CAIRO – Downtown Cairo almost stopped on Saturday night, when 22 mummies were moved from a museum where they lived for more than a century to a new home, transported in custom-made vehicles in a gleaming and meticulously planned procession.
The fanfare – broadcast live on state television and complete with a military band, a 21-shot salute and a series of Egyptian A-list celebrities – served as a kind of grand opening for the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, where the most important monarchs the country’s old ones were set to land and an invitation to tourists to return to Cairo after the pandemic.
“These are the mummies of kings and queens who ruled during Egypt’s golden age,” said Zahi Hawass, a former minister of antiquities who oversaw the discovery of tombs dating back thousands of years. “It’s a thrill, everyone will be watching.”
All but many Egyptians.
Along the five-mile drive to the new museum, stretches of working-class neighborhoods were deliberately hidden from view before the parade, a reminder of the shocking divide between Egypt’s celebrated past and its uncertain present.
Banners proclaiming the “Golden Parade of the Pharaohs” and large national flags prevented viewers from peering into Cairo’s impoverished areas and prevented local residents from seeing the polished and made-for-TV show. In one place, plastic screens at least 3 meters high were mounted on scaffolding to close the gaps in a cream-colored wall.
“They put him in to hide us,” said Mohammed Saad, a local resident who was with two friends just meters from a barrier that separated them from the newly swept road where the ancestral parade would pass.
Two security officials confirmed that no one would be allowed to leave nearby neighborhoods during the parade, or step on the street to watch. “They can watch on a screen,” said one.
In a television interview, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities gave credit to the president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, for conceiving the public procession as a way to attract tourists after the coronavirus pandemic stopped international travel last year. .
But the show also highlighted the economic and social divisions in the capital of Egypt.
“There is a tendency to try to show a better image instead of fixing the existing reality,” said Ahmed Zaazaa, a city planner, about the government’s public image efforts. “The government says it is making reforms, but the vast majority of people in Cairo who live in working-class neighborhoods are excluded.”
Egyptian television broadcast uninterrupted coverage of preparations for the parade, emphasizing how the news was echoing abroad, combining the look with dramatic theme music and a flow of information about the 22 kings and queens who ruled Egypt over 3,000 years ago .
Former royals who were on the move included Ramses II, the pharaoh with the longest reign, and Queen Hatshepsut, one of the few pharaohs in Egypt.
After sunset, crowds gathered in downtown Cairo, among them enthusiastic young families who brought their children in the hope of catching a glimpse of the historic moment.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime event. These are our ancestors. ”Said Sarah Zaher, who came with three friends.
But many of those who gathered were met by the police barricades and returned.
A uniformed police officer shouted, “If you want to watch, go watch it on television.” Disappointed, the crowd withdrew to nearby cafes to watch on television or on their phones.
Nada Rashwan and Dawlat Magdy contributed reporting.