The Minister of Tourism & Antiquities inaugurated on Saturday April 9, 2023 the international touring exhibition titled "Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs" at its 3rd stop in Paris, after its success in the preceding 2 USA stops, where its first stop was at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Houston, Texas, from November 20, 2021 to May 23, 2022, and the second one was at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, California, from August 20, 2022 to January 22, 2023.
The exhibition is scheduled to be held at the "Grand Halle De La Villette" in northeast Paris and will continue for five months, until September 17.
The exhibition is an opportunity to learn more about the life, reign and posterity of one of the greatest builders of Ancient Egypt.
The exhibition displays more than 180 unique and distinctive artefacts from the Egyptian Museum (Tahrir) collections, including sarcophagi, statues, gold and silverware, the restored funerary mask of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenemope, exceptional jewellery and furniture from the untouched tombs of the city of Tanis, etc.
Some of the artefacts are over 3,000 years old and are being exhibited for the first time outside Egypt.
The exhibition will not only showcase some of the most precious artifacts but will also allow people mesmerized by the ancient Egyptian civilization to discover the Abu Simbel Temple and Neferatri Temple through a unique virtual experiment made available by the exhibitors.
The inauguration was attended by Alaa Youssef, the Egyptian Ambassador to France, Amr Al-Qadi, the CEO of the Egyptian General Authority for Tourism Promotion, Hussein Al-Sharif, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Air Cairo, one of the companies affiliated with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ahmed Ebeid, the Assistant Minister for Affairs of the Minister's Office Sector, Youmna Al-Bahar, the assistant Minister for Technical Affairs, and Amr Abdullah, the Supervisor of the General Department of International Relations and Agreements at the Ministry.
A large number of politicians, officials, public figures and representatives of the international media, especially the French ones, also attended.
Egyptian ambassador to France Alaa Youssef addressed French and international media at an international press conference in Paris, in which he expressed his pleasure at the organization of the exhibition in Paris, in which 181 distinguished Egyptian archaeological pieces will be displayed.
He also noted that the exhibition "Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs" will not only bring together distinct collections of historical Egyptian archaeological pieces, some of which are on display for the first time outside Egypt but will also allow lovers of the ancient pharaonic civilization to discover the Abu Simbel Temple and the Nefertari Cemetery through virtual reality.
He expressed his pleasure that the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Ramses II will be back on display in France after nearly half a century since it was first shown in Paris in 1976.
He said that featuring this sarcophagus is an exceptional matter and comes in recognition of the French scientists who repaired and treated the mummy of King Ramses II in 1976, and the crowning of the distinguished historical relations between the two countries in various fields.
He pointed out that 145,000 tickets were sold ahead of the official opening of the "Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs" exhibition in Paris before moving on to its next destination, Sydney, Australia, expecting the event to draw more visitors than King Tut exhibition that attracted 1.42 million visitors in 2019.
He explained that the exhibition will begin with displaying a film that presents impressive panoramic views, followed by a detailed exploration of the life of King Ramses, and the famous rediscovery in 1881 of a hidden cache in the Theban necropolis in which lay Ramses and several other royal mummies. The exhibition will also offer a virtual reality tour of the fabulous temple of Abu Simbel and the tomb of Nefertari.
The minister afterwards reviewed the ministry's general policies and the national strategy for the development of tourism in Egypt, reviewing the broad lines and the most prominent axes of this strategy represented in providing greater access to the Egyptian tourist destination and doubling the number of airline seats coming to Egypt in cooperation with civil aviation.
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Issa highlighted the various procedures and programs offered by the ministry for cooperation and encouragement of professional partnership with tour operators and local and international airlines, especially in light of the importance of their role in the tourism industry in Egypt and in a way that contributes to pushing more incoming tourist traffic to Egypt, including the aviation stimulus program, Joint marketing programs, and promotions.
He also spoke about the Grand Egyptian Museum that is set to be inaugurated in Egypt soon, saying that with its collection of nearly 180,000 pieces of ancient Egyptian treasures, GEM will be the largest museum for ancient artifacts worldwide.
He further invited the French to visit Egypt to get acquainted closely with its rich civilization, as well as to learn about its comprehensive development process and its promising future within the framework of the new Republic.
