Cairo: Egypt plans a major parade marking the transfer of 22 mummies of pharaohs to be displayed at a museum in Islamic Cairo as the country struggles to revitalise its vital tourism.
The mummies will be carried on Saturday from the Egyptian Museum in Tharir onto especially designed carts heading to the National Museum of the Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat. The event will be shown live on Egyptian and several foreign TV stations, Egyptian officials said.
They include mummies of 18 kings and four queens. “They will be received like heads of state as the mankind is indebted to them. Each cart, taking the shape of a boat, has the name of the sovereign carried inside,” Tourism Minister Khalid al-Enani said.
Not to be displayed
“The mummies will not be displayed through the parade to preserve them and out of respect to them,” he added in television remarks.
The mummies include those of King Ramses II, King Seqenenre Tao, King Tuthmose III and Queen Hatshepsut. They will be put on display at the museum later this month.
Egypt’s tourism, a major foreign currency earner, has been hard hit by fallout from militant attacks and the global coronavirus pandemic.
