The people of Suez celebrated the anniversary of the revolution with the opening of their long awaited National Museum, reports Nevine El-Aref To the joy of local residents and tourists alike, the Suez National Museum and its eclectic collection of carefully chosen artefacts has opened at last. The temple-inspired building standing graciously on the banks of the Suez Canal has been in the preparation stage for almost six years, but last Sunday Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim opened the museum to celebrate the first anniversary of the 25 January Revolution. The official inauguration should have been attended by the Suez governor, Mohamed Abdel-Hamid Hashim, but a demonstration by some local residents proved an obstacle to his attendance. It was not until the end of the opening ceremony that Hashim succeeded in gaining entry after he promised to answer the protesters' demands to be given official appointments to their governmental posts. Ibrahim expressed delight with the event, pointing out that this was the first important archaeological event to take place in Egypt since the revolution. A commemorative plaque at the museum entrance was engraved with the words: "In memory of all the Suez martyrs." Ibrahim explained that by choosing not to feature the names of previous ministers on the plaque, he was not ignoring their efforts and contributions but rather he wanted to commemorate the Suez martyrs throughout history. Suez has been at the core of many struggles and wars. The port of Suez was an important trade centre throughout the Pharaonic period, and continued to grow in importance up until the contemporary era. Ibrahim spoke about Suez as a centre of copper and malachite mining, recounting that when King Sesostris III dug a canal linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean via the Nile the city became a trading hub with Suez as the starting point for exploration and commercial missions. To explore the newly inaugurated museum visitors pass through a garden planted with species cultivated in ancient Egypt, as well as original stelae and temple gates and statues of ancient Egyptian royals. Here are henna trees, corn and wheat, papyrus and lotus flowers. At the core of the garden, just in front the museum entrance gate, a life-size replica of Queen Hatshepsut's vessel is anchored on an artificial water channel, offering visitors a complete view of the shape and size of a sailing boat of the queen's fleet that once crossed the sea on its legendary journey to the land of Punt. After climbing two dozen marble steps the visitor reaches a dimly lit hall where a number of prehistoric clay pots of various shapes and sizes are exhibited, as well as precious and semi-precious beads. From here the museum begins to tell the story of the canal city of Suez which, lying at the crossroads of Africa and Asia Minor, has played a major commercial, industrial and military role across the span of history. Indeed, Suez has held a unique position since the early Pharaonic era. Not only was it a main mining of copper and malachite, but its port was an essential trade centre from the Pharaonic period up to the present time. After the Suez Canal was opened in 1867, the city entered a new chapter in its history and became the most important international navigation link between the East and the West. The major impact that this had on the development of Egypt is a feature of the new museum, as is the country's own trade relations with its neighbours to the east and north of the Mediterranean Sea and Suez's role in pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to Mecca and Medina. Through its collection of 1,500 artefacts, illustrations and maps, the museum reveals the history of Suez from prehistoric times. It also highlights the struggle of the city's residents to liberate Sinai from Israeli occupation between 1956 and the victory of October 1973. The museum collection has been carefully selected from museums and archaeological storehouses all over Egypt. Many of its artefacts derive from excavations at various archaeological sites in the Suez area, but the majority of the exhibits come from the original collection that was on display in the first Suez National Museum which was completely destroyed during the 1967 war. At that time, when Israeli raids on Suez reached their highest level and the museum was under threat, the late museum curator Abdel-Hamid Gharib rescued the museum's distinguished objects and with the help of an assistant documented them all, packed them in sealed wooden boxes and transferred them to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The collection remained in the museum's storage until 2005, when the ministry of State for Antiquities (the Supreme Council of Antiquities at that time) decided to build a new Suez National Museum to compensate the city residents for the loss of their old one. The museum is a two-storey, modern architectural building divided by an open hall displaying a set of columns dating from the Graeco-Roman period (332 BC-64 AD). The 2,500-square-metre ground level contains a VIP lounge, a 100-seat auditorium and a cafeteria, as well as a temporary exhibition gallery. This gallery is currently displaying a collection of mummification tools, mummies, coffins and sarcophagi so as to give visitors an idea of how ancient Egyptians mummified their dead. The museum's main exhibition galleries are on the second level. Six rooms are dedicated to the Sesostris Canal, trading, mining, the Mahmal Hall (featuring the delegation that travelled annually from Egypt to Mecca to offer a new cover for the Kaaba) and the Suez Canal. The displays dedicated to the Sesostris Canal feature artefacts and statues of those Pharaohs who contributed to the building, rehabilitation and protection of the ancient canal, as well as several texts from the reign of Hatshepsut (1473-1458 BC) showing the return of her fleet from the land of Punt. A head of Hatshepsut is exhibited, as well as a set of blocks inscribed with images of the god Hapi, a symbol of the Nile. These blocks, explained Mahmoud Mabrouk, the minister's museums adviser and the person responsible for the Suez Museum's scenario, were discovered in the area of Awlad Moussa beside the Gulf of Suez. "The blocks are evidence of Nile contact with a distant region at the time," Mabrouk commented. A collection of boats, texts about boats, statues of sailors, local and foreign pottery, and a relief of Pharaoh Merneptah (1213-1203 BC) defending the Egyptian coast against the Sea People are also on display. The Mahmal gallery tells the history of Suez as the most important stop for pilgrims to the Holy Land as well as for the Mahmal, the procession that carried the Kaaba cover from where it was made in Cairo all the way to Mecca. Three examples of the Kaaba covers are displayed, including the curtain of the Door of Forgiveness. Among them is the last one that bears the name of King Ahmed Fouad. The mining display shows all the industrial achievements that facilitated mining in Egypt from the pre-dynastic to the Islamic periods. These include the mining of gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, and precious stones such as turquoise, emeralds and garnets. The visitors' route ends in the Suez Canal gallery where documents and paintings of Khedive Said, who issued the decree to dig the canal, and of Khedive Ismail, who inaugurated it once it was completed, can be seen. On one side is a medallion with the face of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French architect who initiated the Suez Canal project, while on the other is the royal vehicle used by Empress Eugenie of France during the canal's inauguration, as well as a number of gold and bronze medallions issued for the occasion and a set of decorations and awards that were distributed at the opening.
