Talking Pyramids

The third phase of the construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is moving forward and the GEM Committee is preparing a shortlist of companies from Spain, Brussels, Italy and Egypt proposed in the bid.

The third phase of the build includes the construction of the museum’s main exhibition halls, which will display 100,000 ancient Egyptian artefacts.

Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud supervisor of the GEM pointed out that the first and second phases of the GEM project have been completed and included construction of the labs, storehouses, power station and fire fighting unite.

He told Al-Ahram Online that until now 10,000 objects were transferred to the GEM from archaeological galleries all over Egypt and before the opening of the museum set for March 2015, the other 80,000 objects will be transferred.

Among the objects on display are the unique funerary objects of Tutankhamun, Hetepheres, mother of the Pharaoh Khufu, Yuya and Thuya, the grandfathers of Pharaoh Akhenaten, Senedjem, the principal artist of Pharaoh Ramses II, the royal mummies and the treasures of Tanis.

Read the full story in Ahram Online (includes some pictures).

Another update on the state of (dis)repair of the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara:

Mohammed Abdel Fattah, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, inspected the ongoing renovations at the step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara with General Mohammed el-Sheikha, head of the developments unit of the council Monday.

Abdel Fattah said that the pyramid is stable and there is no need to be concerned. He went onto say that the renovation company is fulfilling it duties and there are no obstacles to completion or issues with the already-appropriated three million EGP (U.S. $503,000) budget.

Read the full article in Youm7

There has been another development in the controversy of the halt to the restoration efforts on Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara.

The restrictions to the Supreme Council of Antiquities’ budget have resulted in a cessation of payments to Cintec, the company carrying out these restorations to the inner chambers of the pyramid.

Labelled as “media rumours”, this news has recently been investigated by the SCA:

Media rumours too have taken their toll. It was claimed that delays in processing payment to companies carrying out restoration work on both projects had led to work being neglected. Blocks in inner chambers of Djoser’s Step Pyramid were falling, while some pieces in the collection of Alexandria’s Graeco-Roman Museum that had been moved further along the coast to the Marina archaeological galleries were deteriorating because of poor storage conditions.

To make sure of the credibility of these claims published in newspapers, Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, secretary-general of the SCA, sent two archaeological and technical committees to inspect the status of both monuments. The team sent to Saqqara was led by the restoration project’s engineering consultant. Hassan Fahmi, who checked the condition of the pyramid and saw that it was still in a consolidated condition, but concluded that the restoration work must be resumed immediately in order to protect the structure of the oldest pyramid in history.

The committee also decided to provide funds to resume the restoration work and to begin immediate payment by installment to the company in charge of the work, the first instalment of which would be LE3 million.

Abdel-Maqsoud told Al-Ahram Weekly that he would make the required funds available either from the small revenue of the SCA or from the government.

“This restoration phase is the most crucial for the fate of Djoser’s Step Pyramid,” he told the Weekly.

“The preservation of Egypt’s monuments is the SCA’s top priority. We will work hard to provide the financial resources, despite the economic circumstances we are facing,” he added. “We do not want the world and history one day to hold us to account for neglecting the ancient structure.”

Samir Abdel-Raouf, head of the restoration project, said that if the restoration work did not resume immediately then some blocks of the pyramid roof could become detached. “These stones were given a temporary fix by using a pillow of air, but this required an immediate follow- up to avoid any sudden and unexpected fall of a block. The pyramid was in a really dreadful state before restoration began.”

The deterioration of the pyramid was due to climatic effects, environmental erosion factors and the leakage of subterranean water, not to mention the 1992 earthquake. The restoration plan includes consolidating the pyramid’s underground tunnels, monitoring the cracks, restoring the wall decorations and inspecting the natural ventilation inside the pyramid and the southern tomb.

A year ago a structural repair and reinforcement system was put into practise. This involved a temporary structural support in preparation for more permanent reinforced steel rods to be inserted diagonally through the steps of the pyramid knitting together the six levels.

Read the full story in Al-Ahram.

Photos provided by Cintec and used with permission.

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) has refused to return the bust of the Ankhhaf, architect of the pyramid of Khafre, for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza in 2015.

Argument for the item not to be returned is that it is too fragile to be moved. Zahi Hawass took offense when it’s return was initially rejected and subsequently insisted that the bust must be given back to Egypt permanently.

The MFA maintains that the item was legitimately given to the MFA in 1920 and will not be returned to Egypt.

Ankhaf in the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts - James Walsh

Four words are all Saleh needs.

“It is a dream,” he says.

The dream is the idea of the Ankhhaf bust returning from Boston, where it has rested since 1927. The Egyptian government is demanding the statue’s return, and the MFA has refused.

But this conflict – one of many the MFA has faced over works in its permanent collection – has been further complicated by the recent tumult in the Egyptian government. And while some claims for ownership of works can be made on legal grounds, this one treads on murkier terrain. The bust of Ankhhaf was given to the MFA by a previous Egyptian government, so the current government has no legal case. Any appeal must be made on moral grounds: that the piece is part of Egypt’s patrimony, and belongs at home.

For now, Saleh, a soft-spoken cultural leader respected by both Egyptian and American curators, remains hopeful. He pulls out a thick document that shows the planned interior of the new museum, which is meant to hold 10,000 objects, range over more than a million square feet, and attract 5 million visitors a year when it opens in 2013, less than two miles from the Giza pyramids.

