Nevine El-Aref previews the Egyptian Museum's exhibition highlighting the work of French Egyptologists George Legrain and Jean François Champollion Today at sunset Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Secretary-General Zahi Hawass, French Cultural Attaché Denis Louche and senior French and Egyptian officials and archaeologists are schudled to attend the opening of the special exhibition "Champollion, Legrain... Treading the Land of Egypt" at the centennial hall of the Egyptian Museum. The exhibition has come to Cairo after six months in the capital of the French Alps, Grenoble, where it marked the centenary of Egyptologist George Legrain's famous discovery of the Karnak Cachet. It also coincides with the ninth International Congress of Egyptologists. Through the achievements of the eminent French Egyptologists Legrain and Jean François Champollion Cairenes will experience a fresh glimpse of the magic and mystery of ancient Egypt. The exhibition will stay at the Egyptian Museum for two months. "This is an important exhibition reflecting the longstanding and strong bilateral cultural and diplomatic relations between Egypt and France and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and his counterpart Jack Chirac, especially in the field of archaeology," Hosni told Al-Ahram Weekly. He said that for the last five years several Pharaonic, Coptic and Islamic exhibitions had been held in France, the last being "The Glory of the Pharaohs", which was opened by both presidents of state last October at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. Twenty-five granite and limestone statues -- just a few of the 779 objects discovered by George Legrain in 1904 in the Hypostyle Hall of the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak -- lie here in an atmosphere of divinity and serenity. Black and white photographic illustrations show workmen in action during the 1904 excavations; removing limestone blocks, brushing the sand off a statue which is half-buried in sand; or pulling a thick rope with a huge granite object attached. A portrait of Legrain along with a short biography flashes on one wall. According to Hawass, the 25 beautifully carved statues feature the various echelons of ancient Egyptian society from the beginning of the Middle Kingdom (2011BC) through to the Roman invasion of Egypt in 30BC. "They are a testimony to the ordinary life of the ancient Egyptian since they reveal details of clothes, hair and fashion as well as common tradition," Hawass said. Among the most significant items on display are a fine limestone statue of Psammetik I, founder of the 26th dynasty, in the shape of a sphinx; a dark gray diorite statue of Shapenoupet II, daughter of the 25th- dynasty Pharaoh Piankhi, in the shape of a female sphinx holding a bust of a bull; a white limestone statuette of Amun's musician Taheret with curly hair; and a yellow quartzite statue of the high priest of Memphis, Khaemouset, son of Ramses II. Egyptian Museum director Wafaa El- Saddiq told the Weekly that some of the objects illuminated an important Egyptian religious tradition of "the Divine Wives of Amun", or royal princesses who gave their lives to serve the god. "This is similar to Coptic monotheism," El-Saddiq said. In the second half of the exhibition are displayed some of Champollion's personal objects, which in their own way illustrate his long path to breaking the mystery code of hieroglyphics. According to Gihan Zaki, professor of Egyptology at the faculty of hotels and tourism at Helwan University, who also helped organise the exhibition, the French Institute for Oriental Studies (IFAO) had loaned the museum a collection of Champollion's original manuscripts showing his first attempts at drawing and understanding the hieroglyphs in order that they could be compared with other ancient Egyptian scripts such as hieratic and Coptic. A copy of the first hieroglyphic reference book, La Grammaire Egyptienne (Egyptian Grammar) is also among the exhibits, along with the letter written by Champollion himself to Dacier, head of Belle Lettres Académie in Paris, stating that he had succeeded in deciphering the language of ancient Egypt. The town of Figeac, birthplace of Champollion, lent the exhibition Champollion's passport, birth and baptism certificates and his identification card while he was a student in the department of Oriental Studies. Grenoble, the city where Champollion spent his youth with his archaeologist brother Jacques Joseph Figeac, and where he developed his early taste for ancient languages and his interest in Egypt, lent photographs of his family house in Vif, on the outskirts of Grenoble. These show the famous Egyptologist's desk, bedroom and library, as well as family souvenirs and a portrait of the man himself and members of his family. Copies of his original manuscripts, documents and papers are also on display. Exhibition organiser Inji Fayed told the Weekly that Christiane Desroches- Noblecourt would be honoured by the minister of culture for her contribution to Egyptology. Desroches-Noblecourt was head of the department of Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre Museum, as well as a teacher of Egyptology. She also played an important role during the Nubian salvage operation in the 1960s and worked tirelessly to protect Nubian and Egyptian monuments.
