The Ministry of Antiquities announced important discoveries at a recent press conference, held on the eastern side of the Great Pyramid of Khufu on the Giza Plateau. It followed release of the preliminary results of the Scan Pyramids project. The project hopes to discover the secrets of the Pyramid of Khufu, including whether or not …
I was really happy to hear about the presentation of Betsy Bryan’s Festschrift in Florence during the International Congress of Egyptologists in August. Betsy Bryan is the Alexander Badawi Professor of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at John Hopkins University. Richard Jasnow and Kara Cooney were able to organise in the past three years to have …
The time I have spent in Cortona, Italy, is unforgettable. I was invited by Mayor Francesca because the town of Cortona decided to confer on me the award of Man of the Year. I was accompanied in my trip by a group of Egyptians, including Emad, the head of the Egyptian Tourist Authority in Rome, …
Some days ago I lost my great friend Omar Sharif. The last time I saw him was last week, when I visited him at the hospital in Helwan, Cairo. The doctor told me and his son Tarek that he had not eaten or drunk in a week. He could not recognise us and I had …
I don’t think that Cairo had ever seen before a book launch like the one that took place at the Cairo Marriott Hotel last Monday, June 8th 2015. My new book The legend of Tutankhamun, with photographs by Sandro Vannini, was presented at an extraordinary event in Cairo which was attended by many intellectuals, politicians, …
Read more “A wonderful evening for “The legend of Tutankhamun””
I was invited by Christoph Scholz, Director of SC Exhibitions, to go to Manila, the Philippines, to give a talk as part of the ASPAC 2015 Conference, hosted by the Mind Museum. The topic was “Egypt’s fundraising for museums”. I really enjoyed this trip with Christoph, who is a great German organiser and very good …
Read more “Manila and the Fundraising for the Children and Grand Egyptian Museum”
A couple of weeks ago I visited Riyadh after I was invited by HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA). It was a wonderful trip. On my second day in the Kingdom I visited the historical town of El Diriyah, accompanied by archaeologist Jamal …
In last week’s editorial I introduced my counter-arguments to Francesco Tiradritti’s theory that the Meidum Geese may be a fake. I would like now to publish the opinions of a number of colleagues on the subject. They are all famous archaeologists and art historians who are among the greatest experts when it comes to the …
It is very strange that these days we sometimes hear people appear suddenly to talk nonsense about famous objects in the Egyptian Museum. We have heard stories about the golden mask of Tutankhamun, for example, with some people claiming it is a fake. This of course is completely false. More recently, an archaeologist from Italy, …
[metaslider id=3325] When we initiated our program for the preservation of Egyptian monuments, I looked with particular attention at the Jewish synagogues in Egypt. We have about nine synagogues in Cairo and one in Alexandria. The Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue in Adly Street in downtown Cairo was in particularly poor conditions and needed to be restored. …
Read more “The Restoration of the Sha’ar Hashamayim Synagogue”