CAIRO: Some 110,000 tickets have been sold this month for the exhibition “Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs” at the Australian Museum in Sydney.
Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, said the exhibition included 182 artifacts from the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
He added: “It also contains the king’s coffin, which was transported in a majestic procession with the royal mummies from the Egyptian Museum … to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.”
The Sydney exhibition received an overwhelming response from the public when it opened to visitors on Nov. 18.
A delegation from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities; John Graham, the minister of arts, music and tourism in Australia; and more than 500 other invitees attended the official opening, along with Waziri, on Nov. 16.
Waziri said: “The exhibition also includes some other artifacts from the excavations of the Egyptian mission … in Saqqara, in addition to some at collections from several Egyptian museums that highlight some of the distinctive characteristics of ancient Egyptian civilization from the era of the Middle Kingdom until the Late Era.
“The exhibition also includes a collection of statues, jewelry, cosmetics, paintings, stone blocks decorated with carvings, and some colorful wooden coffins.”
Mai Sayed, a journalist specializing in tourism, told Arab News: “Since the beginning of the ‘Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs’ exhibition, its journey outside Egypt has been successful. Since its first stop in November 2021 in the American city of Houston, it has achieved great success.”
She added: “The same situation happened on its second stop in August 2022 in the city of San Francisco in the United States of America, and then its third stop in April 2023 in the French capital Paris where it attracted 820,000 visitors.”
Sayed said that the exhibition’s success confirmed the world’s fascination with Egypt, adding: “That is why I see that there should be exploitation and a continuation of these exhibitions in the many capitals of the world.”
