The 90th Anniversary of the discovery of Tut Ankh Amon’s tomb. Exclusive and Extensive coverage. Part One

The Ministry of Tourism and the Governorate of Luxor organised the celebration of the 90^th anniversary of the discovery of King Tut Ankh Amon’s tomb by Howard Carter and funded by Lord Carnarvon. The tomb was actually found on the 4^th of November 1922 which was chosen to be Luxor’s Day for many years till it was changed by the former governor 3 years ago.

Many media representatives were invited to cover the event as well as Lord Carnarvon, 8^th Earl of Carnarvon and Lady Carnarvon. Also many ambassadors to Egypt were attendants including the Ambassadors of USA, Russia, Singapore, Greece and Kuwait.

The distinguished guests had an early start before heading to the Rowing club on the Cornish to board on a Dahabiya to cross the mighty river, The Nile. The ambiance at the beginning of the day had a magical relaxing impact on everyone and got them ready to go back in time on the journey to west bank of Luxor where Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tut Ankh Amon 90 years ago.

On arrival at the Valley of the Kings, the Minister State of Antiquities invited the ambassadors with Lord & Lady Carnarvon to the sign of Mernptah tomb for a brief explanation of the tomb structure and background information on Mernptah as you could watch in the first video below.

 On arrival at Valley of the Kings

 All the media crews were getting ready

 Taking the first pictures of the day of the location of the soon-to-happen event

 Tomb of Mernptah in the begining of the day before the opening

The Arrival at Valley of the Kings

 Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, Minister of Antiquities arriving at Valley of the Kings

 Mr. Ibrahim Soliman with the Minister of Antiquities

 Lord Carnarvon (wearing a blue jacket) arriving at Valley of the Kings

 Minister of Tourism (left wearing black hat) with Minister of Antiquities and Governor of Luxor (Dr. Ezzat Saad) at Valley of the Kings heading towards Mernptah tomb

 (Left to Right) Lord Carnarvon,Lady Carnarvon,Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim

 Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim giving a brief explaination of the tomb of Mernptah and behind him the Greek Ambassador's wife

Mr. Hisham Zaazou, Minister of Tourism with his fashionable-to-be hat. He certainly LIVE Egypt 

and we surly we LOVE Egypt

Below a video showing Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim talking to the guests about Mernptah tomb and a short coversation with Lord and Lady Carnarvon before heading to the tomb itself for opening.

The opening of Mernptah tomb

When the Minister of Antiquities got to the tomb for the opening, the area was full of cameramen, reporters and photographers that some of the dignitaries were at the back and couldn’t make get through what make Mr. Mansour Boraik, The head of Upper Egypt Antiquities, say to the media representatives to wait and let the dignitaries in first and go in only 10 at the time as there is not much space inside the tomb which was a good point and should have been pointed out earlier to them but some of the media representatives didn’t like it, retreated away and one of them said “we will stay away and if they want us, they could call us ... come on everyone ,we should stick together so don’t go and take photographs or film till they (he meant the officials) demand from us.” 

Not many responded to his invitation, anyway, later the officials and ambassadors were giving statements to different TV channels and reporters.

 Dr. Ezat Saad, Governor of Luxor leaving Mernptah tomb towards King Tut Ankh Amon tomb

(Left to Right) Rania Abd El Attey,Lord Carnarvon, Dr.Mansour boraik and a guest

 Left to Right, Dr. Mona Makram Ebied, Lady Carnarvon and Lord Carnarvon

 Above & Below: USA Ambassador to Egypt, H.E. Anne W. Patterson

 Above: Minister of Tourism being interviewed

 Lord & Lady Carnarvon being interviewed by differnet channels, see the videos in Part 2

Inside the tomb of Tut Ankh Amon

In the program, there was supposed to be 5 minutes of silence standing in front on Tut Ankh Amon tomb which didn’t happen.  

The hot weather affected many people and if it was not for Dr. Ezat Saad when he said “It is already 1 o’clock and we didn’t do what we came for originally” we would have been there for many more hours of interviews and filming.

 

 Above: Lord & Lady Carnarvon in Tut Ankh Amon's tomb

Below: Dr. Ezat Saad, Governor of Luxor coming out of the boy king's tomb with Mr. Ibrahim Soliman

Below: A video shows the tomb of Tut Ankh Amon and the mummy of the Golden Pharaoh

After the visit to the boy King's tomb, H.E. Anne W. Patterson, USA Ambassador to Egypt, had a short interview with Luxor Times magazine Editor, Mena M., You can watch it below.

 

So the visit to the King Tut’s tomb took place then and afterwards the guests started heading back to their hotels to get a rest before coming back to west back for the Press conference and dinner at Carter House’s garden, but on the way they stopped at the visitors centre at Valley of the kings for a photo exhibition of the discovery.

 The Exhibition at Valley of the Kings' visitor's centre

 

That's the end of Part One of the coverage of the 90th Anniversary of the discovery of Tut Ankh Amon's tomb celebration organised by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism in Co-operation with Luxor governorate.

In Part 2, Lord & Lady Carnarvon interviewed at Valley of the Kings. What did the Lord say about his father and great grandfather? Check Luxor Times magazine blog for the full high quality videos.

In Part 3, Coverage of the Press conference which was held in the evening in the Garden of howard Carter's house. What statements were made by the Minister of Antiquities and Minister of Tourism concerning the secrets of the past and the future plans. Also what did H.E. the Russian ambassador to Egypt say and was well received?

All coming to Luxor Times readers .... Stay tuned ...

Many Thanks to Helen Bailey & Mostafa Abdalla for their photographs