I arrived in San Francisco on 21^st June. The next day I went to a press conference and spoke about how thirty years ago, when I was a young man working as an inspector at the pyramids, I had helped to bring the King Tut exhibit to the de Young Museum.  During this time I had met Walter Newman and his wife Ellen, who is the daughter of an important Californian businessman. They told me that they hoped that the King Tut exhibition, which was touring the States at the time, would come to San Francisco. I wanted to help, so I spoke to my friend Fouad El-Orabi, who was head of the Antiquities Service at the time, and tried to obtain permission for this to happen.  El-Orabi then went to the Ministry of Culture and arranged for San Francisco to become the seventh and final city that Tutankhamun would visit in the States. Then, in 1977, before the exhibition came to San Francisco, I was invited by Mr. Cyril Magnin to give a lecture at the de Young museum. At this time, Walter Newman generously promised to return a frieze to Egypt that he had learnt was stolen from a tomb in Luxor.  

Now, after thirty years, I am very pleased to bring King Tut back to the de Young Museum for the beautiful exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. It will be there from June 27^th to March 28^th 2010. When I arrived in San Francisco I met the Director of the Museum, John Buchanan;  I could immediately see that he is a very active and smart man. I also met his beautiful wife Lucy, who is involved in all the activities of the exhibition, and Renee Dreyfus, the Curator of Egyptian art at the museum.

Then, that evening, I attended a wonderful black-tie party to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. Many of my friends were there; I was very happy to see the Egyptian Ambassador in Washington DC, Sameh Shoukry, who came with his lovely wife, and also Dr. Hesham Elnakib who is the Egyptian Consul General in San Francisco. During the evening I gave a short speech; I finished by saying that there are two important ambassadors that will help relations between Egypt and the US: one is King Tut, and the other is President Obama. As well as attending the opening events of the exhibition I also did five TV interviews in less than two hours, and met Julian Guthrie from the Chronicle Newspaper who wrote a profile about me. The next day I was interviewed by some more TV stations and attended the Director’s Party at the museum in the evening. It was a very busy time!

When the first Tutankhamun exhibition came to San Francisco in 1979 it was one of the most popular exhibitions in the history of the de Young Museum, and I hope that people will enjoy learning about ancient Egypt from this new exhibition just as much.

My next stop was Indianapolis where I attended the opening of another wonderful exhibition about King Tut at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. This exhibition is called Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs, and displays over fifty objects from the tomb of King Tut, as well as statues that represent the great art of ancient Egypt. The exhibition will be there from June 27^th to October 25^th 2009.

I am very happy to see that some of the statues that I found during my excavations at the tombs of the pyramid builders in Giza are on display. One is a statue of the Priest Kai that I found in a tomb located west of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, and there are also four statues representing a man called Inti-Shedu at different ages in life. I was also very excited to see that the museum is showing a video of when I discovered these statues; you can see the moment when I first remove the mud bricks in Inti-Shedu’s tomb to discover one of the statues looking back at me, and then, when I remove a large limestone block, three more suddenly emerge from the darkness. A fifth statue had originally been with the other four, but this one had been made from wood and had disintegrated to dust.

The President of the Children’s Museum is a wonderful man called Jeff Patchen; he is one of the most energetic museum directors that I have ever seen. The museum’s Vice President is Jennifer Robinson; with her beautiful smile and intelligence, she is one of the jewels of the museum. Working together they have made the Indianapolis Children’s Museum one of the best children’s museums in the entire United States. Jeff and Jennifer have also been working very closely with Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak to help create the Suzanne Mubarak Children’s’ Museum in Cairo.  

On the day of the Grand opening of the exhibition Jeff spoke about Mrs Mubarak’s dedication to children, how she personally reviews everything concerning the museum, and her belief that this will be the best children’s museum in the Middle East. Then, Jeff showed an interview that Mrs Mubarak did in Cairo with Debby Knox, a journalist from Los Angeles. Also on the first day, I attended a press conference and talked about how 2009 and 2010 will be very important years for me; we will start to search behind the stone slabs in the Great Pyramid; continue our excavations in the Valley of the Kings and the tomb of Seti I; and use DNA studies to reveal new information about the family of King Tut. There was also a wonderful black-tie dinner that evening.

On the evening of the 27^th, the Egyptian Tourist Authority and Egypt Air made a beautiful dinner for me, and I gave a speech about tourism in Egypt and the work that I am currently undertaking in the Great Pyramid. I was also privileged to find that the Conrad hotel  had made a nice dinner in my honour. On my last day in Indianapolis I had the opportunity to meet some of the museum donors at a wonderful party organised by Jennifer. At eleven o’clock, I gave a speech about my adventures and the secrets of the tomb of Seti I, and then, half an hour later, I went to catch my flight back to Cairo.

My time in the States was very busy, but it was a wonderful opportunity to meet many delightful people and to see the great work that they are doing. Thanks to their passion, many people will have the opportunity to learn about the wonders of ancient Egypt. I am very much looking forward to my next trip to the States!