Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Secretary General, Mostafa Waziry, and German Ambassador in Cairo, Frank Hartmann, have inaugurated a temporary exhibition of the antiquities of Qantir, a village in the eastern Nile Delta in what is now Sharqiya Governorate.
Titled, “Antiquities of Qantir: A Century of Excavations and Researches at the Ramesside Residence”, the exhibition, which was opened late on Sunday, is held at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.
Qantir is located about 9 kilometres north of Faqous in Sharqiya. It is believed to be the ancient site of the 19th Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II’s capital, Pi-Ramesses.
The exhibition is a cooperation work of the Egyptian Museum and Germany’s Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum.
Waziry said it is one of many aspects of joint cooperation with the German museum, one that dates many years back in different areas of archaeological and museum work.
He revealed that at present 250 archaeological missions from 25 countries work in Egypt.
“Egypt is an incubator of history, excavations and archaeological discoveries,” Waziry said.
Around 250 artefacts are on display in the exhibition, all of them were discovered in the city of Qantir.
The exhibition chronicles the history of excavations in the city.
These excavations were initiated by archaeologists Mahmoud Hamza and Labib Habashi, and then completed by the Römer-Belzeus Museum in cooperation with the SCA.
The exhibition also contains statues and inscriptions of the first kings of the Ramesside era, such as King Seti I and King Ramses II, in addition to artefacts that illustrate the aspects of daily life in that important city, as well as the discoveries of each of the archaeologists who worked in the city.
Ambassador Hartmann said joint excavations in Qantir date back to 1980.
He commended the work of Egyptian excavators in Qantir as well as the efforts made by workers in archaeological sites in the city.
Archaeological cooperation between Egypt and Germany, the ambassador said, is not limited to excavation work.
He added that this cooperation also covers the exchange of expertise, capacity-building and other aspects that enrich archaeological work between the two sides.
Director of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, Aly Abdel Halim, and Director of the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo, Dietrich Rau, attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition which is held in Hall No. 44 on the ground floor of the Egyptian Museum. It will run until October 16.
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