Grand Egyptian Museum to display tomb paintings bringing ancient Egypt to life

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00:00Let's welcome Tarek Torfik, the Associate Professor of Egyptology at Cairo University,

00:05for a director general of the Grand Egyptian Museum project.

00:09It is a pleasure to talk to you tonight, Tarek.

00:12In fact, we've just lost Tarek for a moment.

00:13We're going to go to Professor Salima Ikram,

00:17Distinguished Professor of Egyptology at American University in Cairo.

00:21Salima, I know you've been inside.

00:24You've been one of the first to see in the past few years

00:28forensically some of what we are waiting to see.

00:32Talk us through what we really should try to see first

00:35and what you're making as well of the opening ceremony tonight.

00:40Well, it's a very grand ceremony and as you can see, it's still in the middle of it.

00:44So there's lots more to come.

00:47I think Ramses II would have been delighted.

00:49He too was very keen on spectacle.

00:51So there's a big tradition in Egypt for that.

00:54The museum, as you have seen, is enormous

00:57and it is packed full of artifacts from all periods of Egyptian history.

01:03And of course, one of the crowning glories is the Tutankhamen collection,

01:07which is going to be shown in its entirety for the first time,

01:11because since it left the tomb, it has never been all together.

01:15So this is going to be a remarkable way of understanding what a royal burial should be like

01:21and sort of getting it all from nuts and bolts

01:24and also looking at things that are very banal,

01:28like the fruit that he was eating or wanted to eat in the afterlife.

01:32And then also, of course, the sublime things,

01:34beautiful thrones, his coffins and so forth.

01:38So you really get a sense of both the daily life

01:41as well as the religious life and the ideals of kingship

01:46in the Tutankhamen expose.

01:47I've seen previous footage of you getting a look inside, Salima.

01:52You are like a child in there,

01:55breathtaking by some of the finds that you've seen.

01:58Talk us through the visceral sense you have when you go in

02:02and the fact that you've touched some of these artifacts.

02:06Well, I have been very, very lucky

02:08because I have, with my colleague Andre Weltmeier,

02:11worked on some of the material while it was in the GEM conservation labs.

02:15And so we have had the chance to actually look at Tutankhamen's sticks

02:20and staves, some of his weapons, his food, all sorts of things.

02:25And it's really fantastic, obviously,

02:27to be able to be one-on-one, to interact and to carry out research

02:32on something that one has loved since one was nine years old.

02:36So it is very exciting.

02:38And I think for visitors also,

02:40the Grand Egyptian Museum is going to be an extraordinary experience

02:44because it is such a massive, massive place.

02:47And it is filled with such beautiful objects.

02:52And I think the lighting is better than it was in the old museum.

02:56And you can see much more.

02:58And there are things that have never been on display,

03:00that have been in storage and storage magazines throughout Egypt,

03:04as well as in the basement of the Karim Museum.

03:06So it is really quite a phenomenal kind of thing.

03:11We have Tarek Torfik with us as well, Salim.

03:15Professor, stay with us for the moment.

03:18Yes, exactly.

03:20Tarek, Associate Professor of Egyptology at Cairo University.

03:24We've lost Tarek again.

03:25I think Tarek is amongst the crowd tonight.

03:26That is one of our ambitions.

03:29Maybe to solve the riddle of whether or not one of the coffins is Tutankhamun's, indeed,

03:33or whether it is that we can get hold of Tarek Torfik tonight.

03:37But we can go to Noria, our correspondent at the same time in Cairo,

03:41watching events.

03:43What a spectacle tonight.

03:44Yeah, it's been an amazing night.

03:52People, I mean, has exploited the clamor of the people

03:56when all those fireworks were exploding in the air.

04:00And people are really, really excited.

04:04They are looking forward to be able to actually enter on the next 4th of November

04:09and witness for the first time you were talking now

04:13about the magnificent treasures, the artifacts of Tutankhamun.

04:19And it's one of the most important things that people want to see,

04:24to witness for the first time all those artifacts

04:27that have been translated from the Tahrir Museum

04:30and are going to be held for the first time here,

04:34over 5,000 artifacts, including the mask of Tutankhamun.

