San Francisco is a city that holds many fond memories for Zahi Hawass. Watch as Egypt's most famous archaeologist takes KGO-TV on an adventure in Egypt in advance of the arrival of the Tutankhmamun exhibition at the De Young Museum. In this segment, Hawass shows Christian his excavations at Saqqara, and discusses the presence of the boy king in the region of the ancient city of Memphis, near modern day Cairo.

In 1977, I was a young man working as an antiquities inspector at the pyramids of Giza. I lived in a resthouse west of the Great Pyramid. Every morning, I would get up to watch the sun rise over this amazing site, and I would gaze at the sunset every evening. I almost never slept, because I wanted to take in every moment that I spent in the atmosphere of this place. My bedroom in the resthouse was seldom used. I consider the year and a half that I spent living at Giza to be one of the best periods of my life.

During that time, I met a nice man named Walter Newman. His wife Ellen is the daughter of the wealthy California businessman Cyril Magnin, a descendant of the I. Magnin family who established the famous chain of department stores of that name. Mr. and Mrs. Newman told me that it was their dream to have the King Tut exhibition that was then touring the world come to the city of the San Francisco as its last stop. I was able to help obtain permission for this, because I was a friend of the great Fouad El-Orabi, the head of the Antiquities Department at the time. El-Orabi went to the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, and was able to arrange for the exhibition to end its tour in San Francisco. I was invited to give a lecture at the DeYoung Museum in 1977, before the golden king arrived. During that trip, I was able convince the director of the museum to return a relief fragment stolen from a tomb in Luxor to Egypt. Five years ago, I returned to the De Young for a lecture. I was so happy to see my dear friend Nancy Binz there. She presented Renee Dreyfuss, the curator of Egyptian art, with a very generous donation to help improve their Egyptian display. I gave another lecture there three years ago when the museum was renovated, and I was delighted to meet Ellen and Walter Newman once again.

After the exhibition tour in the late 70’s and early 80’s, the Egyptian government decided that the artifacts from Tut’s tomb should never travel again, as the beautiful gilded wooden statue of Selket from his shrine was damaged when the scorpion atop her head broke off in Germany. I was able, however, to convince the parliament a few years ago that King Tutankhamun should go abroad once again, this time bringing his entire family with him. We chose 140 pieces - 40 are beautiful objects from the king’s tomb, and the rest are masterpieces of the art of the 18th Dynasty. I made certain to tell the organizers of the exhibition, John Norman and Andy Numhauser of Arts and Exhibitions Group, that this show had to visit San Francisco before it returned to Egypt. I am so happy that they were able to arrange it. I understand that it will open there in June, and I am looking forward to visiting San Francisco to give a lecture before the exhibition closes in the Spring of 2010.

I recently met with a TV crew from KGO-TV of San Francisco. They sent their top anchor, Spencer Christian, to go with me on adventure to many different sites all over Egypt. I took the crew to see my excavations at Saqqara, and we visited the new pyramid and the tombs found in the Gisr El-Mudir area. I also showed them the places where King Tutankhamun may have walked in Memphis, and introduced them to Tut at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. We went to Luxor to see my excavations in the Valley of the Kings, particularly in the mysterious tunnel in the tomb of Seti I. A nice man from the San Francisco chronicle was also with us to research a profile of me. I am very much looking forward to returning to this amazing city with the Golden Boy.