Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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I always feel happy when I come across a news item or an article about Egypt in the foreign press. This week my happiness was tinged with pride when I read two articles about the young Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The occasion for publishing the articles -- one in the Sunday Times, the other in the Independent -- is a forthcoming London exhibition centred around the young king, to take place in 2007.

The exhibits to be shown at the Millennium Dome on the Greenich peninsula should arrive in England in less than two years from now. The same exhibition is currently on show in Bonn, whence it will move to the USA to be shown in several American cities; that it is being spoken of two years in advance reflects its importance.

In the Sunday Times, Nicholas Hellen writes under the title of "Pharaoh to breathe new life into dome", implying that the exhibition will contribute to the revival of the dome -- which some have come to regard as a white elephant.

The writer refers to the first time the British public had the chance to see "the glittering treasure of the young Pharaoh". That was in 1972, when 50 out of 5,000 pieces from his tomb were displayed at the British Museum -- a "crowd puller". While Monet's exhibition in 1999 drew 813,000 visitors, and the so called Genius of China exhibition in 1973-74 771,000, the Treasures of Tutankhamen drew 1.7 million visitors, no less. Now that 50 new items previously not shown will be on display, together with 80 pieces from the royal graves of the 18th dynasty (1555-1305BC), one may safely assume that the upcoming exhibition will draw even more people.

Zahi Hawwas, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, has been particularly enthusiastic. "Tutankhamen is back," he announced recently, explaining that the new exhibition, called "Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs", will give a new generation the chance to find out about "the life and magic of the ancient monarch" first hand.

Although the golden death mask will not be brought to London again, Hellen writes, the new collection is expected to generate a stir similar to the one the 1972 exhibition created. It will include Tutankhamen's royal diadem -- the golden crown discovered on the head -- and one of the canopic coffinettes that contained his mummified internal organs inlaid with gold and precious stones. There will also be the king's game board complete with ten game pieces made of ivory, a dagger, a fan made of sheet gold, a shield, a small ebony throne decorated with gold leaf and ivory.

In the Independent article, on the other hand, entitled "So Who Was the Golden Boy?", Michael Ridley deals with a different side of the issue. He starts with a quote from Howard Carter, who on first glimpsing the finds described "the greatest archaeological discovery ever made" in glowing terms. Carter is also quoted as saying, "At first I could see nothing, the hot air from the chamber causing my candle to flicker, but presently as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold -- everywhere the glint of gold."

Ridley makes the point that his popularity notwithstanding little is known about Tutankhamen. It is certain that he was a member of the royal house of Amarna, and that his claim to the throne was strong enough for him to succeed as Pharaoh of all Egypt in 1333BC, when he was only nine years old.

The young Pharaoh, it seems, today rules over a vaster realm -- the entire world. As Ridley notes, nothing fires the imagination of the public more than the discovery of a gold treasure or a compelling mystery -- both of which Tutankhamen provides.