Egypt recovers Stolen relief of King Seti I from London

A New Kingdom relief illegally smuggled out of the country has been retrieved from England

By Nevine El-Aref , Sunday 4 Oct 2015

Photocredit: Ahram Online

A limestone relief dating back to the New Kingdom period, between the 16th and 11th centuries BC, was recovered Sunday from an auction hall in London after two weeks of negotiations.

Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty told Ahram Online that the ministry was informed about the relief by the curator at the British Museum, Marcel Mary.

Mary sent a photograph of the piece to the ministry asking for its authenticity, as the piece was put on display in an auction hall in London.

Eldamaty assigned an archeological committee to inspect the relief. The committee later confirmed its authenticity. 

A report was then filed at Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities police and a similar one was sent to Interpol in order to stop the sale of the relief.

Ali Ahmed, Director of the Recuperation Antiquities Department, explained that the relief was then confiscated by the British police and is due to come home next week.

He explained that the relief was stolen due to illegal excavations. The relief is engraved with a scene depicting the 19th dynasty King Seti I before goddess Hathor and god Web Wawat. It also bears hieroglyphic text and the names of several ancient Egyptian deities of Assiut governorate in Upper Egypt.

“It is a very important relief as it depicts a not yet discovered temple of king Seti I in Assiut,” Ahmed pointed out.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/152042/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Egypt-recovers-Stolen-relief-of-King-Seti-I-from-L.aspx

News this week

By Rany Mostafa

Tomb of ‘gatekeeper of God Amun’ unearthed in Luxor

A 3,500-year-old tomb of “the gatekeeper of God Amun” has been unearthed in the west bank of Luxor, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty announced Tuesday.

The tomb was accidentally discovered during cleaning and restoration work carried out by the archaeology mission of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) in a nearby tomb in the archaeological site of Sheikh Abd el Qurna on the west bank of Luxor, according to Damaty.

“The gatekeeper of Amun, one of several titles that were found carved at the tomb’s door lintel, is strongly believed to be a job description of an 18th Dynasty (1580 B.C.- 1292 B.C.) high official. Amenhotep is the real name of the tomb owner that was found carved at the walls of the tomb,” he added.

According to Damaty, the tomb measures 5 meters long by 1.5 meters wide and takes a T-shape. A small side chamber of 4 square meters with a burial shaft in the middle is to be found inside the tomb.

Sultan Eid, Director of Upper Egypt Antiquities Department told The Cairo Post Tuesday that some parts of the tombs are well preserved with “dazzling scenes showing Amenhotep, along with his wife, depicted standing making an offering before several ancient Egyptian deities.”

Stolen 18th dynasty relief returns from Germany

A painted limestone relief that was stolen and illegally smuggled to Germany during the last century arrives back in Egypt

By Nevine El-Aref , Wednesday 23 Jul 2014

Egypt on Wednesday received from Germany a painted limestone relief that was stolen in the last century from the tomb of 18th dynasty high priest Sobekhotep in the Nobles necropolis on Luxor’s west bank.

Photocredit: Ahram Online

Minister of Antiquities and Heritage Mamdouh El-Damati told Ahram Online that the recovery of the relief started a few months ago when he was Egypt’s cultural attaché in Germany and curators at Bonn University Museum were working hard to organise a temporary exhibition there.

During preparations, a curator at the museum spotted the relief and it was confirmed that it was stolen and had been taken from the 18th dynasty tomb of Sobekhotep, a high priest during the reign of King Tuthmose IV.

The limestone relief is in very good condition. It is 30cm tall and 40cm wide. It depicts two figures of Sobehotep standing and making offerings to deities.

The owners of the relief, a German couple, did not know it was stolen because they brought from a British private collection in 1986 and offered it to Bonn University Museum so it could be displayed at the temporary exhibition.

