As a teenager, Eid Mertah would pore over books about King Tutankhamun, tracing hieroglyphs and dreaming of holding the boy pharaoh’s golden mask in his hands.<\/p>\n
Years later, the Egyptian conservator found himself gently brushing centuries-old dust off one of Tut’s gilded ceremonial shrines — a piece he had only seen in textbooks.<\/p>\n
“I studied archaeology because of Tut,” Mertah, 36, told AFP. “It was my dream to work on his treasures — and that dream came true.”<\/p>\n
Mertah is one of more than 150 conservators and 100 archaeologists who have laboured quietly for over a decade to restore thousands of artefacts ahead of the long-awaited opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) — a $1 billion project on the edge of the Giza Plateau.<\/p>\n
Originally slated for July 3, the launch has once again been postponed — now expected in the final months of the year — due to regional security concerns.<\/p>\n
The museum’s opening has faced delays over the years for various reasons, ranging from political upheaval to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
But when it finally opens, the GEM will be the world’s largest archaeological museum devoted to a single civilisation.<\/p>\n
It will house more than 100,000 artefacts, with over half on public display, and will include a unique feature: a live conservation lab.<\/p>\n
From behind glass walls, visitors will be able to watch in real time as experts work over the next three years to restore a 4,500-year-old boat buried near the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu and intended to ferry his soul across the sky with the sun god Ra.<\/p>\n
But the star of the museum remains King Tut’s collection of more than 5,000 objects — many to be displayed together for the first time.<\/p>\n
Among them are his golden funeral mask, gilded coffins, golden amulets, beaded collars, ceremonial chariots and two mummified foetuses believed to be his stillborn daughters.<\/p>\n
– ‘Puzzle of gold’ –<\/p>\n
Many of these treasures have not undergone restoration since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered them in 1922.<\/p>\n
The conservation methods used by Carter’s team were intended to protect the objects, but over a century later, they have posed challenges for their modern-day successors.<\/p>\n
Coating gold surfaces in wax, for instance, “preserved the objects at the time”, said conservator Hind Bayoumi, “but it then hid the very details we want the world to see”.<\/p>\n
For months, Bayoumi, 39, and her colleagues painstakingly removed the wax applied by British chemist Alfred Lucas, which had over decades trapped dirt and dulled the shine of the gold.<\/p>\n
Restoration has been a joint effort between Egypt and Japan, which contributed $800 million in loans and provided technical support.<\/p>\n
Egyptian conservators — many trained by Japanese experts — have led cutting-edge work across 19 laboratories covering wood, metal, papyrus, textiles and more.<\/p>\n
Tut’s gilded coffin — brought from his tomb in Luxor — proved one of the most intricate jobs.<\/p>\n
At the GEM’s wood lab, conservator Fatma Magdy, 34, used magnifying lenses and archival photos to reassemble its delicate gold sheets.<\/p>\n
“It was like solving a giant puzzle,” she said. “The shape of the break, the flow of the hieroglyphs — every detail mattered.”<\/p>\n
– Touching history –<\/p>\n
Before restoration, the Tutankhamun collection was retrieved from several museums and storage sites, including the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, the Luxor Museum and the tomb itself.<\/p>\n
Some items were given light restoration before their relocation to ensure they could be safely moved.<\/p>\n
Teams first conducted photographic documentation, X-ray analysis and material testing to understand each item’s condition before touching it.<\/p>\n
“We had to understand the condition of each piece — the gold layers, the adhesives, wood structure — everything,” said Mertah, who worked on King Tut’s ceremonial shrines at the Egyptian Museum.<\/p>\n
Fragile pieces were stabilised with Japanese tissue paper — thin but strong — and adhesives like Paraloid B-72 and Klucel G, both reversible and minimally invasive.<\/p>\n
The team’s guiding philosophy throughout has been one of restraint.<\/p>\n
“The goal is always to do the least amount necessary — and to respect the object’s history,” said Mohamed Moustafa, 36, another senior restorer.<\/p>\n
Beyond the restoration work, the process has been an emotional journey for many of those involved.<\/p>\n
“I think we’re more excited to see the museum than tourists are,” Moustafa said.<\/p>\n
“When visitors walk through the museum, they’ll see the beauty of these artefacts. But for us, every piece is a reminder of the endless working hours, the debates, the trainings.”<\/p>\n
“Every piece tells a story.”<\/p>\n
maf\/smw\/tc<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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