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In an unprecedented action, 22 mummies were brought to their new exhibition site in a solemn procession across Cairo on Saturday.

The remains of queens and kings from ancient Egypt were transported by wagons specially decorated in the style of the time, on which the name of the deceased could be read.

To protect the mummies, the wagons were specially shock-absorbent. 

The "Golden Parade of the Pharaohs" was broadcast live on television.

"I am very proud to welcome the kings and queens of Egypt after their trip," wrote Head of State Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Twitter shortly before the 40-minute procession began.

"This grandiose spectacle is further proof of the greatness (...) of a unique civilization that reaches into the depths of history," added the President, who attended the ceremony as a guest of honor.

A costumed man rides a replica of an ancient Egyptian chariot in front of the Egyptian Museum

Source: dpa / Gehad Hamdy

To protect the precious mummies of 18 ancient Egyptian kings and four queens, a large security force was deployed along the seven-kilometer route.

Tahrir Square, from which the procession started, and some other sections of the route were closed to vehicles and pedestrians.

New National Museum

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The mummies had been in the Egyptian Museum in the center of Cairo for more than a century - now they are moving to their new quarters in the newly built National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in the south of the city.

This huge modern exhibition complex has been under construction for years and is due to fully open on Sunday.

However, the mummies will not be visible until April 18, because they will first come to the laboratory for restoration work.

It is, among other things, the mummy of the pharaoh Hatshepsut.

The daughter and wife of Egyptian kings first ruled over her son Thutmose III a good 1400 years before Christ.

and finally was crowned ruler of Egypt herself.

Under her, trade flourished in ancient Egypt.

The mummies of Thutmose I., II., III.

and IV. as well as by Ramses II., III., IV., V., VI.

and IX.

were transferred to the new museum.

Ramses II ruled Egypt for 66 years and is considered one of the most important rulers of the ancient civilization.

His mummy was also exhibited in the Louvre in Paris for a year in the 1970s.

Strangely, Egypt had to issue the dead Pharaoh with a passport for this.

Ramses II was then welcomed as a state guest in Paris with a gun salute.

Costumed extras march in front of the Egyptian Museum during the "Golden Parade of the Pharaohs"

Source: dpa / Gehad Hamdy

The Egyptian Museum

Source: dpa / Gehad Hamdy

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New discoveries keep coming to light about the mummies discovered near Luxor in 1881.

For example, a high-tech analysis of Pharaoh Seqenenre II's mummy revealed that he was believed to have been executed after being captured in battle.

The mummy parade marked "the end of a lot of work to improve its preservation and presentation," said the head of the UN cultural organization Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, who traveled to Cairo for the spectacle.

Now people could "see the history of Egyptian civilization unfold before their eyes".