The exhibition features 86 artifacts and runs for 6 months
Sherif Fathy, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, and Lt. Gen. Ahmed Khaled, Governor of Alexandria, yesterday evening launched the Underwater Cultural Heritage events and activities, which run over August 20 and 21 this month at a number of museums and archaeological sites in Alexandria Governorate.
The first event included the opening of a temporary exhibition at the Alexandria National Museum titled "Secrets of the Sunken City," as well as the museum's library. Taking part in the opening were Yomna El-Bahar, Deputy Minister of Tourism and Antiquities; Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities; and Eng. Ahmed Youssef, CEO of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, in the presence of Eng. Amira Salah, Deputy Governor of Alexandria; Ahmed Obeid, Permanent Undersecretary and Assistant Minister for Ministry Office Affairs; Maj. Gen. Ehab Salem, Assistant Minister for Internal Audit and Governance; Dr. Hisham El-Leithy, Head of the Antiquities Conservation and Registration Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities; Dr. Ahmed Hamida, Head of the Museums Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities; Dr. Ahmed Rahima, Assistant Minister for Human Resource Development and General Supervisor of the Central Training Unit; Dr. Mohamed Shaaban, Assistant Minister for Digital Services; Dr. Ashraf El-Kady, Director General of the Alexandria National Museum; Dr. Mohamed Abdel Meguid, Senior Researcher at the General Department of Underwater Antiquities; and Dr. Bassem Ibrahim, Director General of the General Department of Services at Tourist and Archaeological Sites and Museums, along with a select group of ambassadors and consuls of foreign countries in Egypt.
They toured the exhibition, learning about the most prominent artifacts on display, their history and the story of their discovery. The exhibition features 86 pieces from the discoveries of the cities of Canopus and Heracleion in Abu Qir Bay, east of Alexandria, reflecting aspects of daily life, religious beliefs and funerary rituals in the Ptolemaic and Roman eras.
They also opened the museum's library, which includes a library specializing in underwater antiquities and a collection of 1,100 books across various specializations, ranging from ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Coptic, Islamic and modern-era antiquities to museum guides, specialized books on the sciences of restoration and conservation, and a variety of books on cultural and social topics, as well as children's books. The library also features accessibility mechanisms for the visually impaired.
While inspecting the library, the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities directed that museum library activities be added to the EgyTap platform, which was launched in the past few weeks, stressing the need for interaction and for delivering knowledge through the platform by supplying it with content from museum libraries, and that work on the platform should not be traditional but should deliver information and benefit accurately.
In a speech delivered to mark the occasion, Fathy stressed that Alexandria is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with its unique blend of history and modernity, and that it deserves a bigger place on the global tourism map.
He noted that the exhibition is the fruit of productive cooperation between the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the foreign missions working in Egypt, as the country hosts more than 300 archaeological missions working in excavation, pointing to the great appreciation for the efforts made in this field.
The minister also reviewed his inspection tour of a number of archaeological sites in Alexandria, including the Graeco-Roman Museum and the Citadel of Qaitbay, praising the development work under way there and expressing confidence that these projects will help showcase the historic city at its finest.
In his speech, the minister stressed that in the coming period the ministry will work, through communication with tour operators and tourism companies, to incorporate Alexandria into tourism programs and link it with the North Coast, which is seeing growing demand, thereby boosting tourist flows.
He also addressed the ongoing preparations for the long-awaited opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum this coming November 1, explaining that it will be graced by the attendance of His Excellency the President of the Republic and senior guests in a single celebratory night befitting Egypt, its standing and this unique cultural landmark. He explained that the whole world is awaiting this opening and to see the museum's halls, with their various exhibition galleries, the King Tutankhamun hall and the Khufu Boat Museum, as well as the museum's pioneering scientific role, through which the ministry seeks to strengthen Egypt's position as a global center for Egyptology, as the birthplace of this science.
He also highlighted the interactive online platform recently launched by the ministry to raise the efficiency of workers in the tourism and antiquities sector, and praised the remarkable growth in Egypt's tourism sector, with the number of tourists exceeding 15.8 million last year, thanks to stability and the efforts of all those working in the sector.
The minister stressed that Egypt enjoys a unique diversity of tourism products, and under the slogan "Egypt... Unmatched Diversity," the ministry's current strategy aims to turn this diversity into globally marketable products in the coming years. At the same time, he noted that the coming period will see greater attention to Egypt's underwater heritage, in light of the President's directives to pay attention to Egypt's underwater heritage, preserve it and present it to the public in a manner befitting its value.
In his speech, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Khaled, Governor of Alexandria, stressed that the opening of the "Secrets of the Sunken City" exhibition is a unique cultural event that highlights Alexandria's long historical role as a bridge between East and West and a capital of culture and dialogue on the Mediterranean coast.
The governor noted that what we are witnessing today comes within the framework of the Egyptian state's vision to preserve its heritage and safeguard its civilizational identity, under the patronage and attention of His Excellency the President of the Republic, who has made protecting antiquities and restoring Egyptian identity an integral part of his national project.
He also thanked the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the scientists and research teams who contributed to producing this distinguished work, stressing that Alexandria is moving toward becoming an open-air museum that showcases Egypt's civilizational face and strengthens its tourism standing globally.
For his part, Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled reviewed the long history of Alexandria, noting that the current development projects in the city reflect its unique status since its founding by Alexander the Great.
He stressed that the city abounds with distinctive antiquities, many of them submerged under the waters of the Mediterranean, which highlights the exceptional diversity of its cultural and civilizational heritage. He expressed his delight at being at the Alexandria National Museum today and at the opening of this distinguished exhibition, which displays for the first time a collection of artifacts that had been submerged underwater and were discovered in the Abu Qir excavations in 2023.
Travel Yalla News toured the exhibition of sunken antiquities, or, as they have been called, underwater antiquities, at the Alexandria National Museum:
