CAIRO – Cairo’s city center came to a standstill on Saturday night when 22 mummies were moved from a museum where they had lived for more than a century to a new home, where they transported custom-made vehicles in a dazzling, carefully planned march.
The fanfare – which was broadcast live on state television and featured a military band, a 21-gun greeting and a host of Egyptian celebrities on the A-list – both serve as a grand opening for the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. , where the country’s oldest princes were put ashore and an invitation to tourists to return to the Cairo pandemic.
“These are the mummies of kings and queens who ruled during Egypt’s golden era,” said Zahi Hawass, a former minister of antiquities who oversaw the discovery of tombs dating back thousands of years. “It’s a thrill, everyone will watch.”
All but many Egyptians.
Along the five-mile road to the new museum lie pieces of working-class neighborhoods that were deliberately hidden before the parade, a reminder of the shocking separation between Egypt’s celebrated past and its uncertain present.
Banners proclaiming the ‘Pharaohs’ Golden Parade’ and large country flags prevented television viewers from peeking inside their impoverished areas in Cairo, and prevented locals from getting a glimpse of the polished TV spectacle. In one place, plastic screens at least 10 feet long were mounted on the scaffolding to close gaps in a cream-colored wall.
“They set it up to hide us,” Mohammed Saad, a local resident who stood a few feet behind a barrier with two friends, separated from the newly swept road where the ancestral parade would take place.
Two security officers confirmed that no one was allowed to leave nearby neighborhoods during the parade, or walk down the street to check. “They can look at a screen,” one of them offered.
In a television interview, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities accused the president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, of considering the public march as a way to attract tourists after the coronavirus pandemic traveled internationally. years.
But the spectacle also underscored the economic and social divisions in Egypt’s capital.
“There is a tendency to try to show a better image instead of correcting the existing reality,” Ahmed Zaazaa, an urban planner, said of the government’s public image efforts. “The government says they are doing reforms, but the vast majority of people in Cairo living in neighborhoods have been excluded.”
Egyptian television broadcast uninterrupted coverage of the parade preparations, highlighting the news abroad, combining the footage with dramatic theme music and a stream of information about the 22 kings and queens who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago .
The ancient royals who were on the move included Ramses II, the longest reigning pharaoh, and Queen Hatshepsut, one of Egypt’s few female pharaohs.
After sunset, crowds gathered in downtown Cairo, including enthusiastic young families bringing their children along in hopes of catching a glimpse of the historic moment.
“It’s a one-time event. These are our ancestors. Says Sarah Zaher, who came with three friends.
But many of those who gathered were met by police barricades and returned.
An officer in uniform shouted, ‘If you want to watch, go watch television. ‘The crowd retreated disappointed into the nearby coffee houses to watch television or their phones.
Nada Rashwan and Dawlat Magdy reported.