Glitzy parade of twenty-two mummified pharaohs fills Cairo streets

Twenty-two mummified kings and queens had been paraded thru Egypt’s capital metropolis of Cairo on April 3, every “dawdle” resembling a glitzy war chariot.

The 18 kings and four queens had been moved from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the novel National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, positioned about 3 miles (5 kilometers) away, BBC Data reported. The parade proceeded down the River Nile and integrated royalty from the 17th to the 20th dynasties of outdated Egypt, which took plight between 3,500 and 3,100 years in the past, CBS Data reported.

Every mummy sat interior a nitrogen-stuffed box atop a embellished car, which changed into geared up with shock-absorbers, BBC Data reported; the nitrogen changed into intended to protect the mummies, since exposure to oxygen can trigger decomposition. The parade route had also been repaved for the occasion, to minimize jostling. 

Related: In pictures: ‘Cachette of the monks’ show veil in Luxor 

The autos lined up in uncover of every ruler’s reign, starting with the 17th-century ruler Seqenenre Taa II; the lineup also integrated the neatly-known pharaohs King Ramesses II and Queen Hatshepsut. Loads of the mummies had been before every part show veil in the unhurried 1800s in novel-day Luxor, the positioning of outdated Egypt’s capital, Thebes, which is dwelling to the royal burial position known as Valley of the Kings.

“They’ve already seen different scramble in Cairo and earlier than that in Thebes, the do they had been moved from their personal tombs to assorted sepulchres for safety,” Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology on the American University in Cairo, told BBC Data.

When the mummies had been first transported from Thebes to Cairo in the 19th century, those transporting the preserved our bodies needed to fool customs officers by labeling the containers as “salted fish,” archaeologist Zahi Hawass told CBS Data. After in the launch being positioned in the Bulaq Museum, the mummies had been moved to the Egyptian Museum in 1902; there they stayed until the parade on April 3, 2021.

The mummies will now be housed in the Royal Hall of Mummies in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, and the point to will launch to the general public on April 18, BBC Data reported. Two of the 22 mummies, Queen Meritamun and Queen T, will doubtless be positioned in storage, however the final mummies will doubtless be on demonstrate.

“The novel showroom is extra bask in a one-formula circle maze. All the walls are unlit, with spotlights on the mummies,” Sayed Abu-El Fadal, a spokesman for the NMEC, told CBS Data. “It is designed bask in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.”

Not all scholars agree that mummies wants to be on demonstrate, however in its place argue that exhibiting the our bodies desecrates the tiresome. Learn extra at BBC and CBS Data.  

First and major published on Dwell Science.