American Cinematheque Presents

CHASING MUMMIES ONTHE BIG SCREEN 

Ramadan is a very special time for all people of Islam. Every year I look forward to this holy month of fasting, charity and good will. Ramadan is a month where all Muslims reflect on their connection to God and the rest of humanity by fasting from food and water from dawn to dusk.  

 The American-Egyptian mission from Yale University has stumbled upon what appears to be the remains of a substantial settlement. The city is a thousand years earlier than the major surviving ancient remains at the Umm Mawagir area in Kharga Oasis.

Today Egypt recovered a Greco-Roman bust from Canada!

The Hibis temple is oriented along an east-west axis and consists of a pylon, open court, pillared hall and sanctuary. The temple would have originally also had a lake and boat quay along its eastern side. The lake would have allowed access to the temple for festival purposes. Today the first thing a visitor encounters at the temple is the outer or Roman gate that contains several Greek inscriptions. The most important one is the decree that was by the Roman governor, Tiberius Julius Alexander during the second year of the reign of Emperor Galba (69AD).

 The Egyptian Museum, Cairo opened a new temporary exhibit entitled: Coins Through the Ages on August 10. Over the past eight years the Egyptian Museum has hosted a series of temporary exhibitions, the most recent of which focused on five artifacts which were repatriated to Egypt. The temporary exhibition space (Hall 44) has also hosted a series of exhibits on excavations under the direction of foreign teams. This includes teams from America, France, Poland and the Netherlands.

Howard Carter’s house is located on the west bank of Luxor just before you enter the Valley of the Kings. Unfortunately, it was neglected for a long time and was not being used for anything except collecting dust. I decided that this was unacceptable and that the house of Howard Carter should be returned to its former glory.

Yesterday the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni and I went on a tour of the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) at Bab El-Khalq area, to inspect the progress of the latest restoration projects.

Damietta is my hometown. I grew up in a small village about 10km south of the town of Damietta. This town is beautiful, very clean and near to a very famous seashore where all the Egyptian movie stars and singers used to visit on their vacations.  

Dr. Zahi Hawass gives his first public lecture in Spain: