Nevine El-Aref visits the sites of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat and the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza Plateau to see how building is progressing When a few years ago the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), now the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs, launched its initiative to create a perfect environment to showcase Egypt's priceless treasures, many harboured the thought that this was an unachievable vision. Professionals and visitors alike were accustomed to overstuffed museums with shabby showcases, and it was taken for granted that there was no place to display items long in storage, let alone those being newly discovered. The success of the SCA's new museum programme has changed all this. The effort to release the pressure on existing regional and national museums has seen the building of several new museums and the rehabilitation of others to bring them up to international standards matching their counterparts abroad. The initiative also aims to transform Egyptian museums into educational institutions that will teach visitors to be aware of the importance of preserving their shared cultural and historical heritage. Among the largest of the new museums are the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC) on Lake Ain Al-Sina on the site of the first Islamic capital, Fustat, which adjoins Old Cairo, and the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza plateau. The NMEC is Egypt's first and only museum to be devoted to its diverse civilisations. It will present the full range of the rich and diverse heritage of Egyptian culture throughout the ages, from prehistoric era right through to modern times. Moreover, this will be the very first of its kind and of this scale in the entire Arab world. Its exceptional collection of 150,000 artefacts is drawn from national collections, whether museum galleries and store rooms or archaeological site magazines. The museum's building will actually occupy only five of the 32-feddan site, with the remainder being taken up by outdoor exhibits in a landscaped setting and consisting of antiquities found during the course of the pre-building inspection. Hussein Abdel-Bassir, director of the NMEC, says the four-storey building, of which the first two floors will be devoted to the exhibits, the third to a documentation centre and the fourth to an archaeological and historical library, has an exceptional architectural design both to integrate with its surroundings and to symbolise the ages in Egypt's past. It is influenced by the architectural paradigms of its brilliant collection; hence the exterior features a somewhat neutral, simple look that suits its timeless quality. The conception of the building reflects several aspects of Egyptian civilisation. Its large, square shape represents the base of a pyramid, while a gallery, which is equivalent to a pyramid ramp, leads to a smaller building representing the valley temple which will encompass a 400-square-metre educational institute and a conference hall. To emphasis the pyramid-shape of the complex, the building has a benben- (pyramidion) shaped top which will house the archaeological library. Abdel-Bassir says that the five main component themes of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation are the Nile, handwriting, handicrafts, society and faith. The royal mummies will be displayed in such a way as to illustrate their different personalities and achievements within the social context. The museum will also display the feats and achievements that Egypt history has witnessed over the span of the millennia. In addition to the chosen collection, the NMEC will house a complete set of monuments, among them the Seboua Temple of Ramses II, now on Lake Nasser; a complete façade of a Fatimid sabil (fountain); two columns from King Djoser's temple at Saqqara; the collection of royal mummies; and the mummy of the ancient Egyptian artist Senedjem now on display at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. Also on display will be a newly- organised exhibition featuring Egypt's 25 January Revolution. This will tour 14 European countries before eventually returning to the NMEC's permanent location. The outdoor exhibits will include several of the discoveries made during the preliminary digging of the museum's foundations. Meanwhile, overlooking the desert plateau and nestled between the Giza Pyramids and the modern city of Cairo, at the junction of the dry desert and the fertile flood plain, the GEM will be a portal to the past. When it opens in March 2015 it will add a new edge to the plateau, with the layout of its exhibition galleries organised in such a way as to allow it to cover the visual lines to the Pyramids through a prism of light. The museum complex will centre on the Dunal Eye, an area containing the main exhibition spaces around which will spread a network of streets, piazzas and bridges linking together the museum's several sections. The museum is designed by Shih-Fu Peng of the Dublin firm Heneghan, the winners of the international architectural competition held in 2003. The museum, Peng says, will link modern Cairo to the ancient Pyramids and will be partly ringed by a desert wall containing half a million semi-precious stones. The museum's grand staircase will follow a chronological route through the collections, culminating in a view of the Pyramids from the uppermost floor. The collections themselves will be organised thematically, beginning with the physical environment of the Nile