CAIRO - The guards at the Saqqara Pyramids have cast aside their wooden sticks in favour of loaded guns. This change in security philosophy has been prompted by the constant pillaging of antiquities there over the past four months. Encouraged by the mysterious disappearance of policemen on January 28, the antiquity thieves went into action in broad daylight. Their haul was huge, including the contents of royal tombs, which they badly damaged in the process of pillaging them. Saqqara was the final resting place for the dead in the New and Late Kingdom (1539 to 1069 BC). The new security philosophy was announced by Egypt's chief archaeologist, the Minister for Archaeological Affairs Zahi Hawass, during his opening of six royal cemeteries from the New and Late Kingdom. Hawas disclosed that more than 17,000 guards deployed at major archaeological sites across the country will be equipped with loaded guns. Veteran instructors from the Ministry of Interior will give the guards, known as ghafir (sentries) intensive training. Moreover, the ghafir will shed their traditional outfit, the galabiya, and don a two-piece uniform instead. These guards, whose monthly wage has been fixed at LE400 for years, can also look forward to a hefty pay rise. Hawass added that the restoration of these six cemeteries cost LE30 million. A wooden beam found inside the serdab (labyrinths) of the Pyramid of King Zoser of the Third Dynasty testified that Hawass' restoration wasn't the first. The wooden beam was probably put there in around 500 BC. The newly discovered cemeteries include the coloured tomb of Maya, the Treasurer of King Tutankhamun; the tomb of Mry Nit, an assistant in the temple of the god Aton under Akhenaton; the tome of Paie, the supervisor of the harem of the palace of King Tut, and Paie's son; and the tomb of Petah M Woya, a powerful member of the royal entourage in the 18th Dynasty. The past four months have been very scary for archaeologists working and camping there, because the guards were incapable of fending off the thieves. Thankfully, the Army have managed to retrieve many of the stolen treasures.
