Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa on Sunday witnessed the signing of a co-operation protocol between the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the Shanghai Museum in China for a temporary archaeological exhibition.
The exhibition is to be held from 19 July 2024 until 17 August 2025.
The protocol was signed by SCA Secretary General Mostafa Waziry and Shanghai Museum director Chu Xiaobo.
Issa expressed hope that major tourism companies in China will witness the opening of the exhibition and promote the Egyptian tourism product in China.
For his part, Waziry said the exhibition, ‘Top of the Pyramid: Ancient Egypt’s Civilisation’ comprises 787 artifacts dating back to various periods of ancient Egyptian civilisation.
The exhibits have been selected from several museums, including the Manial Palace, Ismailia, Suez and Luxor, plus a selection from the excavations of the SCA Egyptian archaeological mission working in the Bubasteion site, Saqqara.
A quartzite statue of King Tutankhamun, another of King Amenemhat III, and a statue of the trinity of King Ramses II in the middle of the goddess Isis and the goddess Hathor are among the exhibits, in addition to a kneeling statue of Queen Hatshepsut, a group of coffins, canopic vessels, and funerary furniture from the 21st Dynasty, a gold bracelet belonging to Queen Ahhotep, and the gold crown of Queen Tawosret, was the last known ruler and the final pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty.
The exhibition will include artifacts from the Saqqara antiquities area, including 10 colorful wooden coffins, a number of animal mummies that were discovered in the mummy cache in the same area, in addition to a group of ushabti statues and some funerary furniture dating back to the late era.
Director of the Shanghai Museum thanked the Ministry, represented by the SCA, for this cooperation. He expressed his confidence that the exhibition will achieve great success and its contribution to increasing tourist traffic coming to Egypt from China.
