairo.
The lavish, multimillion-dollar spectacle saw 22 mummies – 18 kings and four queens – transported from the peach-coloured, neo-classical Egyptian Museum to their new resting place 5km (three miles) away.
With tight security arrangements befitting their royal blood and status as national treasures, the mummies were relocated to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in what is called The Pharaohs’ Golden Parade.
They were transported with great fanfare in chronological order of their reigns – from the 17th Dynasty ruler, Seqenenre Taa II, to Ramses IX, who reigned in the 12th Century BC.
Egypt experienced a sharp rise in Covid-19 infections a year ago, but following a decline in the number of cases and deaths, restrictions on open-air gatherings were later lifted.

IMAGE COPYRIGHT
REUTERS
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The mummy of King Ramses II was among those to be transported
One of the main attractions of Saturday’s event is King Ramses II, the most famous pharaoh of the New Kingdom, who ruled for 67 years and is remembered for signing the first known peace treaty.

Another is Queen Hatshepsut, or Foremost of Noble Ladies. She became ruler even though the customs of her time were that women did not become pharaohs.
Each mummy was carried on a decorated vehicle fitted with special shock-absorbers and surrounded by a motorcade, including replica horse-drawn war chariots.
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While ancient mummification techniques originally preserved the pharaohs, for the move they have been placed in special nitrogen-filled boxes to help protect them against external conditions. Roads along the route have also been repaved to keep the journey smooth.
“The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has done its best to make sure that the mummies have been stabilised, conserved, and are packed in a climate-controlled environment,” said Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo.

IMAGE COPYRIGHT
EPA
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The mummies were transported from the Egyptian Museum on Cairo’s Tahrir Square to their new home
The mummies were discovered in 1881 and 1898 in two caches in the ruins of Thebes, Egypt’s ancient capital – modern day Luxor in Upper Egypt.
“They have already seen a lot of movement in Cairo and before that in Thebes, where they were moved from their own tombs to other sepulchres for safety,” Dr Ikram pointed out.

While most of the ancient rulers’ remains were brought from Luxor to Cairo via boat on the Nile, a few were transported in the first-class carriage of a train.
They were housed in the iconic Egyptian Museum and visited by tourists from around the world for the past century.
Valley of the Kings
Egypt’s authorities are hoping that the new museum, which opens fully this month, will help revitalise tourism – a prime source of foreign currency for the country.
The industry has been battered by political turbulence over the past decade, and more recently by the pandemic.

IMAGE COPYRIGHT
REUTERS
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Some of Cairo’s streets were resurfaced to ensure the mummies had a smooth journey
Saturday’s move of the mummies will be streamed online for all enthusiasts of ancient Egypt to watch.
The new exhibits will now be housed in the Royal Hall of Mummies and will go on display to the general public from 18 April.

The hall has been designed so that visitors will experience the illusion of being in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.
Separately, a new Grand Egyptian Museum which will house the famous Tutankhamun collection is due to open next year, close to the Great Pyramids at Giza.
‘Curse of the pharaohs’
While it is being seen as a grand – and even fun – event, Egypt’s mummies have historically been associated with superstition and foreboding.
Recently, Egypt has had a string of disasters. Last week alone dozens of people were killed in a train crash in Sohag, Upper Egypt, while at least 18 people died when a building collapsed in Cairo.

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REUTERS
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The Ramses II obelisk in Tahrir Square, dedicated to the most famous pharaoh of the New Kingdom
Then, as preparations were in full swing to transfer the mummies, the Suez Canal was blocked by the MS Ever Given cargo ship for almost a week.
Social media users have questioned whether the myth of “the curse of the pharaohs” might be to blame.
The ethics of displaying ancient Egyptian mummies has long been debated. Many Muslim scholars believe that the dead should be treated with dignity and respect and not be exhibited as curiosities.
In 1980, President Anwar Sadat ordered the Royal Mummy Room at the Egyptian Museum closed, arguing that it desecrated the dead. He wanted the mummies to be reburied instead, though he did not get his wish.

IMAGE COPYRIGHT
EPA
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The mummies will now rest in the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation

Source: BBC News