Past Press Releases
CONTENTS: Lectures \
Teaching \ Books
\ Opening the 2nd Pyramid \ New
Information From Giza \ Sites Opened at Bahriya
Oasis! \ Discoveries in Memphis: the Pyramid of a
Queen! \ Discovery at Saqqara
News From The Pyramids
June 2000
Dr. Zahi Hawass
Lectures:
-
A
lecture about the pyramids and the Sphinx with Mark Lehner. On full day at
the natural History Museum in L.A. August 26. The conference is hosted by
the American Research Center (ARCE).
-
A
full two days symposium will be held in Dallas with:
Kent
Weeks
Mark
Lehner
Robert
Witner
Salim
Ikram
The
symposium is arranged by Seven Wonders Travel.
To attend call
: 915-533-8503
3.
Another lecture, I will deliver in Sacramento. For information call Vision
Tours:
1-800-888-5509.
Teaching:
I
will teach this year at UCLA. The course will be on pyramids and start from
August 7 to September 15, only two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday.
The
outline of the course is listed in my Web-site last year.
Books:
Silent
Images women In Pharaonic Egypt. Published by Harry Abrams Network in
Hardcover and paperback. Also it is published in Italian by Mandadori.
The
Valley of the Golden Mummies is going to be published by Harry Abrams in
September: The book will be published in English French, German, and
Italian.
The
American University Press in Cairo has produced the second edition of the book, Secrets
of the Sphinx.
Opening
the second pyramid to the public
The
second pyramid (Khafre) will be open to the public in July 2000.
Mr.
Farouk Hosni the Minister of Culture announced the opening.
The
following has been done inside the pyramid:
1-
Cleaning the salt.
2-
Restoration of cracks.
3-
Cleaning the graffiti.
4-
Improving the ventilation system.
5-
Changing the electricity system.
The
third pyramid of Menkaure will be closed for conservation. This is the program
of the rotation system that we do routinely at the plateau.
There
are also three New Tombs will be opened to the public after Restoration at Giza:
1-
Dua en Re
2-
Nefer bau ptah
3-
Imery
The
Tombs are dated to the Old Kingdom and located west of the great pyramid of
Khufu.
We
made architectural restoration to the three tombs. The tomb of Imery that dated
to Dynasty 5 of the Old Kingdom has beautiful daily life scenes. The best scene
in this tomb is the scene of wine production.
New
information from Giza
We
demolished all the electricity pillars at Giza pyramid. These pillars were about
3-5 meters high and I always say that it make a site pollution. Instead we put a
new installation about are meter high.
We also
close the site completely at:
In
Summer:
1-
Opening the site:
8 AM - 5
PM
In
Winter :
2-
Opening the site:
8 AM - 4 PM
The site
now is very quiet and you can feel the silence and the dignity.
Sites
open to the public at Bahriya Oasis
We
already opened some New Sites to the public.
-
Temple
of Alexander the great.
-
The
26 Dynasty chapels at Ain EL-Meftela.
The two 26 Dynasty tombs at Town of EL-Bawiti:
-
Banentiu.
-
Zad-Amun
eu Ankh.
You can
also visit 6 Mummies that were moved to a local Museum in the Town of el-Bawiti.
The
ticket for all these sites cost 30 Egyptian Pounds. The Mummies are in Cases but
the Museum is not finished yet. They are two room attached to the inspectorate
of Antiquities.
Discoveries
in the Area of Memphis
1-
The French Expedition under Jean Leclant found a new pyramid of a
Queen!
The
Pyramid was found to the south of the pyramid of King Pepi I of Dynasty 26. The
pyramid belong to Queen Ankhes-en Pepi, she was the main Queen of Pepi and the
mother of Pepi II.
The
pyramid is inscribed inside with pyramid Texts and it is the first queen’s
pyramid to contain this inscription which helps the Queen to go safely to the
afterlife.
