Hundreds of foreign and Egyptian journalists along with photographers, cameramen and TV presenters flocked to the Giza Plateau for the unveiling of Khufu’s second solar boat.

The second solar boat remained sealed in its pit until 1987 when the American National Geographic Society examined it in association with the Egyptian Office for Historical Monuments. The team penetrated the limestone ceiling and inserted a tiny camera to ascertain the boat’s status, then sealing the pit again.

In collaboration with the Japanese government, a Japanese scientific and archaeological team from Waseda University offered a grant of $10 million to lift the boat out of the pit, restore and reassemble it and exhibit it beside its twin.

Today, after the completion of a comprehensive study, the limestone blocks, consisting of 41 panels that have covered the boat pit for 4,500 years, were removed and the boat’s wooden beams extracted one by one to a special warehouse in order to be reassembled as it would have looked in ancient times.

Upon completion of the restoration, the boat will be erected near the entrance gate to the Pyramids Plateau, on the Cairo-Fayoum road. The first boat, on the other hand, will be moved from its current site, beside Khufu’s Pyramid to the Grand Egyptian Museum, currently under construction.

Excerpted from an article by Nevine El-Aref for Ahram Online

…the Egyptian and Japanese teams conducted an experiment to clean the fillings around the sides of the covering stones. During this procedure they revealed a cartouche for King Khufu and beside it was the name of the crown prince Djedefre, without cartouche. This is a very great discovery. It is the second cartouche of the great King Khufu to be found in the pyramid complex – the first was inside the Great Pyramid – and it proves to us that this boat was constructed during the time of King Khufu. The restored solar boat in the Solar Boat Museum lay in a boat pit displaying a mason’s mark of a cartouche for Djedefre – Khufu’s successor. It was therefore constructed at a later date, after the death of King Khufu when Djedefre became king.

Dr. Hawass

Image via Wikipedia

A modern-day Egyptian gladiator has reportedly announced plans to fight an African lion. Al-Sayed al-Eassawy claims to have the Ministry of Interior’s blessings to fight the animal in front of the Giza pyramids, all in an exceedingly misguided effort to revive the country’s tourism industry. From Egypt’s Daqahlyia Governorate, the stunt man purchased the 617 pound animal (illegally) for approximately $4,200 and will fight it with a dagger and shield. This madness is supposed to happen on 25 June, 2011.

Change.org invites concerned people to sign the following petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-al-sayed-al-essawy-from-murdering-an-innocent-lion-2?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=autopublish

The institute, made possible with a $5 million grant from the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided through the Ministry of International Cooperation (MIC) will offer MA and PhD programs in museum studies and heritage management.

Ahram Online

The National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC) is Egypt’s first and only museum to be devoted to Egypt’s civilization in its entirety. It will present the full range of the richness of the history of Egypt, from the prehistoric era to modern times.

Hussein Abdel Bassir, director of the NMEC, said that the museum will exhibit 150,000 artefacts selected from museums around Egypt, including Cairo’s Egyptian, Islamic and Coptic museums, the Greco-Roman and Alexandria national museums in Alexandria, and the Luxor Museum. Archaeological artifacts kept in storage in at the Giza Plateau and Saqqara will also be put on display.

In addition to the chosen collection, the NMEC will house a set of monuments, among them the Seboua Temple of Ramses II, now on Lake Nasser, a complete façade of a Fatimid sabil, two columns from King Djoser’s Temple at Saqqara, the collection of royal mummies, and the mummy of the ancient Egyptian artist Sanejem, which is now on display at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.

Ahram Online

The museum is the main abode for the national collection of Islamic art, with 100,000 objects.

In 2003, the Ministry of Culture launched its comprehensive restoration project for the museum.

The MIA is divided into two large wings, one for Islamic objects from monuments in historic Cairo and the second for objects from other countries in the Islamic world.

Image via Wikipedia

In an effort to promote tourism in Egypt, new archaeological sites and tourist attractions will be inaugurated soon in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan as well as Rashid and Taba.

