Egyptian Museum Cairo

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Egyptian Museum Cairo
Facade of the Egyptian Museum, Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt1.jpg

Main entrance of the Altes Museum (2011)
Data
place Cairo , EgyptEgyptEgypt 
Art
architect Marcel Dourgnon
opening 1902
Number of visitors (annually) about 2.5 million
operator

The Egyptian Museum ( Arabic المتحف المصري) in Cairo is the world's largest museum of ancient Egyptian art . It contains works from different epochs of the ancient Egyptian cultural history: Early history , Thinite period , Old Kingdom , Middle Kingdom , New Kingdom , Third Intermediate and Late Period as well as Greco-Roman Period . The building, which is expected to be used until 2020, is located on Al-Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo and was built in 1900 in neoclassical style according to plans by the French architect Marcel Dourgnon . The opening took place in 1902. The museum is run by today's Supreme Council of Antiquities , formerly the Antiquities Service of the Arab Republic of Egypt .

In 2020, that is to Great Egyptian Museum (Grand Egyptian Museum GEM) in Giza close to open at the Great Pyramids, is to receive these collections and other artifacts from all over Egypt.

Creation of the Egyptian Collection in Cairo

Government adopts measures against grave and temple looting

Museum building in a balloon photo by Eduard Spelterini 1904 (on the right edge of the picture)

The Egyptian government founded the Service des Antiquités de l'Egypte in 1835 to prevent further looting of archaeological treasures by both local and foreign treasure hunters. "This is how the first collection of Egyptian works of art compiled by the Egyptian government came about." The collection first found its place in a small building in Esbekiah Park in Cairo and was later transferred to the Saladin Fortress . In 1858 Auguste Mariette opened a new museum building in Bulaq . When, in 1878, after the museum in Bulaq was flooded, many objects were swept away or stolen, Mariette made a particular effort to build a large museum for Egyptian monuments . In 1880, Khedive Ismail Pasha had the remaining collections from the Bulaq Museum moved to an extension of the Giza Palace , where they remained until the opening of the Egyptian Museum in 1902. The foundation stone for the new museum complex in the Midan al-Tahrir district (old town) was laid on April 1, 1897 in the presence of the Khedive Abbas Hilmi II and the head of the Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte , Gaston Maspero , who also supervised the construction work. The construction time was four years and eight months and the construction with 15,000 m² of floor space cost LE 240,000. From early March to mid-July 1902, the artifacts were brought from Giza across the Nile to Cairo. On November 15, 1902, Abbas Hilmi II opened the Egyptian Museum.

The inscription above the main entrance is in Latin and reads:

- MONUMENTA PRIORIS AEVI HIS SEDIBUS COLLOCAVIT -
- ANNO DOMINI MCM - ABBAS HILMI PRINCEPS - ANNO HEGIRAE MCCCXVII -

German translation:

- Monuments of an earlier age brought together in this place -
- In the year of the Lord 1900 - the Khedive Abbas Hilmi - In the year of the Hijra 1317 -

Museum collections - overview

Ground floor of the museum with a view of the two-seat statue of Amenhotep III. and Teje
View from the upper floor to the ground floor of the preparations for the relocation of the colossal statues to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza

After the opening in 1902, around 50,000 exhibits were on display in the Egyptian Museum. With more than 150,000 artefacts , it now houses the largest collection of ancient Egyptian art in the world. The exhibition extends over two floors with over 100 halls. On the ground floor, the objects are arranged chronologically according to the epochs, i.e. from the predynastic to the Greco-Roman period as well as finds from Nubian graves. The so-called Amarna Gallery occupies a special area within the exhibition area on the New Kingdom . The objects that were found undisturbed or almost undisturbed are located on the 1st floor. Here finds from Tutankhamun's grave treasure , model boats, royal mummies, the grave goods of Juja and Tuja , the mummy portraits from the Fayyum as well as ostracas and papyri are on display.

Exhibition areas of the museum

Sorting of the groupings according to the time the object groups were found:

Storage area of ​​the museum

Further artifacts can be found in the basement, which is not accessible to visitors, and the 2nd floor. The finds in the basement of the museum were stored there for years without being recorded or documented in the inventory lists. The excavation finds of all archaeological excavations that had been assigned to Egypt after the division of the finds were stored on an area of ​​10,500 m². Under the museum management of Wafaa el-Saddik and the approval of special funds by the Supreme Council of Antiquities , an inventory was carried out in the basement and then work on a modern database for the object registration began. There were about 2,000 locked wooden boxes that contained the names of the individual excavation missions, but no inventory lists of the finds. Including boxes from the excavation years 1914, 1922, 1923 or 1939 in Deir el-Bahari , Memphis , Sakkara and Tanis . Other finds in the basement were around 600 coffins and mummies stored on shelves, skulls from Nubian graves, various ceramics , steles, sculptures and reliefs. Samples showed a number of approximately 40,000 individual objects stored. The work in the basement was followed by a special exhibition in the museum: “Masterpieces from the basement”.

The investigations and clean-up work on the 2nd floor resulted in a find situation comparable to that in the basement . Here, for example, complete coffin ensembles were found , i.e. coffins that fit into one another for a deceased person.

After a large part of the finds in the basement had been distributed to various stores, for example to the Imhotep Museum in Sakkara , the basement rooms were renovated and some of them were converted into offices for the museum's curators. A laboratory for DNA tests on mummies was set up in the eastern part of the basement .

Registration in the museum

The objects in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo have so far been recorded with different inventory numbers:

  • Journal d'Entrée du Musée (JE)
  • Catalog Général (CG)
  • Temporaire Register (RT)
  • Special Register (SR)

Children's Museum

In January 2010, on the initiative of the then general director Wafaa el-Saddik, a children's museum was opened in the western part of the basement , which is specially geared to the needs of young visitors. The Children's Museum makes it possible to expand the existing educational offers, which are aimed at groups of non-disabled children and young people as well as the disabled (e.g. the blind ).

Museum library

The museum library, founded in 1902, specializes in the culture of Ancient Egypt and is regarded as one of the most important libraries in the world. The subject areas include history, literature, mathematics and art. The library includes around 42,500 books, but also magazines and periodicals in various languages. It is supplemented by around 20 to 30 more copies every month.

The library of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is under the supervision of the Highest Council of Monuments . Lending is reserved for employees of this institution and researchers, whereas reading in the library is possible for researchers in the field and students, including those from abroad.

During and after the 2011 revolution

During the revolution in Egypt in 2011 , the collection was looted and damaged. The former Minister for Antiquities, Zahi Hawass , reported on February 12, 2011 that after an initial inventory, eight objects were missing:

  • two gilded wooden statuettes from Tutankhamun's grave treasure
  • a limestone statuette of Akhenaten holding a sacrificial tablet
  • a statuette of Nefertiti sacrificing
  • a sandstone head of an Amarna princess
  • a statuette of a scribe from Amarna made of stone
  • eleven ushabtis by Juja made of wood
  • a heart scarab from Juja

A total of 54 exhibits were stolen, 25 of which were found and restored by 2013. After the restoration of the objects that were damaged in the museum and those that were received back, a total of 29 were on display in the special exhibition Damaged and Restored . Including two gilded wooden statues of Tutankhamun, a statue of Akhenaten, ushabtis of Nubian kings as well as a child mummy and a vase made of polychrome glass.

According to the then director, Tarek el-Awady, during the revolution in Egypt in 2011 there was also a command center of the secret service in the museum and torture chambers were set up in the basements by the military police on March 9th. This is said to have happened contrary to international conventions that prohibit the use of museums for military purposes.

The number of visitors was once around 2.5 million people annually, but has fallen sharply since the 2011 revolution . The Associated Press According to the revenue reduced to the museum in the period from October 2010 to October 2013 of 16 million US dollars to 1.1 million US dollars.

