The Rosetta National Museum was officially inaugurated last week by President Hosni Mubarak, reports Nevine El-Aref During his tour of the Delta town of Rosetta to inaugurate development projects in the area, President Hosni Mubarak, along with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif; Culture Minister Farouk Hosni; Zahi Hawass secretary- general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA); and other ministers and government officials last Thursday opened the town's National Museum. Mubarak viewed the various galleries of the museum, which altogether display 600 objects chosen to show the history of Rosetta from the time of the town's foundation in ancient times right through to the modern era. The pieces on display were carefully selected from the Islamic and Coptic museums and the Gayer Anderson House in Cairo. Another 200 objects were unearthed from archaeological sites around Rosetta. These include a collection of Omayyad and Ottoman gold and bronze coins, pots and pans, versions of the holy Quran and a number of 18th- and 19th-century weapons such as arrows, swords, knives and pistols. Tapestry, military and national Ottoman and Mamluk costumes are also on show. To give visitors an idea of what an Ottoman house looked liked, some galleries have been furnished with a complete set of Ottoman furniture consisting of a bedroom, reception room, kitchen and bathroom. Modern paintings featuring various struggles by Rosetta residents against Napoleon's expedition and the British invasion are also exhibited. Models of the Qait Bey Citadel (where the Rosetta Stone was found) and copies of historical documents such as a marriage contract between French general Menno and his Egyptian bride Zubayda are also on display. The highlight of the museum is a life-size replica of the Rosetta Stone offered by the British Museum in response to an official request submitted by Hawass to the museum's ancient Egyptian department. The replica stone is on display at the foyer of the museum. In the early 17th century the Rosetta National Museum was the residential house of the town's Ottoman governor. It was the largest house in the town, and had three flours. The building reflects the tall style of architecture, construction and carpentry typical of the time. It contains exquisite mashrabiya (wooden lattice work), decorative inscriptions, inlaid sea-shell work, a ceiling dome and a densely-ornamented door. In the early 1960s the house was converted into the town's museum to commemorate Rosetta's legendary struggle against French and British colonisation. Some years after its conversion, the house fell into disrepair. It was partly submerged in groundwater, with serious cracks veining the walls, damaged masonry and with most of the mashrabiya broken. The decorative items on the walls were stained with pollution, while most of the flooring was badly damaged. Several attempts were made to restore the building but the results were unsatisfactory. In 2003 the SCA launched a massive restoration project for this superb edifice. All restoration has been carried out according to the latest and most scientific methods and every effort has been made to ensure that all the original architectural features have been retained. Walls were reinforced, and masonry cleaned and desalinated; the Kufic calligraphy embellishing the walls was cleaned and missing pieces of the floor were replaced. Hussein El-Shabouri, the interior designer of the museum, said that the most important task of this project was to undo the faults of the 1984 restoration executed at that time by the Egyptian Antiquities Authority and to uncover the house's original features hidden beneath false painting and polishes. This led to the discovery of a small gravure and a very fine piece of Kufic calligraphy. Following five years of hard work of restoration and renovation, the museum is resurrected and open to the public.
