(CNN) – Ancient mummies of Egypt’s royal pharaohs left their resting place on Saturday and paraded through the streets of Cairo to a new home.
What appears to be the plot of a film was part of a lavish celebration of Egyptian history and a project to move some of its great treasures to a new high-tech facility.
The mummies of Ramses the Great and 21 others were part of the “Golden Parade of the Pharaoh”, a long-awaited event organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
The parade route took place between the Egyptian Museum, its former location near Tahrir Square, to its new home, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), in Egypt’s first Islamic capital. , al-Fustat
“I invite all Egyptians and the whole world to follow this unique event – evoking the spirit of the great ancestors who preserved the homeland and created a civilization in which all humanity is proud – to follow our path that we have begun: the path of construction and humanity “.
Wagons carrying 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies leave the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the parade.
Khaled Desouki / AFP / Getty Images
Sarcophagi are stone coffins often adorned with sculptures and inscriptions.
Among the mummies are those of kings Ramses II, Seti I, Seqenenre and Tuthmosis III, as well as four queens: Ahmose-Nefertari, Tiye, Meritamun and Hatshepsut.
The parade was greeted by 21 firearms and a military band joined. The mummies were transported in special vehicles decorated with their names inscribed on ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, as well as in Arabic.
The mummies who took part in the parade were discovered in two cachettes. The first was unearthed in 1881 at Deir El-Bahari, in the West Bank of Luxor, in tomb TT320.
All 22 royal mummies are from the New Kingdom, a time when underground tombs were built with hidden entrances to prevent grave thieves.
Preparing the mummies
The purpose of the parade was to move the 18 kings and four queens of Egypt, along with their coffins and belongings, from their ancient home in the Egyptian Museum.
Performers dressed in ancient Egyptian costumes march at the start of the parade of 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies leaving the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Mahmoud Khaled / AFP / Getty Images
Dr. Mostafa Ismail, head of conservation at the NMEC Mummy Conservation and Warehouse Conservation Laboratory, led a team of 48 people to prepare the royal mummies.
The conservation process, he told CNN, is to place each mummy in an oxygen-free nitrogen capsule “that can keep it preserved without being damaged by the effects of moisture, especially when we talk about bacteria.” fungi and insects “.
The capsule is surrounded by soft material that distributes pressure and reduces vibrations during transport.
When the mummies arrive at the NMEC, the exhibitors will have the same conditions as the nitrogen capsules. “So there will be no shock to the mummy when we take it out of the box and put it in these units,” Ismail adds.
Each mummy will be accompanied by the belongings discovered next to them, including their coffins.
The screens will also show tomographs that reveal what lies beneath the wraps and sometimes any broken bones or diseases that affected the royal family.
CNN’s Taylor Barnes and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report.