I recently read on the Internet the story of Ramses II's mummy. We know that during the late 1970s the French president, Giscard d'Estaing, asked President Anwar El-Sadat if the mummy of Ramses II could be sent to Paris for conservation and preservation. Being that this mummy did not require any treatment, the real reason behind their request lay in their search for the Pharaoh of the biblical Exodus whom they believed to be Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, third ruler of the New Kingdom's 19th Dynasty.

22 April 2009 - Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni announced today that an archaeological mission sponsored by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has discovered the remains of a large New Kingdom temple in the area of Tell Hebua in the Sinai. Excavators have found inscriptions in the temple dating to the reign of Thutmose II (ca. 1516-1504 BC) through that of Ramesses II (1304-1237 BC).

A radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria, Egypt, was completed last month as part of the search for the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) expedition excavating the temple and its surrounding area is headed by Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, and Dr. Kathleen Martinez, a scholar from the Dominican Republic.

Actually, when I was a young boy I had no interest in archaeology.  I wanted to be a lawyer.  At 15 ½ years old, I went to study at the Faculty of Law at Alexandria University.  I bought all of my assigned books, read one line, and realized I hated it.  Then I moved to the Faculty of Arts, where I joined the archaeology department quite by accident.