Twenty-two floats carrying mummies of kings and queens of ancient Egypt marched on Saturday April 3 in the streets of Cairo, during a pharaonic spectacle to go to the National Museum ...

Egypt: the great return of “pharaonic” sentiment

A royal mummy now housed in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

REUTERS - REUTERS TV

Text by: Alexandre Buccianti

5 mins

Twenty-two floats carrying the mummies of kings and queens of ancient Egypt paraded Saturday, April 3 in the streets of Cairo, during a pharaonic spectacle to reach the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), new home of royal mummies.

A grandiose spectacle which delighted and awakened a “pharaonic” feeling among millions of Egyptians.

Publicity

From our correspondent in Egypt

The Egyptians contracted the virus of "pharaomania" since the grand spectacle of 22 royal mummies in the streets of Cairo on Saturday April 3.

It is true that during a week, radio, televisions, newspapers and even social networks in Egypt had only for “

our ancestors the Pharaohs

”.

Pharaohs who were no longer only a source of dollars and euros thanks to tourism but above all a source of national pride raising the morale of Egyptians facing the economic crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is how a

hymn taken from the “Book of the Dead”

and sung in ancient Egyptian became a looping hit on radio, television and social networks.

The enthusiasm is such that the Ministry of Education has announced that the basics of hieroglyphics will be taught to CM1 schoolchildren.

School revolution

The Egyptians, in their overwhelming majority, had, for more than 70 years been fed on Nasserite pan-Arabism which erased practically everything that came before the Arab conquest of Egypt, in 641. Only pharaohs, chosen for propaganda purposes, were taught to schoolchildren.

Menes, the founder of the first dynasty and above all the unifier of the northern and southern kingdoms of Egypt, was compared to Nasser who unified Egypt and Syria (1958-61).

Ahmosis, winner of the Hyksoss invaders, like Nasser winner of the “cowardly and triple aggression” of the English, French and Israelis after the nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956. There is also Amenemhat III whose reign was the golden age of the peasant like Nasser with the agrarian reform.

Ramses II, a signatory to the first historic peace treaty with the Hittites, was added to the program under President Sadat, who signed the peace treaty with Israel (1979).

For the rest of the program, it was the story of a conquered Egypt that was taught.

From the Byzantines to the Arabs, from the Umayyads to the Abbasids, from the Fatimids to the Mamluks, from the Ottomans to the English to finally be freed by President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

During the Muslim Brotherhood's brief period of power (2012-13), the Pharaohs saw threats accumulate.

On TV, a preacher demanded the dynamiting of the Sphinx or at least its burial under the sands of the desert.

The Salafists wanted to veil the colossal statues considered to be pagan idols.

The more pragmatic Muslim Brotherhood offered to cover them with wax so as not to lose tourist dollars.

Some have proposed the sale of Pharaonic heritage to repay Egypt's foreign debt, others the 99-year cession of the Pyramid Plateau to investors from Qatar.

As for the mummies, they simply had to be buried, the mummification being considered contrary to Islam.

Due to lack of time, none of these projects came to fruition.

# موكب_المومياوات_الملكية .. مسار الرحلة كاملاً من الانطلاق حتى الوصول إلى المتحف القومي للحضارة # شاهد_سكاي pic.tw9itter

- سكاي نيوز عربية (@skynewsarabia) April 3, 2021

From cursed to idols

Until recently, the pharaohs were frowned upon.

For 90% of Muslim Egyptians, the pharaohs were cursed by the Qur'an.

The Copts, even if they claim to be direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians, emphasize that they come from the people and not from the Pharaohs frowned upon by the Old Testament.

The general feeling is now changing.

There were a few “wicked” pharaohs mentioned in the holy books, but all the others were good.

And since the holy books do not quote the exact names of the “wicked” pharaohs, anyone who left glorious remains can be good.

“Pharaomania” has grown to such proportions that public opinion, via social networks, has violently attacked the blockbuster of a television soap opera taken from one of the first novels of the Nobel Prize for Literature Naguib Mahfouz “The Struggle of Thebes”.

A novel which recounts the struggle of the Thebans (Luxor) to liberate Egypt from the invaders from Asia, the Hyksoss.

On the promotion of the soap opera planned for the month of Ramadan starting on April 13, we saw in particular the Pharaoh Ahmosis in the guise of a bearded actor wearing golden armor.

An appearance closer to the Greek hoplite than to a pharaoh who, by religious precept, never wore a beard.

Moreover, on the Egyptian bas-reliefs of the battles, the bearded ones are the vanquished enemies.

To calm the discontent, the production company announced that it was suspending the broadcast of the soap opera until the experts had decided.

Egypt: the great return of “pharaonic” sentiment

Egypt: the great return of “pharaonic” sentiment

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