He points to a prominent spot at the top of a walkway leading visitors through the entrance. This is where he is planning to place the bust of Ankhhaf, a royal architect who is believed to have overseen the building of the Sphinx and the second pyramid of Giza. A glass wall will allow the new museum to display the bust in the shadow of that very pyramid.

Read the full story: Fragile, don’t touch

Watch a virtual restoration of the bust of Ankhhaf:

Photo by James Walsh CC By NC

It seems that a delay in payments to the structural repair and reinforcement systems company Cintec, who were carrying out restoration work to the insides of the pyramid of Djoser has resulted in a halt to the restoration work.

The newly appointed Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt Mohammad Abdel-Maksoud announced Sunday that a committee has decided to make funds available to restart restoration work on the Zoser pyramid.

Local media had claimed the inside of the pyramid was falling down, following a default in payment to the company that was operating the restoration works. A statement from the council said that a technical committee met Sunday, and decided that payments would be in three phases with a priority for the workers’ salaries and for the delayed company payments.

Read more at the Daily Star

UPDATE 09-08-11: Another article has appeared this morning in Youm7 but adds little detail about the nature of the restoration work. Although both articles featured a photo of restoration on the pyramid’s exterior I am assuming the renovation company mentioned is Cintec, who were working inside the pyramid.

Hasan Fahmy, the project’s engineer consultant, checked the condition of the pyramid and decided to continue the renovation process, which will protect the structure that is considered to be the first pyramid in history.

The committee also decided to begin paying the renovation company’s fees immediately in installments. The first installment will be 3 million EGP (U.S. $508,000).

UPDATE 10-08-11: Another news article published today confirms that the restorations mentioned are indeed those being carried out by Cintec on the ceiling of Djoser’s burial chamber. From the article:

The head of the restoration project, Samir Abdel Rauf archaeologist, said in a statement to the Egyptian press that the suspension of work can lead to detachment of blocks of the pyramid roof. 

He said that these stones were fixed temporarily with the use of “pillow (brackets) of air,” and that this requires “a follow-up to avoid a sudden drop occurs because the state of the pyramid before the start of the restoration was appalling. ” 

He reminded the team of experts to the rehabilitation of the grave worked under very harsh and dangerous, because they ran a serious risk that block fell on them. 

For its part, the supervisor’s architectural plan and professor at the University of Cairo, Hasan Fahmi, considered that the rescue of the pyramid is a “national project”, by income sight-seeing the place left in the treasury . 

The deterioration of the monument is due to climatic effects, environmental and groundwater, and other human activities have also damaged. 

”The explosions in military camps and quarries near Saqqara also contributed to the pyramid collapses, like previous studies done without accurate restorations,” said Fahmi. 

The head of Egyptian antiquities, which replaced a few weeks ago the controversial Zahi Hawass at the forefront of this key department, concluded that “the preservation of archaeological monuments is the main priority of the institution.” 

”We will work hard to provide financial resources, despite the economic circumstances we are facing. We do not want the world and history judge us one day as negligent in the restoration of this ancient pyramid,” said Abdel Maqsud.

Read an English translation of the full story here.

Photo by JohnBurke CC By NC ND

In yet another strange twist to the ongoing saga of the looting of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, two more of the stolen pieces have turned up. Where? Well, that’s the strange part – they were found INSIDE the museum itself during an inventory check of the museum contents.

How could this be?

Were they never actually stolen?

Were they simply ‘misplaced’?

Or were they stolen and then surreptitiously returned?

It is not the first time some of the stolen items were returned under bizarre circumstances. Readers of Talking Pyramids will remember the strange occurrence of the items that were reportedly left inside a black bag at the Shubra station and by sheer coincidence found by an employee of the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs (MSAA). This story was later changed, perhaps after it was realised to be too far fetched and unbelievable. The newer version of the same event appeared without any explanation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Four ancient Egyptian wall paintings have been discovered at Saqqara by locals who were randomly digging in the sand during the lapse in security during the height of the revolution.

They were uncovered by the Egyptian Archaeology Mission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, chaired by Mohammed Abdel Fattah.

“This important discovery was found by chance when local residents dug randomly after the January 25 Revolution,” said the general director of the Saqqara archaeological area in Giza.

“Immediately the archeology inspectors went to the site after being informed about the digging. They found walls with paintings, and continued the excavation process,” he continues.

He added that the excavations revealed four wall paintings of a tomb and depict the daily life and offering sacrifices of ancient Egyptians. There are hieroglyphic writings with the names of the tomb owners.

The four paintings were registered in presence of the Tourism and Archeology police, and then they were transferred to Saqqara’s storehouse.

Source: Youm7

Also in the news today is a very similar story of five ancient Egyptian wall paintings in the village of Lisht:

Antiquities inspectors found five rare antique paintings emblazoned with graphics of Pharonic life and inscribed with the ancient Egyptian language in the El Lesht village in El Ayiat today. The inspectors coordinated with the antiquities police and transferred the paintings to one of the antiquities museums in Egypt.

General Major Abdeen Youssef, head of security in Giza, received notification from 28-year-old Ahmed Awad, the antiquities inspector living in the El Atf village in El Ayiat, informing the General that he discovered the five paintings during a walk through El Lesht village.

The paintings are each roughly one-meter tall, 100 centimeters wide, and weigh 200 kilograms, and written on each is the ancient Egyptian language. The general administration of the Tourism and Antiquities Police was notified, who arrived on scene in the upper village of Saudi in El Ayiat. The security forces transferred the five paintings to an archaeological warehouse in Dahshur.

Source: Youm7

Photo by Mrs Logic CC By