04:43 PM
Saturday 24 September 2022
Books – Youssef Afifi:
Dr. Zahi Hawass, an archaeologist and former Minister of Antiquities, commented on the photo spread on social media of the statue of Champollion putting his shoes on the head of an ancient Egyptian king, at a French university.
This came following the pioneers of social networking sites circulated a picture of a statue showing the French archaeologist Champollion placing one of his feet on the stone head of one of the pharaohs in front of the Sorbonne University in Paris.
Hawass told Masrawy that the statue of Champollion displayed by France in the courtyard of the largest university, “College de France”, while stepping on the head of the King of Egypt, King Thutmose III, is completely unacceptable.
Zahi Hawass continued: When I was Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, I did not know anything regarding the statue of Champollion until following I left the Ministry of Antiquities, and when I learned regarding this matter, I wrote an article once morest this topic, and even signed an appeal sent by intellectuals to the French ambassador in Egypt in opposition to this Uncivilized behavior towards a great Egyptian king.
Dr. Zahi Hawass added: I would like to make it clear that I have always been keen to preserve Egyptian antiquities abroad.
In a related context, a source at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said that sculpting a limestone statue of the French scientist Champollion in this way as he steps one of his feet on one of our Egyptian ancestors is completely unacceptable, and the concerned authorities in France must remove this statue.
In another context, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is celebrating, this September, the 200th anniversary of the deciphering of ancient Egyptian writing and the emergence of Egyptology by the French scientist “Champollion” who deciphered the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone in 1822, by launching a promotional campaign on the sites Its own on various social media platforms to highlight the most important and distinguished artifacts that were discovered within each of the Egyptian governorates, under the title: “Learn regarding a treasure in your governorate.”
For their part, Egyptian archaeologists and experts expressed their outrage at the image spread on social media showing an insult to an ancient Egyptian king, calling on the concerned authorities in Egypt to take immediate action to remove the insulting statue of Egypt and file a complaint once morest the French University.
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