Exclusive: The 5$ ticket issue of Mut and Isis temples, reason and solution

Luxor Times has had received several comments and complains from visitors to Luxor who tried to visit Mut temple on the east bank and Isis temple at Deir Shelwit on the West Bank. 

Visitors were complaining that at the ticket offices they were asked to pay the ticket price in American dollars as the ticket says it is for 5$ and of course they can't accept any other currency because as a governmental office so they have to deposit the money for the tickets in the same amount printed on each ticket.

Many visitors, especially if they were not Americans, didn't have dollars on them and had to find a way to get them which was a problem and created a black market to buy dollars at higher rates as one tour guide had to get the dollars for his clients. 

Luxor Times tried to get to the bottom of this while at the same time we mentioned it to the Minister of Antiquities, Dr. Mamdouh El Damaty in person about couple of months ago and asked for it to be changed. 

We managed to know from a reliable source that this issue was a mistake as a result of misunderstanding.

The two temples were opened on the same day in January 2014 after the restoration work was done by ARCE (American Research Center in Egypt) funded by USAID and prepared them to be open for visits. 

When ARCE finished their work, it was suggested to make the ticket to each temple of 5 dollars worth. 

Someone in the Ministry of Antiquities tickets printshop thought that what it should be, 5 US Dollars not the equivalent in Egyptian pounds beside the spelling mistakes.

On Saturday, Dr. Youssef Khalifa, head of ancient Egyptian antiquities department, told Luxor Times that the issues has been addressed and approval given to issue new tickets in Egyptian pounds without waiting for the existing tickets to be all sold.

Remember that you need to get Mut temple ticket at Karnak temple ticket office and for the Isis temple at Deir Shelwit, tickets to be purchased at the main ticket office on the West Bank. 

#Egypt #Luxor #Antiquities #Isis #MutTemple #5$ticket 

Many thanks to Carina Felske and Nadine Wesselink for helping us with their tickets' photos.

American Egyptologists prove Pharaoh was brutally killed in a battle away from home

Elementary studies on the skeleton of SenebKay that was discovered in Abydos last year by the Mission of University of Pennsylvania directed by Dr. Josef Wegner (More details of the discovery HERE) showed 18 injuries on the King's bones as well as vertical cuts in feet, ankles and the lower back beside many injuries on the skull which indicated that the King died in a battle at age between 35 to 49 years old.

The King “Senebkay” was mentioned in Turin papyrus King List as a ruler of Abydos local ruling family for 4 and half years as a part of a family that didn’t last for long (1650-1600 B.C.) contemporary to the period of the Hyksos in Delta.  

Dr. Josef Wegner, director of Pennsylvania University mission, said that the visible injuries refers that the King death was severe. Also the sizes of the skull injuries show the sizes of axes were used in that battle of the Second Intermediate Period.

The angle and direction of the King's injuries suggest that he was at a higher place when he was injuries and he was close to his attackers. The injuries and cuts on the King's ankles, feet and lower back explain how his attackers managed to knock him down on the ground and also that he was killed far from his residence as it seems that he was mummified after a long time of his death.”

The King was probably on his horse when he was attacked and hit at his lower back then ankles till he got on the ground when the attackers brutally killed him with their axes on his skull.

Even though using horses in battles were not common at that time but the ancient Egyptians showed good skills in horse riding during the Second Intermediate Period which is an indication of the great role horses played in the military actions during this period even before the chariots technology in Ancient Egypt.

Dr. Youssef Khalifa, head of Ancient Egypt department in the MSA, said “The studies show that the King “Senebkay” was between 172cm to 182cm tall. The pelvic and legs bones suggest that the King used to ride horses a lot.”

Dr. Youssef Khalifa also adds “It is not clear yet if Senebkay died in a battle against the Hyksos, who were occupying Lower Egypt at that time, or not. If future studies proved it so this will make him the first warrior king who fought for liberation even before “Senakhtenre” the founder of 17^th Dynasty and the grandfather of “Ahmos” who defeated the Hyksos.”

#Egypt #AncientEgypt #Egyptology #Archaeology #Senebkay #UPenn #History

Photos are courtsey of MSA and UPenn mission

Mummy Curse Strikes Again: MSA Stops BYU Mission

The news spread all over about a million mummies cemetery unearthed at the site of Fag El Gamous in Fayoum where the mission of “Brigham Young University” directed by Dr. Kerry Muhlestein. This led to the decision made by the Ministry of Antiquities to stop the mission from working at the site again.

 (Screen shot of the article published by the Daily Mail online)

Luxor Times has contacted Dr. Muhlestein requesting an interview concerning the discovery and we received the following reply on Wednesday night “Because there have been too many requests from media sources to answer each request individually, I am sending each request this same statement.

We continue to excavate in Egypt and to study the results of past excavation seasons. Thus, all results are preliminary.

The cemetery is largely a Roman period cemetery, located in the Fayoum area of Egypt. The burials are not in tombs, but rather in a field of sand. The people in the cemetery represent the common man. They are the average people who are usually hard to learn about because they are not very visible in written sources. They were poor, yet they put a tremendous amount of their resources into providing beautiful burials.

The cemetery is densely populated. In a square that is 5 x 5 meters across and usually just over 2 meters deep, we will typically find about 40 burials. The cemetery is very large, and so far seems to maintain that kind of burial density throughout. Thus the math suggests that there are over a million mummies in the cemetery, though we cannot be certain of this without further exploration and a thorough academic review process.”

 

Dr. Kerry Muhlestein (Source: Youtube)

Today (Thursday), the ministry of antiquaries denied the “discovery of a million mummies cemetery” and made an official statement describing the published news as “rumors” and decided to stop any cooperation with the mission after the press statement were published in the Daily Mail.

So Luxor Times approached Dr. Kerry Muhlestein again and asked him what does he has to say about the Ministry decision to stop the mission and the statement of Dr. Youssef Khalifa.

Dr. Muhlestein responded in almost no time saying “I believe there have been some misunderstandings. I would like to work this out with the Ministry, for whom I have the greatest respect.”

Dr. Youssef Khalifa, head of Ancient Egypt department, said to Luxor Times on phone “What was published in the newspaper is not true. There are no million mummies, a mummy definition to begin with means a complete mummified body and there is only one mummy found at the site of Fag El Gamous in 1980 which is at the Egyptian museum since then.”  Dr. Youssef added “In the past few seasons of the mission’s work at the site, only poor skeletons were found and some thousands of bone’s remains. The mission violated the rules and regulations of the agreement with the Ministry of Antiquities concerning making press statements and that’s why the committee of the ancient Egypt department took the decision to stop their permission to work at the site after 28 years of working at the site and the last season finished last March.”

When we mentioned to Dr. Youssef that the director of the mission told Luxor Times that there have been misunderstandings, Dr. Youssef said “What was published was clearly stating wrong information and I think the Permanent Committee will also approve our department’s decision to stop the mission.”

 Dr. Youssef Khalifa

What did really happen? Was this announcement a publicity stunt from the mission? or the British newspaper will be blamed for publishing wrong information? or maybe the Ministry officials did not like that the announcement of such a discovery was made away from the Minister?

More will be revealed soon and till then, we hope that any misunderstandings or mistakes to be cleared as Egypt needs the work and cooperation of different institutions at the moment.

#Egypt #FagelGamous #AncientEgypt #BYU #Muhlestein #MinistryofAntiquities #History #Discovery #DailyMail

863 genuine artefacts were seized on Cairo-Suez road

According to Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, Minister State of Antiquities, after forming a committee headed by Dr. Yousif Khalifa, Director of the Central Stolen Antiquities Administration, to examine the seized  number of artifacts seized by the Police in a private car after an attempt of escape by the driver when he was stopped at a check point on Cairo-Suez road. The examination resulted in 863 genuine objects.

Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, said that the recovered pieces dated back to different eras including Old Kingdom, New Kingdom, Graeco-Roman and Islamic. The Minister believes that they are probably were obtained during illegal digs in various parts of the country. He also referred that there were a number of fake objects which the committee found unauthenticated.

Dr. Yousef Khalifa, said that of the most important objects are; a limestone basin dated to the Old Kingdom of 38.5 cm length, 24cm width and 11cm height with inscriptions in hieroglyphics contains the name of the Priest of King Senefru, a limestone tablet of the Old Kingdom as well with a depiction of the head and chest of Goddess Hathor holding a mace beside a black granite statue of Hathor dated to the New Kingdom of a 45cm height.

 The recovered objects contain 10 scarabs, 180 amulets, 120 Ptolemaic coins, 407 Roman coins of bronze, 3 Osirion wooden statues, limestone statue of 24cm height dated back to the First Intermediate Period, 22cm sand stone statue of a man wearing a long kilt dated to the First Intermediate Period and missing few parts by the head and right arm and shoulder which appears that it was recently restored, in addition to a false door on limestone dated to the Old Kingdom which has a depiction of the deceased sitting in front of offerings and inscriptions listing offerings for the deceased are carved along the side panels.