When they found out it was a stolen and illegally smuggled artefact, said El-Damati, they admitted Egypt’s possession of the relief but asked for it to remain in Germany at the Friderish Museum for Ancient Egyptian Artefacts in Al-Rin area in Bonn. Egypt rejected the demand and said it should be returned under antiquities law 117 of 1983 and its amendment in 2010.

Hence the couple agreed to return the relief after putting it on display for three weeks at the exhibition in Bonn.

Egypt’s embassy in Germany stated on its website that Ambassador Mohamed Hegazy held a celebration on the occasion of returning the artefact and praised the couple for returning it.

Hegazy called on antiquities collectors to return the Egyptian artefacts they own voluntarily to where they belong.

He also called on German authorities to cooperate with Egyptian authorities to protect its cultural and archaeological heritage in accordance with the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing Illicit Import.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/106876/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Stolen-th-dynasty-relief-returns-from-Germany.aspx

The mask of no return?

A legal challenge for the return of the 3,300-year-old mask of ancient Egyptian noblewoman Ka-Nefer-Nefer has failed after US attorneys missed a filing deadline, writes Nevine El-Aref

The controversial mask of a noblewoman, Ka-Nefer-Nefer, who once graced the court of ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II was in the limelight again last week, when the case against the Saint Louis Art Museum in the US to have the mask returned to Egypt fell apart because the attorneys missed a filing deadline.

Presiding Judge James Loken remarked that the US government, which had brought the case, would now have to “beg for a do-over.”

According to the Daily RFT blog, the US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to grant the government what it wanted. Loken, who wrote the judgement, chastised government lawyers who “knew many months prior to the order of dismissal of the possible need to amend the pleading.”

Accordingly, the court issued its decision that the mask would stay where it was and would not be returned to Egypt.

Judge Diana Murphy concurred with the ruling, but mentioned that the fight over the Ka-Nefer-Nefer mask has much greater significance than just a missed deadline. “I concur in the court’s opinion, but write separately to express my concern about what the record in this case reveals about the illicit trade in antiquities,” she said.

She added that “the substantive issues underlying this litigation are of great significance, and not only to museums which responsibly seek to build their collections. The theft of cultural patrimony and its trade on the black market present concerns of international import. These issues affect governments and the international art and antiquities markets, as well as those who seek to safeguard global cultural heritage.”

What the new pharaoh tells us about ancient Egypt

By Nicola Harrington

Last month’s discovery in South Abydos, in Egypt – of the remains of the pharaoh, Senekbay, which date to the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1750-1550 BC) – sheds new light on a complex and divided period of Egyptian history.

The collapse of the Old Kingdom, the age of the great pyramid-builders, saw the dissolution of central government and the formation of independent states. The unprepossessing tomb of a provincial king named Senebkay not only supports Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt’s previously dismissed theory of an Abydos Dynasty, but changes the political landscape of Egypt during the turbulent Second Intermediate Period.

Senebkay’s times and the Abydos Dynasty

Senebkay, who lived around 1650 BC, was ruler of Middle Egypt, situated between kingdoms ruled from Avaris (Tell el-Daba in the Delta) and Thebes (modern Luxor).

Prior to the discovery of the Abydos South cemetery, the only established dynasties were those of the north (the 13th and 15th dynasties, Hyksos) and south (16th). These vied for power until the Theban king Ahmose pushed south and succeeded in reunifying the country at the beginning of what is known as the New Kingdom (1550-1075 BC).

It’s worth noting here that term “dynasty” is a modern artificial academic concept – a means of grouping Egyptian rulers chronologically. It would not have been recognised in the ancient world.

Priceless missing statuette of Tutankhamun's sister found

Statuette of ancient Pharoah's sister which went missing in looting during riots protesting overthrow on ex-president Morsi found in three pieces

By Richard Spencer, Cairo

A priceless statuette of the sister of the Pharaoh Tutanhkhamun which went missing during mass looting of a museum in central Egypt in the summer has been found, the antiquities ministry said on Sunday.

