Thu 06 Apr 2023:
Following a rare journey outside of Egypt, the sarcophagus of ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II was unveiled to reporters in Paris on Thursday.
The ornate coffin will be on display in Paris from April 7th to September 6th, 2023.
According to Benedicte Lhoyer, the exhibition’s scientific advisor, the “exceptional” loan was made possible by “unprecedented cooperation between France and Egypt.”
The Ramses II exhibition is on a tour that includes the United States and Australia this year, but only France is receiving the sarcophagus, in recognition of the assistance from French scientists, who helped save the mummy from decay following a previous visit to Paris in 1976.
The mummy itself has stayed behind this time, since Egyptian law now forbids transporting royal mummies abroad.
Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, ruled for more than 60 years during the 13th century BC and oversaw major military conquests and monumental construction projects, while also finding time to father more than 100 children.
“In short, he was an extraordinary king,” said Mr Lhoyer.
The yellow-painted cedar-wood sarcophagus, which depicts the recumbent king in bright colors with his arms crossed on his chest holding a scepter and whip, was not actually Ramses II’s original coffin.
Inscriptions on the sarcophagus’ sides detail how his body was moved three times from 1070 BC, after his tomb in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings was raided by grave-robbers.
Its final resting place was discovered almost three millennia later in 1881, just as it too was being pillaged.
“Ramses II defeated time. Like Tutankhamun, he has become immortal,” said Mr Lhoyer.
The immersive exhibition in Paris also includes over 180 objects from the period, including statues, masks, and jewelry, as well as a 3D recreation of one of the king’s battles against the Hittite empire.
Egyptian relics have previously proven popular; 1.4 million people attended a Tutankhamun exhibition in Paris four years ago.
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