A GRANITE engraving depicting a cow-shaped ancient Egyptian deity Akht is back in Egypt. Eleven years after having gone missing from its original location in Behbit Al-Hegara temple in the Nile Delta, a granite engraving featuring the cow-shaped ancient Egyptian deity Akht has returned to its homeland. Minister of State for Antiquities Zahi Hawass said the engraving was a part of a larger block at Behbit Al-Hegara temple built during the reign of the 30th Dynasty King Nakhtanebo. Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, general supervisor of the minister's office, said the story of the retrieved artefact began in 1999 when the temple was robbed by an armed gang. Thieves cut off part of the granite along with other engraved and painted fragments. "Thank God it's back," Abdel-Maqsoud told Al-Ahram Weekly. "All the reliefs and engravings decorating the walls of the temple were archaeologically documented in 1977 by French Egyptologist Christian Farfard and in 1989 the Egyptian Antiquities Authority at the time, now the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA), documented them," Abdel-Maqsoud said. During routine work monitoring monthly catalogues issued by international auction halls, the MSA realised that the engraving was among the objects on sale in the largest auctioneers of fine art, London's Bonhams. With the help of Egypt's embassy in London, Abdel-Maqsoud said, Egypt stopped the sale of the engraving and withdrew it from the auction. The engraving is now in the Egyptian Museum for restoration after which it will be put back in its original place in the Behbit Al-Hegara temple. The engraving was the latest object to be retrieved on a list of 5,000 artefacts that have returned to Egypt since 2002.
