I had a very nice experience the other day, when a group of children from Indiana came to visit my excavations at the tombs of the pyramid builders at Giza. These children were visiting Egypt in association with the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis with the President of the museum, Jeff Patchen. 

I recently travelled to Canada and America for two lectures and to bring back to Egypt an important artifact: the coffin of Imesy. I am glad I was able to attend this repatriation ceremony and return this treasure to Egypt.

One of the most famous sites in Egypt has always been the Valley of the Kings, which has revealed to us such wonders as the tomb of Tutankhamun. However, all of the major discoveries of the past were made by foreign archaeologists. I was determined that Egyptian archaeologists should become part of the process of excavation and discovery, so in November 2007, the first all-Egyptian team to ever work in the Valley began excavating the area behind the tomb of Merenptah.

When Omar Sharif kissed Barbara Streisand in his famous movie Funny Girl, the entire audience screamed. The kiss caused much anger throughout the Arab world, because at the time the Arab-Israeli conflict was going on, which had begun soon after the war of 1967. Arab people did not like to see Sharif kissing a Jewish woman, and so they began to criticise him. What could he say? Sharif is an Egyptian Christian who converted to Islam after marrying his love, Faten Hamama.