Tutankhamun to lead exodus from faded glory of old Cairo to slick new suburbs
Letter from Cairo: Irish architects to design museum close to pyramids at Giza
Archaeologist Howard Carter opening the coffin of Tutankhamen which he
discovered in 1922: when a museum worker broke his beard moving the
mask, a conservationist simply stuck it back on. Photograph: Time Life
Pictures/Mansell/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Earlier this year there were reports of a
botched conservation job to one of the world’s most famous artefacts of
the ancient world, the magnificent gold death mask of Tutankhamun.
After
a museum worker at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum broke Tutankhamun’s beard
when moving the mask, a conservationist simply stuck it back on.
Today
visitors peer at the magnificent mask to see the break, and it is easy
to see – a superglue job, and not a very skilled one at that. The
incident seemed symptomatic of the state of the museum, one of Cairo’s
major attractions.
The Egyptian Museum houses the
world’s most extensive collection of Egyptian pharaonic artefacts in a
museum whose 107 halls are dark, dusty and chaotic.
While
little explanation might be necessary for Tutankhamen’s mummy, his
queen, or their magnificent jewellery, thousands of exhibits are
displayed with nothing to indicate what they are.
Some
are hanging on nails in old-fashioned display cases while visitors try
to guess their significance. This is such a pity, for the museum is a
magnificent building, and has a proud history. In 1902 it was one of the
world’s first purpose-built museums, of huge archaeological and
patriotic importance, situated right in the centre of Cairo.
Apart
from the obvious treasures, the more humble artefacts are also
wonderful. Presumably due to the dry desert air, archaeologists have
excavated not only metal and stone objects, but also wooden and fabric
remains. But what they need is context and lighting.
Many
museums these days appear to be little more than appendages to a shop.
The Egyptian Museum is certainly different: it sells two postcards, one
of the Rosetta Stone, which is actually in the British Museum, the other of Tutankhamun’s mummy.
Today,
due to four years of political turmoil and revolution, much of it
taking place just outside the museum in Tahrir Square, there are few
visitors.
Burnt out shell
Towering above the museum is the burnt-out shell of the headquarters of the National Democratic Party, the political movement of deposed leader Hosni Mubarak. It is due to be pulled down and turned into a park.
Around
the museum are military vehicles filled with soldiers. Casually leaning
against the museum railings are riot shields. All around the square are
barbed wire barriers, pushed to one side as if waiting for the next
phase in Egypt’s turmoil.
Meanwhile, an hour away,
if you are lucky, through Cairo’s appalling traffic, are the Pyramids
of Giza. This is high season for tourism in Egypt;
the summer months are just too hot. At the car park at Giza one morning
last week was one tour bus. A guide, whose income, like all the other
tourism workers, has fallen considerably, had a novel analysis of recent
events. Mubarak was wonderful. His only error was not to deal more
harshly with the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course Mubarak was in the presidential palace when tourists last visited Giza in large numbers.
The
pyramids are spectacular. The sphinx even more so, but there is nothing
to help you understand the landscape of this city of the dead bathed in
heat haze and pollution, upon which Cairo and its satellites are
encroaching.
That is about to change. A new museum is being built near the pyramids: the Grand Egyptian Museum. An Irish firm of architects, Heneghan Peng, won the prestigious international competition to design it. The museum was to be opened this year, but has been delayed.
New capital
When it is finally finished it will house all the Tutankhamun material in a wonderful new building within sight of the pyramids. However, one wonders who will visit the collection of ancient art still housed at the old Egyptian Museum. It could be another blow to central Cairo, already polluted and chaotic, whose 19th-century magnificence is getting harder to see.
But it is not only Tutankhamun who is
leaving the centre of the city. More and more Cairenes have moved to
new cities that surround Cairo, and President Sisi has announced the
building of a new capital.
The new cities are
rather odd places. One such is October 6th City – the name commemorates
the start of the Yom Kippur War. With 14 universities, seven hospitals,
with plans for eight shopping malls and eventually three million people
living behind walls and gates in compounds, it’s a far cry from the
crowded streets and shisha smoking coffee shops of old Cairo.
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