The statuette had been broken into three pieces, said Monica Hanna, an archaeologist who has led a campaign to protect Egypt's historical sites. However, the breaks appeared to be along the lines of previous restoration work and it seemed likely it could be put back together, she said.

The statuette was the highlight of the museum in the city of Mallawi, near the archaeological remains of the new capital established by Tutankhamun's father Akhenaten in the 14th Century BC.

Egyptian police and Unesco put out an alert through Interpol and to international museums and dealers after the museum was smashed and looted during Islamist riots protesting the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammed Morsi, in August.

More than 1,000 items went missing, but some experts believed that the protests were used as cover by professional thieves of Pharaonic exhibits to target the statuette, a small limestone figure of the princess holding an offering.

26th Dynasty ushabti figure coming home from Brussels

The torso of a 26th Dynasty green faience ushabti figure stolen during the January 25 Revolution is to return to Egypt next week from Brussels

by Nevine El-Aref , Saturday 7 Dec 2013

Next week Egypt is to recover a 26th Dynasty ushabti torso that was reported missing from the Egyptian Museum on 28 January 2011, in the throes of the January 25 Revolution.

Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim said that the artifact was broken into two pieces. The lower part remained in the museum while the torso was stolen and smuggled out of the country and sold to a Belgian citizen.

A few days ago, continued Ibrahim, the Belgian citizen presented the torso to a French archaeologist to ascertain its authenticity and value. The French archaeologist recognised that the torso had been in collection the Egyptian Museum. He had studied it in 1989 at the museum.

The French archaeologist reported the find to the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA), which in turn undertook the required procedures to recover it. The MSA contacted the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Egyptian embassy in Brussels, Interpol and UNESCO in order to help in the restitution of the artifact.

"The torso was among the pieces stolen from the Egyptian Museum on 28 January 2011, but regretfully it was not included in the report issued at that time about the missing objects," Ibrahim told Ahram Online.

Ibrahim added that he referred the case to the prosecutor general for investigation on why the torso was not included in the missing items report.

Ali Ahmed, head of the Antiquities Repatriation Department at the MSA, explained that the whole statue was found in the Memphis necropolis in 1858 and belonged to a nobleman of various titles, among them the holder of the north stamps.

The ushabti is 29 centimetres tall and is well known among archaeologists.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/88491/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/th-Dynasty-ushabti-figure-coming-home-from-Brussel.aspx

Tutankhamun's sister goes missing

Alert issued after 'Daughter of the Pharaoh Akhenaten' - Tutankhamun's sister - is stolen alongside hundreds of other exhibits in Egypt

By Richard Spencer, Mallawi, Egypt

Egypt has issued an international alert for the return of an exquisite statuette of Tutankhamun's sister, stolen with hundreds of other exhibits when a museum was looted amid clashes between police and Islamists this summer.

The carved limestone figurine of "A Daughter of the Pharaoh Akhenaten", dating from the 14th Century BC, has not been found since the destruction in August of the Mallawi City Museum in central Egypt.

Photocredit: The Telegraph

Experts fear that under the cover of days of riots it was stolen to order. It was Mallawi's prize exhibit, and due to be transferred to a new museum currently being built nearby to honour the family of Akhenaten, one of Egypt's most celebrated and unusual pharaohs as well as Tutankhamun's father.

During the riots in the town which followed the violent dispersal of protests in Cairo on Aug 14 and the killing of hundreds of Islamist supporters of the president, Mohammed Morsi, looters walked off with everything that could be carried from the museum - around 1,000 pieces in all.

More than 600 have been returned or seized by police. But hundreds of fine pieces, including a collection of Greek gold coins, statues of ibises, the birds still common to the region which were held in reverence in pharaonic times, and the figure of the princess have still not been recovered.

Some archaeologists believe the raid may have been orchestrated with her statue in mind. Relics of the Akhenaten era, source of the most celebrated finds of ancient Egypt, fetch the highest prices on the international black market and families of antiquities smugglers are known to operate in the area.