04:38And it's really magical.

04:40It's amazing.

04:40You were talking about the conservation room,

04:43and France 24 was one of the first media outlets

04:46that was allowed to enter in this conservation center.

04:50And we were able, we were gifted enough to be able to see

04:53some of those artifacts that were being, like, restored at the time.

04:59And it's really, really a privilege to know

05:02that they are being well taken care of,

05:05but also that soon enough we are going to be able

05:07to see them inside this magnificent museum,

05:10because it's true that this lighting is magical

05:13and somehow enhance the effect of seeing all this gold,

05:20all these wonderful antiquities exposed for the first time altogether.

05:26I cannot imagine how it's going to be to see how the artificial,

05:32the augmented reality is going to help us to walk through the story

05:37and the life of Tutankhamun.

05:39The Egyptians are saying that it's going to be very important

05:42to the extent that we are going to be able to connect emotionally.

05:46But I don't think it's necessary even to rely on augmented reality

05:52to feel this emotion, this move that we are all moved

05:58when we are able to see those important artifacts,

06:02these masks, these coffins that are being preserved during centuries for us.

06:10So I think that it's going to be something really, really important.

06:13Nouria, we're going to nimbly guide through the ceremony itself

06:18so you can see and hear the events going on,

06:20plus speaking to our distinguished guests at the same time

06:24so you can understand the importance of tonight.

06:26There will be a denouement we're expecting to see in the sky

06:29at some point, the death mask, the exquisite image

06:32of Tutankhamun's death mask.

06:35And Professor Salima Ikram, I know that this is something that strikes you.

06:38The fact that this you've spoke about in the past is a Nikon

06:43and its exquisite, elegant beauty in itself.

06:50Indeed, the mask is something that is very compelling.

06:53And it is because, of course, it's so sculptural.

06:56You feel that you're really looking at his face.

06:59And I think that what Nouria said,

07:02one can, because these objects are real objects

07:05and they are several thousand years old,

07:08I think to see them firsthand is really the moment

07:12where you feel a deep emotion

07:14and a sense of connection with the past.

07:17I don't think you really need any virtual augmentation

07:20of any sort to really understand things about them.

07:25But obviously both things work,

07:27as many museums believe today.

07:30In addition to the Tutankhamun material, though,

07:32there's so much other stuff that's in there

07:34that hasn't been on display

07:35or has not been properly accessible.

07:38And there's some gorgeous Old Kingdom tomb paintings

07:42where you can see people going about their daily life.

07:45They're fishing, they're fowling, they're cooking,

07:48they're sort of herding their animals.

07:50So it's very much a sense of having an insight

07:54into ancient Egypt

07:56and the lives of commoners as well as kings.

08:00Was there an issue, Salimone, tell me about it,

08:03because one thing that strikes me is

08:04when it comes to the things that haven't been seen,

08:07a lot of people will be thinking,

08:08perhaps asking tonight and emailing, texting,

08:12where they've been,

08:13the fact that they haven't been seen for years,

08:15where have they been stored?

08:17Some of them for a long time

08:19were stored in a tomb in Laksa,

08:21then they were in a storage magazine in Laksa,

08:23then they were also some things

08:25in a special storeroom in the Egyptian Museum,

08:29because there just simply wasn't enough space

08:32to show everything.

08:34And then also people thought,

08:35well, does everyone want to see all the Dom fruit,

08:38or, you know, the 500-plus Dom palm nuts,

08:41or some of the meat boxes,

08:44which, of course, I'm very interested in,

08:46and some of the pottery.

08:48So I think that, of course,

08:49it's a selection that has been on display,

08:52because, of course, everything would be overwhelming.

08:55So it will be really interesting

08:57to see how they handle it in the new display.

08:59And if, indeed, all these things,

09:02many of which were on display,

09:04but some of which were not,

09:06it will be lovely to see them together,

09:08and it'll be interesting to see if they're all there.

09:11So you can see that there's the cow head

09:13with beautiful gilded horns,

09:15which they just showed.

09:17And that, in fact,

09:18was in the Laksa Museum for a long time.

09:19So you can see that the scattered artefacts

09:23have now come together.

09:25Perfect.

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