“Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds” is the theme title of a temporary exhibition of Egyptian sunken monuments, held at the St Louis Museum of Art in St Louis, Missouri. The exhibition will run till September 2018.
The exhibition displays 293 artefacts which were unearthed in Heracleion and Canopus cities in the eastern port of Alexandria. They include huge statues for the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis and the god Serapis, as well as statues of the Sphinx. Also on display are ornaments and household utitilities.
A St Louis paper wrote that it appears miraculous that ancient Egyptian archaeological treasures that were lost under the sea for some 13 centuries survived and were rescued in such remarkable condition in this young century.
Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anani and an Egyptian delegation accompanying him were delegation participated in the World Press Conference about the exhibition.
Mr Anani said that the exhibition was a message of peace from the Egyptian people to the American people. Egypt’s antiquities are its soft power, he said, and effectively highlight the uniqueness of the Egyptian civilization. The exhibition, he said, was an invitation to visit Egypt and see its museums and archaeological sites.
The year 2018, Mr Anani said, will witness a number of openings in the antiquity field, including the Grand Egyptian Museum and Sohag Museum.
Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mustafa Waziri said the exhibition was expected to attract thousands of visitors; 1,000 tickets were sold in one day and advertisements are everywhere in the city.
St Louis Art Museum Director Brent Benjamin described this body of work as “one of the greatest finds in the history of underwater archaeology,” saying that St Louis and the museum now play roles in the history of exposing these unearthed treasures to a wider public.
Watani International
27 March 2018