"I think the looters knew what they were taking," said Monica Hanna, an Egyptian archaeologist prominent in the campaign to prevent the desecration of its historic sites.

Egyptian government deploys armed guards at remote temple sites

Guards to boost security at Wadi Al-Sebua temple near Aswan

by Nevine El-Aref , Friday 8 Nov 2013

The Ministry of State for Antiquities has started to provide security in remote archaeological areas which were left without guards after the 2011 revolution.

Ten ministry security guards at the Wadi Al-Sebua temple area on Lake Nasser, south of Aswan, were armed with guns on Friday, in order to tighten security measures at the remote site.

Photocredit: Ahram Online

Antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim said the step was important for preventing further looting attempts.

He denied reports that the Wadi Al-Sebua area had been recently subjected to looting, saying that only electricity cables and lamps used to illuminate the site at night had been stolen.

Wadi Al-Sebua, or the Valley of the Lions, is the name given to a Nubian temple built by King Ramses II at the end of his reign (1279 -1213BC).

It was one of the temples that was dismantled and removed from its site in the 1960s to make way for the reservoir that would accompany the Aswan High Dam. The temple took its name from an avenue of sphinxes that decorates its entrance.

The temple originally consisted of a set of three pylons, but only two survive. The first, which led to the avenue of sphinxes, is no longer there, but the second, which leads into a forecourt decorated by statues of Ramses II and the third, which leads to a second courtyard supported by columns decorated by images of Ramses as Osiris, are still extant.

The hypostyle hall and inner sanctuary that follow these courtyards were carved into the bedrock.

Close by Wadi Al-Sebua is Dakka Temple, which was built much later during the Ptolemaic era.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/85915/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Egyptian-government-deploys-armed-guards-at-remote.aspx

Stolen Ancient Egyptian shrine recovered

Limestone Ancient Egyptian shrine (or naos) found in residential home in Mit Rahina town

by Nevine El-Aref , Sunday 3 Nov 2013

Tourism and Antiquities Police have recovered a stolen limestone naos (shrine) hidden inside a residential home in Mit-Rahina town in Al-Badrasheen city, south of Cairo.

Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said the ministry's archaeological committee had confirmed the naos is authentic and dates from the Old Kingdom.

It includes four statues of persons fixed on four bases engraved with hieroglyphic verses from The Pyramid Texts. The first statue is 16 cm tall and depicts a standing figure wearing a black wig. The second is 19.2 cm tall and features a person wearing a coloured wig, while the third statue is 9.2 cm in height and may be of a child wearing a coloured wig. On his chest is engraved line of hieroglyphics. The fourth statue is 16.4 cm tall and depicts a person with a black wig.

Aly El-Asfar, deputy head of the Ancient Egyptian department at the ministry, said the statues could be of the same person different during stages of life. The naos is now under investigation to discover its original location and whether it was dug illegally.

The possessor of the naos is now being held in custody and is being investigated, he said.

Egyptian Museum exhibit puts spotlight on restored artefacts

Several antiquities looted and damaged during the 2011 uprising are being exhibited after being restored to their former glory

By Yomna El Saeed

Under the title Damaged and Restored, the Egyptian museum in Cairo is hosting an exhibition of antiquities that were lost and damaged, and subsequently restored, during the 25 January Revolution.

The exhibition is staged in hall 44 of the museum and was opened by the minister of antiquities Dr Mohamed Ibrahim, the head of the museums sector, Mr Ahmed Sharaf, the general manager of the Egyptian museum, Mr Sayed Aamer and the general manager of the conservation department of the Egyptian museum, Dr Hoda Abdel Hameed. In total 29 artefacts are on display, 11 of which were looted and recovered and 18 which were damaged but not stolen from the museum during the revolution.

Among the displayed artefacts are two statues of King Tutankhamen made of cedar wood and covered with gold, a statue of King Akhenaton, Ushabtis statues which belonged to the Nubian kings, a mummy of a child and a small plychrome glass vase.