Valley and the surrounding desert and oases. Other displays will focus on kingship and the state, religious practices during the Amarna period and the daily lives of the ancient Egyptians, their sports, games, music, arts and crafts, as well as their cultural and social practices. The unique funerary objects of Tutankhamun; Hetepheres -- mother of the Great-Pyramid builder Khufu; Yuya and Thuya, the grandparents of Pharaoh Akhenaten; Senedjem, the principal artist of Pharaoh Ramses II, the royal mummies and the treasures of Tanis will all be on permanent display. Khufu's solar boats, now on display on the Giza Plateau, and the red granite statue of Ramses II that was removed four years ago from Ramses Square in Downtown Cairo, will also be part of the permanent display. A separate building will house the conservatory, library, media room and other resources. A large piazza will separate the Eye from a series of flexible spaces, including an auditorium that can be converted into three smaller conference rooms, temporary exhibition spaces and commercial areas. The gardens around the Dunal Eye will be landscaped according to the topography of the site in a pattern of spirals. A 7,000-square-metre commercial area with retail shops, cafeterias, restaurants, and centres for leisure and recreational activities is planned for the ground floor level, as well as a 250- seat cinema. Braving the heatwave that hit Egypt this week Zahi Hawass, the minister of state for antiquities affairs, embarked on a field tour of the NMEC and the GEM to inspect the building progress on two of the most ambitious archaeological museums ever planned. The NMEC tour was Hawass's first inspection field tour as such, as the museum was under the authority of the Ministry of Culture before that ministry was joined with the SCA to become the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs. During the tour, Hawass requested that the engineer in charge of the construction of the NMEC building complete the construction of the theatre, which is located in the museum garden, during the first phase of building so that it can be used for cultural events held by the MSAA and other ministries as well as by cultural and scientific organisations. The first phase is scheduled for completion in June. Hawass also ordered the NMEC's archaeological team to accomplish a comprehensive study to establish a papyrus centre inside the museum. This team will be in charge of studying, documenting, publishing, restoring and displaying all the archaeological papyri in all the museums in Egypt. Hawass also met NMEC employees and promised them he would ask UNESCO, the supervising authority of the project, to provide them with training programmes in Egypt and abroad. He has also suggested commissioning another study on turning the NMEC into a greater association with an independent administrative and financial echelon, much like the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. At the GEM, Hawass inspected the newly inaugurated first two phases of the project including a power plant, fire station, fully equipped conservation centre with 12 laboratories and four storage galleries. The conservation centre, according to the museum's technical consultant, Mohamed Ghoneim, is the largest in the world. It is intended not only to restore Egyptian antiquities but to be a regional conservation centre. It will also incorporate a documentation unit charged with creating a computerised database of all artefacts. Established in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and with Japanese technical assistance, the centre's 12 laboratories are for restoring, scanning and studying mummies as well as objects made from pottery, wood, textiles and glass. The 122 conservators are currently working on restoring 6,800 objects that will form part of the museum's permanent display. During his inspection tour Hawass announced that next week he would send the German Government an official letter requesting the return of the priceless Nefertiti bust now on display in the Neues Museum in Berlin. His letter, he said, would be accompanied by documents putting forward Egypt's right to possession of the painted bust and proving it had been taken illegally. In his reply to a question put by Al-Ahram Weekly on how hopeful he was of recovering the Nefertiti bust, Hawass admitted he was not 100 per cent sure of the immediate return of the bust but said he had provided evidence that would enable whoever succeeded him to demand its restitution. "If I am not able to do it now, another will, and it will state to the whole world that the Nefertiti bust belongs to Egypt and not Germany," Hawass said. He pointed out that over the coming weeks an ancient Egyptian statue would be recovered from Switzerland, as well as one of Ka-Nefer, now in the United Sates. In August, Hawass said, 19 pieces from the Tutankhamun collection now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York would come home and take their place in the permanent Tutankhamun exhibition at the GEM. Mohamed Saleh, archaeological supervisor at the GEM, said the 4,500 objects in the Tutankhamun's collection would be the museum's main display where they would be exhibited in a better place and lighting than in their current home in the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. Tutankhamun's gold mask will be the star attraction of the new museum. Next week, Hawass says, the MSAA will launch a bid to study the best way to transfer Khufu's solar boat, now on display in a small museum on the Giza plateau, to the GEM.