Zahi Hawass announced that a number of archaeological sites and museums will be opened soon, among them the hanging church of Old Cairo, a number of mosques in Rashid and Cairo, the Serapeum and ancient Egyptian tombs in Saqqara, the Suez national museum and the crocodile museum in the upper Egyptian town of Kom Ombo.

The new sites which are planned to open soon include: the Zaghloul mosque and six Islamic houses in Rashid; the Salaheddin citadel in Taba; the mosque of Sidi Galal in Meniya; the Al-Mansour and Qalawoun complexes in El-Muizz street; and the mosque of Prince Soliman known as the hanging mosque.

Excerpted from an article by Nevine El-Aref for Ahram Online

Image via Wikipedia

A small leftover shell from the Second World War went off after three Egyptian children saw the device sticking out of the desert sand near the Giza Pyramids and tried to open its casing by hitting it with iron sticks.

One boy lost part of his arm.

No one knows how the old munition ended up in the desert near the Pyramids of Giza, where no major battle has been fought since Napoleon and Egypt’s Mamluk rulers in 1798.

The accident is not related to any extremist group, nor have any groups made public threats against the ancient site.

Al Masry Al Youm, AFP

There is an area in the desert, about 2 or 3 kilometers away from the pyramids at Giza, which was used as a camp by soldiers during the 2nd World War, and they left behind the remains of ammunition and other things. When it rained heavily in Cairo last week, the rain began to wash away the sand and these remains began to appear on the surface. A group of people who are horse and camel drivers from the pyramids area found some of unused ammunition and brought it back to the Giza area.

In a study presented at the scientific session of the American College of Cardiology today in New Orleans, the team led by cardiologists Adel Allam of the Al Azhar Medical School in Cairo and Gregory Thomas of the University of California, Irvine found that 44 out of 52 ancient Egyptian mummies from the royal family of 17th dynasty queen Ahmose-Henutempet, their ministers and staff still possessed identifiable cardiovascular tissue, and of these 45% exhibited definite or probable hardening of the arteries.

Researchers have long known that factors as such as smoking, a genetic predisposition to early heart disease, a calorie-rich diet, and a lifestyle lacking in exercise all increase the risk of atherosclerosis today. According to ancient hieroglyphic inscriptions, wealthy ancient Egyptians relished such calorie-rich fare as cakes sweetened with honey. But they did not smoke tobacco and likely got more exercise than many of us do today.

One factor might have been a high exposure to bacterial infection and infectious disease, such as malaria and schistosomiasis which are endemic in the Nile Valley and the ancient Egyptians had little means of treating them. Inflammation helps to remove the agents of infection and promote healing, but older individuals may have paid a steep price for it: high levels of inflammatory response can contribute to the development of atherosclerosis.

The team now plans to test this hypothesis by examining CT scans of the mummies for the extent of chronic infections, such as bone infections or periodontal disease.

sciencemag.org and bloomberg.com

Three perpetrators have been arrested with 12 of the Egyptian Museum’s missing objects in their possession after spreading videos and pictures of the objects to mobile phones of others trying to find a buyer. The Antiquities police in co-operation with the Armed Forces tracked them and set them a trap with the help of a foreigner who works at the American Embassy in Cairo convening the criminals that he will buy the objects for 50 million dollars. The objects recovered are 7 statues, 5 bronze statues and 1 limestone statue beside 5 necklaces, one is golden and the others are made of faience and colored glass.

Luxor Times

Canada plans to offer $11 million to help Egypt in its democracy-building efforts.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and his cabinet that Canada was willing to participate in Egypt’s “transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

The money will target opportunities for young Egyptians and help develop democratic institutions in their country and across the broader Middle East.

The vast majority of the new funds — $10 million over five years — will be supplied by the Decent Employment for Youth Project, a Canadian International Development Agency project which trains and helps young people find jobs and start businesses in tourism and manufacturing.

Canada is also joining with the German government to help train journalists with a $300,000 contribution to build capacity in Egypt’s media sector.

Cannon said he told his officials to work toward lifting a travel warning that his department has issued to Canadians considering travel to Egypt.

Winnipeg Free Press