Eid Rizk Mertah from the conservation department of the Egyptian museum explained what happened to the artefacts on display. “Some looters found that after they stole the archeological pieces they could not sell them, so they damaged them, put them in bags and threw them in the garden, in the garbage bin and on the roof of the museum. This is where the employees of the museum found them. The pieces were very badly damaged.”

Egypt’s stolen heritage

By Mohamed Ibrahim, Saturday, October 19

Mohamed Ibrahim is Egypt’s minister of state for antiquities and a professor of Egyptology at Ain Shams University in Cairo.

Egypt’s future lies in its history, particularly its archaeological history. For hundreds of years the mystery and wonders of the pyramids, the sphinx and the Valley of the Kings have attracted visitors from around the world. Tourism is the lifeblood of Egypt’s economy and touches the lives of most Egyptians, whether they work as tour guides, restaurant owners, craftsmen or bus operators. Egypt’s history holds the prosperity of the country’s future generations, including that of youths — more than 40 million Egyptians are age 30 or younger — who are seeking opportunities.

But thieves are raiding our archaeological sites and selling their findings to the highest bidders. They are taking advantage of Egypt’s security situation to loot our nation’s economic future and steal from our children.

Egyptians need the people and the government of the United States to support our efforts to combat the systematic and organized looting of our museums and archaeological sites. Imagine a world in which the stories of King Tut, Cleopatra, Ramesses and others were absent from the collective consciousness. And with much of our history still waiting to be discovered under the sand, the potential losses are staggering. Antiquities theft is one of the world’s top crimes — after the trafficking of weapons, narcotics and people — but it is seldom addressed.

Looted artefacts recovered in sting operation

by Aaron T. Rose

More still missing from Mallawi museum

The Ministry of State for Antiquities announced on Wednesday that it has recovered 13 artefacts recovered from the looted museum in the Minya city of Mallawi.

With the help of the Tourism and Antiquities Police, the ministry was able to recover items that were stolen from the museum after it was attacked by a mob and ransacked during protests on 14 August.

The artefacts were recovered in Giza on 16 September when Essam Al-Sakkat, 36 year-old butcher from Mallawi, attempted to sell the stolen items to an undercover law enforcement agent posing as a buyer, reported the Egypt Independent.  Al-Sakkat was arrested, the first arrest of someone in possession of looted items from the Mallawi museum.

According to the statement by the Antiquities Minister Dr Mohammed Ibrahim, the artefacts recovered include “a statue of Jehuty, the god of wisdom, a group of Terra-cotta statues’ heads made of pottery and limestone in addition to six lanterns and pieces of flint and stone objects.”

Of the 1,050 artefacts stolen, nearly 900 have been recovered, according to Ibrahim. Reports indicate that mummies in the museum were vandalised and burned, and items too big to be carried out of the museum were destroyed.  UNESCO and Interpol both have lists of the missing items to deter black market dealing.

Mallawi is located 300 km south of Cairo in the Minya governate.  Its museum housed items spanning from the Pharaonic era to the Islamic caliphates.

Al-Sakkat has been referred to prosecution after admitting to the charges, reported the Egypt Independent.  He has criminal convictions in cattle theft, drug trafficking and possession of unlicensed weapons.

Source: http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/09/18/looted-artefacts-recovered-in-sting-operation/

Egypt's ancient artifacts feel nation's ills

by Nancy A. Youssef

Yasmin el Shazly, an Egyptologist, last gave a VIP tour through the Egyptian Museum two years ago, before the uprising just outside the museum doors in Tahrir Square led to the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Before that, el Shazly once lectured Paris Hilton and Charlize Theron about the world's greatest collection of Egyptian artifacts. Now the museum is an empty monument to a nation shunned by tourists and unwilling, or perhaps unable, to preserve its history, both recent and ancient.

As el Shazly prepared to return to work after a 15-month maternity leave, she stopped by her office and discovered a museum all but abandoned since the ouster July 3 of former President Mohammed Morsi, a development that officials say killed the last vestiges of tourism here.

Shocked by the emptiness of the world's oldest museum building, el Shazly offered to give her friends a VIP tour last week. As she spoke about the artifacts, she and her friends discovered that even Egypt's rich history, which gave rise to modern civilisation, hasn't been spared from today's volatility: Ten army tanks and long strings of barbed wire lined the streets to protect the already-once-looted building and its collection, a visual reminder of where Egypt's past and present collide.

Ransacked! Egypt's Malawi National Museum

AP released some photos yesterday from the ransacked Egyptian antiques museum Malawi National Museum. Apparently 1040 of the 1089 objects were stolen from the museum last thursday.

The following photos by AP show what is left of the museum after the looting.

For more info about the stolen objects:

http://www.facebook.com/StopTheHeritageDrain

http://www.facebook.com/EgyptsHeritageTaskForce

British Museum and archaeologist confirm identity of stolen Egyptian artefact

With 1 stolen artefact identified and saved from a Christie's auction, officials continue to investigate 5 more in the largest-known theft since the January 2011 revolution

Amer Sultan in London , Friday 9 Aug 2013

Archaeologist Hourig Sourouzian and the British Museum have identified the exact provenance of one of six artefacts allegedly looted from Egypt and meant to be auctioned through Christie's in London on 2 May.

British Museum Assistant Keeper of Ancient Egypt and Sudan Department Marcel Marée recounts to Ahram Online that he and his colleagues spotted the stolen ancient Egyptian objects from Christie’s latest catalogue listing antiquities up for sale, among which were the six artefacts that are claimed to have been in a private UK collection since the 1940s. "But I had reason to doubt this," he reveals.

The British Museum relies on an extensive network of Egyptologists who are helping trace the provenance of the possible stolen antiquities, including Hourig Sourouzian, who used to work for the German Archaeological Institute and has been conducting excavations at the Amenhotep III mortuary temple on Luxor's west bank for many years now.

Hathor Temple at Mit Rahina was not set on fire

After Sunday's mass rallies in Egypt, Hathor Temple stays intact despite rumours of destruction; antiquities minister says all historical sites secured, welcomed visitors

by Nevine El-Aref , Monday 1 Jul 2013

Egypt's archaeological sites, museums and monuments have been secured and protection measures have increased by the Tourism and Antiquities Police, in collaboration with the army, to prevent theft or destruction, following nationwide protests on Sunday against President Mohamed Morsi.

Minister of State for Antiquities Ahmed Eissa asserted that all archaeological sites in Egypt are unharmed and welcomed its visitors. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo's Tahrir Square received 219 visitors of different nationalities while 585 people visited the Giza Plateau on Sunday and Monday, he stated.

Ministry of State for Antiquities archaeology consultant Mohamed Hamada confirmed to Ahram Online that nothing happened to Hathor Temple at Mit Rahina archaeological site, located about 24kilometres south of Cairo. He also denied rumours that it had been set on fire during.

The temple is very far of the burned grass and plants, Hamada said.

Mit Rahina, known in Ancient Egypt by Memphis, was the capital of Ancient Egypt for over eight consecutive dynasties in the Old Kingdom.

The city reached its peak during the 6th dynasty and became the core of worshiping god Ptah, the god of creation and artworks.

Memphis declined briefly after the 18th dynasty with the rise of Thebes and the New Kingdom, but it remained the second city of Egypt until 641 CE.

It was abandoned and became a source of stone for the surrounding settlements. It includes ruins of Ancient Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Graeco-Roman temples and chapels.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/75421/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Hathor-Temple-at-Mit-Rahina-was-not-set-on-fire-.aspx

Egypt prepares to safeguard heritage before 30 June

Broad range of actors join call to protect Egypt heritage from looting during upcoming protests; enact tight security measures around sites

by Nevine El-Aref , Friday 28 Jun 2013

In advance of  mass protests planned for 30 June, fears of looting in Egypt's archaeological landmarks, museums, and sites are growing.

