THE centre of Cairo illuminated with fascinating and colourful lights on Saturday evening as royal mummies of 18 kings and 4 queens were elegantly escorted from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC) in al-Fustat. With its unquestionably meticulous arrangements and fine presentation, the event was so captivating that it drew wide and overwhelming expressions of global acclaim and enthralment. “I can’t believe this is real and not a movie. Wow. So incredible. 22 royal mummies parade from Egypt Museum in Cairo to the new one. Hair raising… shivers,” so Filipino TV host, producer and UNICEF special Ambassador Daphne Osena Paez tweeted her impressions. A flurry of social media posts responded likewise to the twin events of the inauguration of the state-of-the-art NMEC and the relocation of the royal mummies following a marvelous procession.
President Sisi’s presence at the magnificent ceremony marking the opening of NMEC and the arrival of the 22 royal mummies symbolised the state’s highest-level keenness on preserving the country’s unparalleled civilisational heritage in perfect shape for future generations to see. And the participation of UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay and World Tourism Organisation Secretary-General Zurab Pololiashvili and a host of foreign dignitaries and ambassador pointed to the event’s international significance which was also accentuated by the more than 400 foreign correspondents and camera crews and hundreds of press reporters who covered the rare parade. It was indeed and by all standards a big event and a rare historical occurrence, deservedly called the Golden Parade, with the mummies moved including those of such remarkable ancient Egyptian royals as Ramses II, Ramses V, Ramses VI, Ramses IX, Thutmos, Queen Hatshepsut and Queen Nefertari, wife of King Ahmose, to mention just a few.
The fascinating parade reflected both the magnificence of the civilisation of ancient Egypt and the gigantic drive to build modern Egypt which is featuring the restoration of the country’s civilisational and cultural heritage in parallel with the renewal of the infrastructure and the construction of new cities along the lines of the most up-to-date standards of urban and developmental planning. The parade’s destination, the Fustat NMEC served well as an edifice that symbolises the keenness of the state on restoring the cultural heritage and making it available for a wide global spectatorship of ancient Egypt enthusiasts, tourists, Egyptologists and scholars.
The ancient mummies that the parade escorted, the meticulousness that rendered the parade a breath-taking success and the finesse of the recently constructed and equipped Fustat Museum all pointed to marked time-old skills in the arts of building and related human activities. Just a week before the parade passed through the streets of central Cairo, Egyptian engineers, technicians and workers has managed to salvage in the span of a few days a gigantic container vessel that was lodged in the Suez Canal – a technical feat then hailed by President Sisi as recalling the legacy of the forefathers who dug the canal as a vital waterway for the passage of goods between East and West and also the fathers who defended the canal.
Saturday evening’s Golden Parade has therefore helped shed highlights on Egypt’s peculiar heritage as a land of great builders and great building; hence the state’s keenness on organising the parade in such a way that revives the spirit if the ancient civilisation and pays tribute to its builders and developers. Befitting this atmosphere was the sending off of the mummies with a 21-gun salute, the playing of military music bands as the parade headed to the ancient royals’ new home and accompanying lively artistic performances by prominent stars. Also in tribute to the ancient royals came the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry’s choice of carrying each mummy in an independent vehicle with the name of each emblazoned in Arabic, English and Hieroglyph. So, be it in planning or in its historical value and significance, it was certainly a parade like no other.
