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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 August 2000 Issue No. 494 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 August 2000 Issue No. 494
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons 'I found my true love'
By Zahi Hawass
When I graduated from high school at the age of 15 and a half in the small village of Abeedia in Damietta, I dreamed of becoming a lawyer. After one week at Alexandria University reading law books, I realised that this was not what I wanted at all! Disheartened, I went to the Faculty of Arts, where they told me a new archaeology department with good prospects had just opened. The year was 1963. At that time, very few people knew that digging for ancient ruins and artifacts was a recognised discipline. I liked the idea, so for four years I studied archaeology, art, and ancient languages, concentrating on the Graeco-Roman period. But most of my interest was focused on campus politics. I was elected president of the student union and spent much of my time involved in social activities.
Zahi Hawass
Director general of the Giza Plateau
This is part of a series of articles contributed by Dr Zahi Hawass tracing the course of his career
When I completed my studies and joined the Antiquities Department in Cairo in 1968, it was no wonder why I experienced a shock. The head of the Department of Antiquities, the late Dr Gamal Mukhtar, later a close friend, assigned me to the position of Antiquities Inspector at Tunna El-Gabal, a remote site in Middle Egypt where the famous ancient capital of El-Amarna was once located.
At the age of 21 , I did not want to live in the middle of nowhere, but when I looked around at the glum faces of senior archaeologists in the department doing the paperwork required of any government officials, staying in Cairo did not look like an appealing alternative. To make matters worse, when a young woman I was dating asked me about my job and I told her I was an archaeologist, she burst out laughing. I constantly found myself having to explain what an archaeologist was to people who did not understand. So I decided to quit my job and become a diplomat instead.
For six months, I bought books on politics and economics and studied hard in an effort to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but they chose only three candidates out of many that year, and I was not one of them. When I returned to the Antiquities Department, I was called in to meet with Dr Mukhtar. He asked why I had not gone to Tunna El-Gabal, and I told him that I could not live in the desert. He replied that if I did not go to the site, he would issue an official decree banning me from the department forever. So I left Cairo for Tunna El-Gabal, very angry and anxious about what I could possibly do and who I could meet in the unknown world of the Middle Egyptian desert.
As I excavated this site and then later at Kom Abu Bellou in Lower Egypt, I began to develop an affinity for the day-to-day work of archaeology, which combines hands-on physical activity and the management of people with the excitement of making new discoveries. Before long, I could hear the words inside me, "I have found my true love." Since then, I have dedicated my life to this work. I like to tell my story to young people who are unsure of their direction or who want to become doctors or lawyers just because of what they see in the movies. There is potential inside us that we cannot even imagine, and if we give ourselves completely to something, it will give us a lot in return.
In 1976, I was working at Abu Simbel, the Nubian site of he well-known temples of Ramses II, when I read in the newspaper that thieves had broken through a wall of the big storage house in Giza and walked away with dozens of artifacts. Dr Mukhtar suggested to General Auda Ahmed Auda who was in charge of security that I be called from Abu Simbel because he knew of my administrative abilities and believed that I could make sure this would never happen again. One month later, we caught all the thieves and the artifacts were returned. The thieves are still in jail today. That is how I came to be inspector of the pyramids at Giza.
In 1977, Bahariya Oasis was put under the same jurisdiction and the Giza monuments, so I went to visit the sites for the first time with four colleagues. It is funny to think back and realise that we were all standing on one of the most exciting archaeological sites of the new millennium and we were not even aware of it. Had we known what lay beneath our feet, we might have stayed there and not gone in different directions. Atef Hassan left archaeology to become a tour-guide; Wafaa El-Sediek now lives in Germany. Samia El-Mallah obtained her doctorate and now works at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and Mervat Ramadan still works at Giza.
We stayed in the main village of El-Bawiti for two days in a shabby, unfinished resthouse because there were no hotels or even telephones in the area. I met with the chief of the Antiquities guards, Sheikh Aiady Ahmed Soliman, who had only five employees. I realised than that this was a virgin site and I very much liked the kind people of the oasis. It never crossed my mind, however, that I might someday excavate there. In fact, I recall that Mervat Ramadan told me she felt sure I could excavate in Bahariya some day, and I scoffed at the notion. I was just starting my work at the pyramids and I could not imagine that anything in the oasis could compare with the excitement of Giza. I was concerned, however, with protecting and conserving the existing sites with only six guards and no Antiquities inspector. I saw that the paintings in the 26th dynasty tomb of Bannantiu were in need of consolidation before they completely deteriorated, as was the cartouche containing the name of Alexander the Great at his temple. But no one was willing to come from Cairo to live in this remote region.
Then someone in the village told me that a young man form Bahariya, Ashri Shaker, was a first-year student in archaeology in Cairo, and I figured that he might eventually make it possible for us to open a new office in the oasis. I returned to Bahariya in 1980 to see about renting an office there, but was not given any funds to support the venture. I recommended Ashri Shaker to the Antiquities Department, and then I accepted a Fulbright Scholarship to obtain my master's degree and a doctorate in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania.
When I returned to Egypt in 1987, the department had appointed Ashri as Antiquities inspector of Bahariya, and I was made Director General of Giza, Saqqara, and Bahariya Oasis.
Since that time, a new area of archaeology began and we started one of the most important excavations in Egypt. We discovered the valley of the Golden Mummies that now has everyone in the world talking... It is the secret of the mummies. And now you know how I found my true love!