These fears have roots in the January 2011 revolution, during which looting occurred in Tahrir's Egyptian Museum as well as in archeological sites across the country. Although several objects were recovered, many others are still missing.

“I am very worried about Egypt’s archaeological sites,” said Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, deputy of the head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Section at the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA).

Abdel Maqsoud told Ahram Online that since the 2011 revolution, the lack of security in the country has posed many problems for the protection of antiquities.

While the 2011 revolution lootings were carried out haphazardly by thugs and vandals, Abdel Maqsoud fears that the 30 June protests will be different because antiquities thieves and traders had enough time to plan their robberies, especially of archeological sites in remote areas.

Ancient Heliopolis under threat

Caesar Augustus sent the obelisks from Heliopolis to Alexandria, from where they were moved to Rome, Paris and New York. This was the beginning of the looting of the ancient site of Heliopolis, a process that has continued to this day.

By Monica Hanna

Heliopolis, the site of ancient Iunu or Biblical On, is the only Ancient Egyptian archaeological site still visible in Cairo. The site is located to the northeast of Cairo, in close vicinity to contemporary Heliopolis or Misr Al-Gadeeda. The site was the capital of the 13th nome of Lower Egypt and was famous for the temples of the gods Ra, Ra-Atum and Ra-Horakhty, which turned Heliopolis into a significant religious centre since the pre-dynastic period.

During the Ptolemaic period the sun-god Ra was referred to as helios (Greek for ‘sun’), thus the city was renamed Heliopolis or the “City of the Sun”; the modern Arabic name “Ain Shams” also is a derivation. The priesthood of the temple of the sun created the Heliopolitan cosmogony (a narration of the creation of the world) where the god Atum played the role of the creator. The site was thought to be where the benben primordial mound arose from the waters of Nu in the creation of the world. The benu (phoenix) bird and the Mneuvis bull were worshipped in the area as manifestations of Ra, and Hathor “Mistress of Hetpet” was worshipped as the female deity of the area.

The oldest cemetery found in the area dates to the period of Naqada I and II (4000-3000 BCE); the pottery recovered during the excavations can be compared to that found on sites of comparable date, like Maadi and Wadi Degla. The rest of the site has had features dating from the Third Dynasty (2649-2575 BCE) to the Late Period (712-332 BCE).

The most famous landmark currently remaining on the site is the Obelisk of Senusert I, from the Middle Kingdom (2010-1640 BCE) and other inscribed blocks and gates on the site of Arab El-Hisn dating to the Ramesside period (1307-1196 BCE).

Ministry of Antiquities issues a statement regarding monuments’ security

by Thoraia Abou Bakr  /   June 11, 2013

Ministry of Antiquities reports that a plan is being setup to secure monuments and archeological sites

The last few weeks have seen the release of several reports citing the lack of security of monuments and archeological sites throughout the country.  In May, UNESCO threatened to declassify several Egyptian heritage sites, while the US Embassy issued a warning regarding the safety within the parameters of the Pyramids of Giza last week.

On 8 June 2013, the Ministry of Antiquities issued a statement addressing the security situation, in which Minister of Antiquities Dr Ahmed Eissa confirmed coordination between his ministry and that of the interior, specifically the tourism police and monuments security.

The statement also explained that a plan with the police and the ministry of interior is currently underway to establish a number of contingencies, and allow for changes in the future if need be.  It also reported that a programme is being planned for a reevaluation of the monuments’ security personnel, who will also be given seminars on the value of the monuments to stress the job’s importance.

The ministry spokesman confirmed that the “sites that are open to visitors are being secured by the police”. However, he explained that archeological sites are “protected by the ministry of antiquities security personnel”. He also denied that the Armed Forces have been given the task of securing any monuments or archeological sites.