Mummies on the move

A procession of floats carrying the mummified remains of 22 pharaohs passed through Cairo on the evening of 3 April, making a four-mile journey from their previous home in the old Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square to their new resting place in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in the suburb of Fustat. The eyecatching procession, dubbed the “Pharaohs’ Golden Parade”, saw 18 kings and four queens travel in order – the oldest first – each aboard a separate vehicle decorated in ancient Egyptian style. The grand spectacle was broadcast live on Egyptian state television. Some superstitious Egyptians suggested that the moving mummies had triggered a curse responsible for such recent disasters as the week-long blockage of the Suez Canal (see p.5), but Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi argued that the parade of mummified monarchs, including Seqenenre Tao II, who reigned over southern Egypt some 1,600 years before Christ, Ramesses II and Queen Hatshepsut, was “further proof of the greatness... of a unique civilisation that extends into the depths of history.” D.Telegraph, 4+9 April 2021. PHOTOS: Khaled Desouki/Mahmoud Khaled/AFP via Getty Images