A month-long photo exhibition at the National Museum of EgyptIan Civilisation (NMEC), featuring the legendary Belgian cartoon character Tintin in an adventure in an ancient Egyptian royal tomb, is drawing to a close on 22 December.
The exhibition was held to mark the National Day of Belgium, the first such commemoration held at an EgyptIan museum.
A statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities informed that the photo exhibition “Adventures of Tintin in Egypt” was organised in cooperation with the International Foundation for Fine and Decorative Arts (IFFDA) and Tintinimaginatio – the company that was set up to preserve and promote the work of the creator of the character.
Ahmed Ghoneim, executive-manager of the NMEC, greeted the Belgian people and the Ambassador of Belgium in Cairo, François Cornet, saying: “It is the first time that a country’s embassy celebrates its national day in the museum which is keen to promote cultural ties between Egypt and other countries.” Mr Cornet expressed his gratitude to the museum for hosting the exhibition.
“The Adventures of Tintin” is a series of 24 cartoon albums created in 1929 by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series remains one of the most popular comics in the 20th century in Egypt and the world.
The character Tintin, a young Belgian reporter who is always accompanied by his dog, was first introduced in Le Petit Vingtième, a weekly youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle.
During a trip to Egypt, Tintin stumbles on a tomb for a pharaoh and solves the mystery behind a number of corpses and boxes of cigars he found buried with the royal. Remi was inspired by the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter in 1922.
During the NMEC exhibition, visitors were invited to participate in the “Tintin Adventure Trail,” a fun and interactive quest (via QR codes) to (re)discover 10 objects presented in the permanent collection that the hero with the yellow quiff has himself encountered during his investigations, according to Tintin website.
Visitors were also able to browse the black and white edition compared to the one recently colourised.