A new, larger museum complex is emerging in the 21st century

In 2002, the foundation stone for a new museum building was laid in order to better present all museum pieces and to be able to renovate the existing around 100-year-old building . This is based on the design of an Irish group of architects near the pyramids of Giza and, according to the latest plans, is to be inaugurated there in 2020.

literature

  • Sergio Donadoni: Egyptian Museum Cairo. Translated by Federica Pauli. Ebeling, Wiesbaden 1978.
  • The main works in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Official catalog. Published by the Antiquities Service of the Arab Republic of Egypt. von Zabern , Mainz 1986, ISBN 3-8053-0640-7 ; ISBN 3-8053-0904-X (museum edition).
  • Francesco Tiradritti, Araldo De Luca: The Treasury of Egypt - The famous collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Frederking & Thaler, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-89405-418-2 .
  • Alessia Amenta, Maria Sole Croce and Alessandro Bongioanni: Cairo Egyptian Museum. National Geographic Art Guide, with foreword by Zahi Hawass , 2nd edition, National Geographic Germany, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-934385-81-8 .

Movies

  • In the treasury of the pharaohs. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Documentation, Germany, 2006, 43:27 min., Script and director: Rüdiger Heimlich, Thomas Weidenbach, production: Längengrad Filmproduktion, WDR , arte , synopsis with the beginning of the film by Längengrad.
  • M-Files - Secret Matter Museum. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. (OT: Inside The Egyptian Museum. ) Documentary, Canada, 2010, 44 min., Written and directed by David New, production: Kensington Communications, History Channel Canada, series: M Files - Secret thing Museum (OT: Museum secrets ), first broadcast : January 27, 2011 on History Channel Canada, summary of fernsehserien.de , pictures and preview .

Web links

Commons : Egyptian Museum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Riots 2011

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Egypt govt prepares ceremony for Grand Egyptian Museum opening ( The Egyptian government is preparing the ceremony for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum ); August 28, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b Mohamed Saleh, Hourig Sourouzian: The main works in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Official catalog. Published by the Antiquities Service of the Arab Republic of Egypt. From the Egyptian by Andrea Gnirs, Renata Husseini, Daniel Polz and Raier Stadelmann. von Zabern, Mainz 1986, ISBN 3805306407 , pp. 9-10.
  3. ↑ Francesco Tiradritti, Araldo De Luca: The Treasury of Egypt - The famous collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. P. 10.
  4. ↑ Wafaa el-Saddik, Rüdiger Heimlich: There is only the straight path. My life as the treasure keeper of Egypt. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-462-04535-2 , pp. 327-332, excerpt from Google books .
  5. ↑ Wafaa el-Saddik, Rüdiger Heimlich: There is only the straight path. My life as the treasure keeper of Egypt. Cologne 2013, p. 332.
  6. ^ Zahi Hawass: Through the Egyptian Museum with Zahi Hawass. Heritage World Press, Berkshire 2009, ISBN 978-1-907397-07-3 , p. 15.
  7. ↑ Mohamed Saleh, Hourig Sourouzian: The main works in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Mainz 1986, p. 12.
  8. ↑ Visitor Information: Library. ( Memento from August 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Egyptian Museum (English)
  9. ↑ Egyptian Museum in Cairo: Looters destroy Tutankhamun treasures. In: Spiegel Online . January 30, 2011, accessed May 7, 2013 .
  10. ^ Brian Vastag: Amid protests and looting, officials work to preserve Egypt's treasures . In: Washington Post, January 30, 2011.
  11. ^ Zahi Hawass: Sad News. ( Memento from July 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: drhawass.com , February 12, 2011.
  12. ↑ Yomna El Saeed: Egyptian Museum exhibit puts spotlight on restored artefacts. In: Daily News Egypt , October 23, 2013.
  13. ↑ sda / dpa : Command center for Mubarak's agents: The Egyptian Museum was abused by the security apparatus. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . August 7, 2011, accessed May 7, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Mike Boehm: Zahi Hawass is on the stump again for ancient Egypt's Pharaohs. In: Los Angeles Times , June 28, 2014.


Coordinates: 30 ° 2 ′ 50 ″  N , 31 ° 14 ′ 1 ″  E