Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled al-Anani has received Vincent Rondot, Director of the Egyptian Department of the Louvre Museum since 2014, at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat, Cairo.
They discussed a number of issues about joint archaeological and scientific efforts, and reviewed the most recent contributions by the Louvre Museum within the European Union project to develop the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, Cairo. The EU project to develop the Egyptian Museum is carried out by five European museums: the British Museum in England; the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy; the Berlin Museum in Germany; the Leiden Museum in the Netherlands; and the Louvre in France.
The meeting included discussions on the Egyptian-French joint mission to resume the works of the project to restore the new Serapeum in Saqqara. The project was halted in 1986, and then resumed in March 2020, but stopped on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The restoration of the new Serapeum includes documentation work for the antiquities found in the eastern Serapeum; a topographical study of the site, cleaning and strengthening the wall inscriptions, and removing the salt and calcifications in the walls.
The new Serapeum of Saqqara is located north west of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. It was a burial place of Apis bulls, sacred bulls that were incarnations of the ancient Egyptian deity Ptah.
During the meeting, Dr Anani and Mr Rondot discussed organising a number of events scheduled for 2022 to mark the 200th anniversary of deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Watani International
9 November 2021
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