Prominent Discoveries, Archaeological Openings of Tourism Ministry

Today, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced many archaeological discoveries during 2020

In these next lines, we will tackle in detail most of these findings.

El-Minya:

- The discovery of 16 family graves containing 30 coffins belonging to the high priests of the deity Jahouti in the Al-Gharifa monuments area.

-  The discovery of tombs, several stone sarcophagi, shabti statues, wooden statues, canopic vessels and amulets in Al-Gharifa in Touna Al-Jabal.

- The discovery of a unique tomb dating back to the Sawy era in the Bahnasa region.

Sakara:

- The announcement of spotting a group of stone and wooden sarcophagus, as well as, funerary furniture at the site of the sacred animal and birds cemetery in the Sakara antiquities area.

- The announcement of finding 59 coloured, closed wooden coffins inside burial wells in the Sakara antiquities area at an international press conference, attended by more than 50 ambassadors.

- The unveiling of more than 100 coloured wooden coffins, 40 wooden statues of the god Ptah Sukkar, many shabti statues, amulets, and 4 masks of gilded cartoons, in an international press conference attended by more than 300 Egyptians, foreign journalists and media professionals.

The Returned Monuments:

-  The authorities stopped an electronic sale of Egyptian pottery vessels that were offered by a citizen for sale in the Czech Republic, and the vessels were handed over to the Egyptian embassy in the Czech Republic.

- 450 antiquities were retrieved from the Emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, based on the generous initiative of the Ruler of the Emirate, Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi.

- The ambassadors of KSA, China, and India had received a set of currencies belonging to their countries that were confiscated at the Egyptian ports.

The Openings:

The opening of several temporary external exhibitions of antiquities, which are an important financial source for the ministry, in addition to its promotional role.

- The opening of an exhibition of archaeological reproductions in Italy.

- The number of visitors at the Tutankhamun antiquities exhibition in the English capital London reached more than 580,000 before closing it due to the spread of the new Coronavirus, and the artefacts in the aforementioned museum had been returned to Egypt on August 27, 2020.

- The exhibition of  "The Sunken Cities: The Enchanting World of Egypt" opens at the Virginia Museum of Art in the United States of America.

- The opening of "Kings of the Sun" exhibition at the National Museum in the Czech capital, Prague.

- The issuance of the Prime Minister’s decision to approve the holding of an archaeological exhibition in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for the first time, entitled “Bisector of the Mosque”, at the Enrichment Museum in El-Zohran for 24 months.