Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Looters Destroy Mummies in Egyptian Museum: Official
Reuters ^ | january 29, 2011 | Staff

Posted on 01/29/2011 1:34:02 PM PST by lbryce

Looters broke into the Egyptian Museum during anti-government protests late Friday and destroyed two Pharaonic mummies, Egypt's top archaeologist told state television.

The museum in central Cairo, which has the world's biggest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, is adjacent to the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party that protesters had earlier set ablaze. Flames were seen still pouring out of the party headquarters early Saturday.

"I felt deeply sorry today when I came this morning to the Egyptian Museum and found that some had tried to raid the museum by force last night," Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Saturday.

"Egyptian citizens tried to prevent them and were joined by the tourism police, but some (looters) managed to enter from above and they destroyed two of the mummies," he said.

He added looters had also ransacked the ticket office.

The two-storey museum, built in 1902, houses tens of thousands of objects in its galleries and storerooms, including most of the King Tutankhamen collection.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ancientegypt; antiquities; demonstrations; egypt; godsgravesglyphs; history; looters; looting; mummies; mummydearest; museum; zahihawass
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-50 next last
The political uprising against the current Egyptian regime might be justifiable as the people's legitimate manifestation of democratic aspirations but how does the wanton destruction of priceless antiquities, artifacts of ancient civilization further the cause of freedom, unshackling of tyranny, corruption so pervasive within Egyptian society? I suppose the sense of anarchy, chaos, the frenzy in which the last vestiges of order falling by the wayside would facilitate toppling of a teetering regime still standing, is a step beyond the peaceful defiance of the population at large, by those who want nothing less than total absolute surrender, dead-set against accommodation with Mubarak at any, all costs.

Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Supreme?? lol.

1 posted on 01/29/2011 1:34:07 PM PST by lbryce
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: lbryce

They must have forgotten King Tut put a curse on anyone disturbing him and his stuff.


2 posted on 01/29/2011 1:41:18 PM PST by bgill (Kenyan Parliament - how could a man born in Kenya who is not even a native American become the POTUS)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

What a loss. What is it with Muslums and destruction.

Afghanistan Muslums destroyed statues of Budda that were over 1,000 yrs old. Caves, dwellings - the loss to the people of Afghanistan is unknowable. If Afghanistan could collectively pull their head from their backsides - the tourism industry alone would stagger their current Gross National Product.

Now Egypt - it’s like a group of children without adult supervision.


3 posted on 01/29/2011 1:41:27 PM PST by Hodar (Who needs laws .... when this "feels" so right?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

Oh No!
Not the MUMMIES!


4 posted on 01/29/2011 1:42:14 PM PST by humblegunner (Blogger Overlord)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

What Country is going to be the first to bring back the Guillotine?


5 posted on 01/29/2011 1:43:17 PM PST by hkp123
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

That’s a place where tanks should be placed and where shoot to kill orders should be given. Degenerate scum. In Iraq they did the same and over the many years and months you’s read a story of people trying to smuggle them to private investors.


6 posted on 01/29/2011 1:46:21 PM PST by mewykwistmas ("Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. ")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hodar

Do present day Egyptians even build anything? They’d better hang on to their history - else why would tourists bother coming?


7 posted on 01/29/2011 1:49:33 PM PST by NewCenturions
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: All

Less Than $5.2k To Go!!
Just A Reminder
Please Don't Forget
To Donate To FR


8 posted on 01/29/2011 1:51:39 PM PST by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

Like that slimey pos Emanuel says, “never let a XXXX go to waste”.
Great time to loot antiquities or something in Egypt.
Maybe knock off a bank or something.


9 posted on 01/29/2011 2:01:41 PM PST by Joe Boucher ((FUBO))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce; a fool in paradise; JoeProBono
Waaah, I want my mummy!


10 posted on 01/29/2011 2:04:48 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

God, please destroy this evil Muslim filth.


11 posted on 01/29/2011 2:04:51 PM PST by NowApproachingMidnight (purple durple lips)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

A preview of what to expect if and when the Ikhwan takes over. Afghanistan was and is a nearly empty cultural backwater, but Egypt is not.

These creatures will definitely dynamite the Sphinx and the Luxor statues, and probably the pyramids as well.


12 posted on 01/29/2011 2:12:34 PM PST by denydenydeny (Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views, beyond the comprehension of the weak-Adams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
"The political uprising against the current Egyptian regime might be justifiable as the people's legitimate manifestation of democratic aspirations but how does the wanton destruction of priceless antiquities, artifacts of ancient civilization further the cause of freedom, unshackling of tyranny, corruption so pervasive within Egyptian society?"

I dunno, but it calls to mind all those photographs of "minorities" looting stores of whatever they could find, including life's necessities like HD TV sets, appliances and cases of alcohol, during Hurricane Katrina. Who knows what goes through the minds of idiots?

13 posted on 01/29/2011 2:13:23 PM PST by jiminycricket000
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hodar
"What is it with Muslims and destruction"

They are uncivilized savages. The world would be far better off without them.

14 posted on 01/29/2011 2:19:01 PM PST by jboot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
I have no idea what the Egyptian Museum is like today. What I know of the museum I know from the books of Thomas Hoving, former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For example, when Hoving was meeting with officials of the Egyptian Museum in the late 1970s to select pieces for the Tutankhamun show, there was no electricity in the museum. None. Not a volt. Not an outlet. Not a wire. And yet the museum held most of the King Tutankhamun treasures discovered by Howard Carter and Lord Carvarvon.

Several million dollars to renovate the museum and install electricity had been given by the Met some twenty or thirty years earlier as part of a complicated purchase arrangement, but the museum's directors and the Supreme Council of Antiquities had not yet decided on a plan of renovation. After all, they'd only had twenty or thirty years. Why rush the decision?

Incidentally, to photograph the pieces for the Met's Tut catalog, the Met 'borrowed' a few hundred feet of electrical cable from the Giza pyramid lighting show, tapped directly into the electrical lines in the street outside the Egyptian Museum, ran the line through a broken window on the second floor of the museum, and set up a temporary photographic studio. The Met also ran a temporary line to the museum director's office so that he had a desk lamp during the period the Met was shooting photos for the Tut exhibit catalog.

15 posted on 01/29/2011 2:33:03 PM PST by Scoutmaster (You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

*Title Only*

Freaking barbarians!! That is what happened to the Library of Alexandria...........not to mention so many other critical historical documents/landmarks that have been destroyed through the ages. War is hell but to target critical items that have documented human history...well it shows what type of animals are usually involved in these types of wars/conflicts.


16 posted on 01/29/2011 2:34:15 PM PST by Outlaw Woman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scoutmaster

Ummm. I meant Lord Carnarvon. The Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, George Herbert.


17 posted on 01/29/2011 2:37:05 PM PST by Scoutmaster (You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Hodar

Yes, the Buddhas of Bamayyan were centuries old. I was appalled that the Taliban destroyed them. I am sadder thinking that those in power in our country have more respect for the destroyers than for we Americans. I am sick at the thought of the destruction they will do if allowed.


18 posted on 01/29/2011 2:39:00 PM PST by originalbuckeye
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: bgill

I know I read somewhere that Tut proclaimed, just before he died, “don’t touch my junk!”


19 posted on 01/29/2011 2:40:27 PM PST by JaguarXKE (Life - It's 10 percent circumstances and 90 percent how you react to circumstances - Sarah Palin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

Well, here's hoping they got all of the x-rays, photos, etc of the mummies before they were destroyed. Shame.

20 posted on 01/29/2011 2:42:33 PM PST by Textide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-50 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson