A historic display
On sunday, President Hosni Mubarak and Mrs Suzanne Mubarak inaugurated a museum documenting the history of Alexandria, amid much festivity, writes Nevine El-Aref.
The Alexandria National Museum is housed in an exquisite early 20th century palace. It is home to some 1,800 artefacts spanning the spectrum of the city's history. All of the items are on display for the first time.
Inaugurated by President Hosni Mubrak and Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, top officials taking part in the celebrations included Culture Minister Farouk Hosni and Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass, along with a large entourage of dignitaries. After inaugurating the museum, the Mubaraks were given a tour of the facility by Hawass.
Well-known lumber trader Bassili Pasha built the palace in 1929, selling it to the American Consulate in 1960. In 1997, the Ministry of Culture bought the palace for LE12 million, spending an additional LE25 million to convert it into a museum.
To maintain the harmony between the palace's original interior design and the artefacts on display, Italian designer Maurizzio De Paulo used hanging diagonal glass showcases. Painting the walls of every section in colours symbolic of the religious beliefs of each era being documented helped create the three-storey museum's ethereal ambiance. The Pharaonic section's dark blue walls represent the trip to an eternal afterlife, while the Graeco-Roman section features a sky- blue backdrop reflecting the era's romance and love of life. To symbolise Coptic and Muslim beliefs regarding heaven, both sections are painted green.
The museum also features a section dedicated to the Mohamed Ali family's jewellery collection. Other highlights include a black basalt statue of the Goddess Isis, which was extracted from the seabed in 1998, as well as a stela, discovered amongst the sunken ruins of Heraclion.
