More antiquities transferred to Grand Egyptian Museum

According to Dr. Osama Abu ElKheir (General director of restoration at the Grand Egyptian Museum) there are 376 objects out of the 525 are from the golden boy King collection (Tutankhamen's collection), in order to display the whole collection together at the GEM which is scheduled for partial opening before the end of 2017,  for the first time since the discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922.

Mr. Essa Zidan (General director of primary restoration at GEM) explained that once the antiquities object are unwrapped, they will be sent to the specialised restoration lab to make a report of the state of each object and do the needed primary restoration for the objects in critical state. 

The objects moved to the GEM include a granite tablet with King Khufu's cartouch. As for King Tut's collection, there are pink granite lion head, a number of shabtis and writing tools. 

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A new discovery: 4500 years-old port, 40 papyri and 30 caves sealed by King Khufu’s Royal Cartouche

Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim announced the discovery of the oldest ports in history dated back to King Khufu’s time at Wadi El Jerf, located on the red sea coast to the South of the city of Suez, about 190 kilo meters.

The 4500 years old port was discovered by a French-Egyptian team headed by Pierre Tallet as well as the discovery of 40 papyri reveals details of the daily like of ancient Egyptian, some of them dated to the year 27 of King Khufu’s reign.

The Minister explained that the Suez area was one of the most important ports in ancient Egypt as all the expeditions to transfer copper and mineral from Sinai to the valley used to start from there.  He also added that the mission successfully discovered a group of stone moorings showing the robes marks which were used for docking the ships in the marina of 180 x 120 meters into the Red Sea water.

The newly discovered papyri is considered of the oldest to be found so far beside the importance to reveal more information and details of the daily like as they include monthly reports record the number of workers in the port. The papyri were transferred to the Suez museum for documentation and further studies.

Mr. Adel Hussein, The head of the Egyptian Antiquities department, said that the mission discovered the ruins of the workers homes which give more importance to the site as well as the 30 caves were found and the stone blocks that were used to block the caves entrances. The blocks have the royal cartouche of King Khufu in red ink.

Second Solar boat uncovered!!!

This morning Dr. Zahi Hawass held a press conference at the site to announce the beginning of the stone cover removal in order to begin the restoration project of the solar boat.

To the west of the first solar boat at Giza, the second solar boat was detected by an electromagnetic radar in 1987 and since 2008 it has been the issue of research by the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities (formally Supreme council of Antiquities) in co-operation with a delegation from Waseda University and the Japanese Institute for Restoration Research.

Zahi Hawass said today “This project will take 5 years where 13 layers of wood will be transferred to the site to start the restoration process after doing the necessary tests on the 4300 years old wood. A new museum will be built for the second solar boat at the new entrance for the Giza plateau area.”

Dr. Zahi Hawass also said that during the cleaning of the stone filling of the solar boat, a Cartouche was found bearing the name of King Khufu and beside it his son’s name but without a cartouche. This is considered the second finding of its kind as the King cartouche was found before in the 5 rooms inside the great pyramid which may be a prove that the second solar boat was constructed in this location before the other boat which in its museum by the great pyramid.

Although today the first stone cover removal but there are 41 stones to be removed measure 4 meters length by one meter width and the heaviest weighs 16 tons. After removing the stones, the hole will be covered by chemically treated wood boards which are filled with a thermal insulation in order to maintain the heat and moisture in the pit at a safe level.

On a different subject; Zahi Hawass said that all of Egypt’s historical sites are safe and secured and he saw about 2000 tourists visiting the pyramids and the sphinx this morning
This work may help to reveal more historical information about King Khufu.