EGYPT: When Howard Carter opened Tutankhamun's tomb and peered inside, he whispered excitedly that he could see 'wonderful things'. Many are now in The Egypt Museum. Siona Jenkins reports from Cairo on its first 100 years
ONe of archaeology's most important treasure-houses is being celebrated in Cairo this week as Egyptologists and museum curators from around the world gather to mark the centennial of the Egyptian Museum.
Home to the fabulous treasures of the boy-king Tutankhamun, the mummies of ancient Egypt's most powerful rulers, and some 150,000 other artefacts from prehistory through to the Roman period, this is one of the world's premier destinations for ancient history buffs.
"This is the single most important collection of antiquities in the world," said Dr Selima Ikram, a world authority on mummification who works closely with the museum staff. "Some of the best treasures to be found here do not glitter but tell us about history. There are objects made of wood that are more important than Tutankhamun's golden mask."
The four days of celebrations, which began on Monday, include seminars on museology, documentary screenings, archival photos of the museum's history and cocktails for the heavyweights of Egyptology. On December 12th, a much-needed new basement gallery will be unveiled and a number of objects will be put on display for the first time.
When it opened in 1902, the Egyptian Museum was one of the first purpose-built museums in the world. Designed by French architect Marcel Dourgnon, the 15,000 square metre, two-storey, neo-classical building was supposed to house some 50,000 artefacts, a fraction of its current holdings.
The museum has always been more than a collection of archaeological remains, even if a spectacular one; it marks an important milestone in the history of archaeology and the development of Egyptology as a serious academic discipline.
During the 19th century, a European craze for all things Pharaonic meant that digging at archaeological sites was little more than treasure hunting.
Foreign travellers, adventurers and even diplomats stationed in Egypt shipped off statues, cut away reliefs and dug up mummies at such a rate that many archaeological sites were destroyed forever. What survives of their booty can now be seen at museums throughout the world.
As scholars began to understand more about the Ancient Egyptians, particularly after the 1822 translation of the Rosetta stone allowed them to read hieroglyphs, they realised that the looting was destroying important historical evidence and tried to limit the lucrative trade.
Egypt's first law restricting the traffic of antiquities was promulgated in 1835 but, without any mechanism for enforcement, it had little effect. Gradually, though, public opinion in Europe turned against the trade. As tourism developed, both the public and the Egyptian government had an interest in preserving the ancient sites.
Although antiquities began to be collected in 'museums' by Egypt's Khedival rulers as early as 1835, many were simply given away to visiting dignitaries.
Egyptologists pressured the khedives to set aside proper space for the growing number of artefacts and, after the collection was moved several times, a permanent site was eventually found in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
In April 1897, the foundation stone for the present museum was laid. Five years later it opened its doors.
A century on, the museum is literally bursting at the seams. With nearly three times its capacity on display and thousands more artefacts crammed into the basement, it has long outgrown its site in central Cairo's fume-choked Tahrir Square.
Decades of neglect and underfunding have further contributed to the decline, with poor lighting and faded hand-written labels that make objects difficult to see and identify. Many of the exhibits are a jumbled mess, where piles of unlabelled treasures languish in dark corners.
But improvements are slowly being made. After 1996, when a thief spent the night in the museum and almost sauntered out the following morning with a handful of Tutankhamun's treasures, museum security was vastly improved, with modern alarms, turnstiles to keep track of visitors, and new reinforced doors and windows.
Some exhibits have also been enhanced. The 11 royal mummies - the bodies of Ancient Egypt's most famous rulers - now lie in a hushed, darkened room, eerily lit by spotlights; Tutankhamun's 24-pound gold death mask and spectacular funerary treasures are housed in a specially reinforced room; in an adjacent gallery, breathtaking pieces of ancient jewellery glitter in backlit cases.
To ease the pressure and allow the daily 10,000 museum visitors to see more of the vast collection, Egypt's Ministry of Culture is building a huge new museum near the Giza pyramids. Results of an international competition for its design will be announced in June 2003, and construction is to begin in 2004. By 2007 most of the ancient treasures will be moved to their new location and the number of artefacts on display at the old museum will be pruned down to about 6,000.
After several thousand years it seems that ancient Egypt's treasures will once more have the setting they deserve.