A grand parade conveyed 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies in special capsules across the capital Cairo on Saturday (April 3) to a new museum home where they can be displayed in greater splendour.
The convoy transported 18 kings and four queens, mostly from the New Kingdom, from the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat, about 5km (3 miles) to the south-east.
Authorities shut down roads along the Nile for the elaborate ceremony, designed to drum up interest in Egypt’s rich collections of antiquities when tourism has almost entirely stalled because of COVID-19 related restrictions.
Archaeologists discovered the mummies in two batches at the complex of mortuary temples of Deir Al Bahari in Luxor and at the nearby Valley of the Kings from 1871.
(Reuters)
