Rotary Cairo Club Honors Zahi Hawass

Rotary Club of Cairo on Wednesday honored renowned Egyptian archaeologist, Dr. Zahi Hawass. The ceremony was attended by a number of the club's key figures.

During the event, Hawass said that a man should love his work in order to reach high level of creativity, pointing out that he wasn’t interested in working in the Ministry of Antiquities after his graduation until he moved to work in the desert for monuments excavations, where he acquired many skills helped him in his career.

He added that he was granted a 7-year scholarship in the U.S, where he made his way to prove himself as a great archaeologist.

Hawass pointed out that Egypt has 124 pyramids, the greatest of which is Khufu's pyramid.

He confirmed that the ancient Egyptian’s belief in the afterlife and the importance of funerary practices are the main reasons for their ingenuity in all fields, especially in building the pyramids, which represented the national project of the Egyptians and the place where kings ruled Egypt from him.

Hawass denied the presence of red mercury in the ancient Egyptian tombs, which some believe it brought wealth to them as well as helped them heal him from diseases, adding the absence of strict archaeological evidence on the visit of some prophets to Egypt except for the Merneptah Stele, also known as the Victory Stele of Merneptah, which marked the presence of Moses in Egypt.

He pointed out that only 30 percent of Egypt’s antiquities have been discovered and the rest are still buried under the ground.

The well-known Egyptologist stressed that until 1983, the Egyptian antiquities were legally traded out of Egypt, and the archaeological missions were allowed to obtain half of what they discovered, however, the parliament later banned smuggling operations.

Hawass also announced that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will soon inaugurate the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), which will include a performance of Tutankhamun’s opera.

Hawass told the audience that the tombs, which had been closed for thousands of years, included invisible germs flowing to archaeologists after excavations, prompting some to believe the curse of the Pharaohs.

Finally, he concluded by reviewing some of his latest archaeological discoveries in the Valley of the King.