Pharaoh mummy returns to Egypt after 140 years
AFP, Cairo
A 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy believed to be that of King Ramses I has been returned to Egypt after more than 140 years in North America. The mummy is to be exhibited at Egypt's national museum in Cairo, said Zahi Hawass, the director of the country's Supreme Council of Antiquities. He said it will then be transferred to the temple of Luxor in southern Egypt. There, a special wing will soon be opened dedicated to the pharoah capital of Thebes, now Luxor, and the "warrior kings" of ancient Egypt's 18th and 19th dynasties, including Ramses I, said Hawass, who accompanied the mummy from the southeastern US city of Atlanta. The royal mummy has been in North America since 1861, first in Canada, then in Niagara Falls in New York state. The Michael C. Carlos museum in Atlanta acquired it three years ago. Hawass noted that the Carlos museum had bought the mummy for two million de dollars from the Niagara Falls museum, but gave it to Egypt as a gift. The mummy arrived in Cairo in a plexiglas box draped with an Egyptian flag. Ramses I, who founded the 19th dynasty, is less well-known than his illustrious grandson, Ramses II.
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