Discovery
at Saqqara of a hidden rock-cut statue of kings,
protected by a cow in the tomb of a high official during the time of
Ramesses II
A
series of important tombs of the New Kingdom (14th- 13th
centuries B.C) had been discovered by a French Mission working on the site of Saqqara
(the Mission Archéoloique
Française
du Bubateion, directed by Dr. Alain Zivie)
in 1996. The discovery occurred on the famous site of Saqqara, the cemetery of
Memphis, in the precinct of the later sanctuary of the goddess Bastet where huge
numbers of mummies of cats have been buried much later, in Late and Ptolemaic
Periods (last centuries BC)
Amongst
the discovered tombs, one of the most astonishing and beautiful has been the
sepulture of the lady Maïa,
wet-nurse of the King Tutankhamun, whose excavation (made more difficult by the
reuse of the tomb as a cats necropolis in a later period) and study are still in
progress. Other tombs located in the same small part of the cliff and identified
in 1996 and 1997 have been the tomb of the royal butlers Seth Penrenout, the
tomb of painters (Djehoutymes and Ken) and the tomb of a high official of the
time of Ramesses II, whose name could be read Netcherouymes (or Antyoumes?)
This
last tomb is exceptional from an architectural point of view. The main part of
its chapel, instead of being hewn in the rock, has been partly hewn in the rock
and partly built in a beautiful limestone (imported from Tura on the other side
of the Nile). A big part of its walls with their decoration and their reliefs
(painted) has been found, as well as two square pillars of about 2 m of height,
also decorated and painted.
The
owner of the tomb was a certain Netcherouumes (or Antyouymes?) who was,
according to the inscription, high steward of Memphis and director of the
treasury under the King Ramesses II. It seems that he had also been, in a
previous part of his life, a royal messenger (ambassador). In that case, he
could have been one of the envoys of Ramesses II to the capital of the Hittites,
Hattusa (in Turkey), who prepared the peace treaty between Egypt and the Hittites
in the years 21 of Ramesses II.
Since
its discovery in 1996, the tomb of Netcherouymes had been studied and works of
conservation and preservation have been realized, but no more excavation had
been done there. The excavation has been resumed only during the Spring season
of the French Mission of the Bubasteoin, in the month of May 2000. After
clearance of the built chapel, the next step was the exploration and the
excavation of the rock–cut part of the tomb (inner chapel). But, as often on
this site, a solid masonry of stones and mortar, dating of the Later or Greek
Period, prevented to go father. The only way was to extract some blocks in order
to get an idea of the size and the décor of the room still hidden by this
blocking.
The
removing of some stones led to a striking discovery. Behind the blocking, at a
short distance deeper in the rock, it was possible to see, through a narrow
hole, the upper part of a statue of a King (certainly Ramesses II), hewn in the
rock, still painted, but fragile. A closer examination permitted to discover
that the King is standing at the front and under the head of a huge cow (or less
probably bull), also hewn in the rock and still prisoner of the ate blocking.
The
Mission has not proceeded forward this season. The questions of conservation and
preservation, as well as the technical problems of removing of the late
blocking, will be studied before to progress in the exploration of this room,
certainly during the next season (Autumn 2000).
Such
a figure, hewn in the rock, of the goddess Hathor (less probably the bull of the
god Apis) protecting the King, at such a Marge scale, is quite exceptional. It
is the first time that it is attested at Saqqara (but there is a perhaps one,
badly preserved, in the tomb of the royal butler, also discovered by the Mission
in 1996). Nevertheless, old drawings and archives of the XIXth century seem to
attest the existence of other tombs with such representations, elsewhere on the
site, but now lost.
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Past Press
Releases:
Opening of tombs and Queen's Pyramids in Giza
(2/98)
World Celebrates Successful Restoration of the Sphinx(5/98)
Dr.
Hawass Promoted (7/98)
Horse
and Camel Stable at Giza/Restoration of Great Pyramid (11/98)
The
Great Pyramid, Sphinx Temple, Recent Lectures and more (4/99)
The
Opening of the Great Pyramid (6/99)
The
Millennium Celebration(12/99)
Eighth
International Congress Honorees and More (3/2000)
