The 'golden parade' in Egypt

By Debra Adams Simmons, HISTORY Executive Editor

The mummies of 22 pharaohs and royals were moved Saturday from their display cases in the century-old Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo to a new home. Officials seized the opportunity to put them in the spotlight, turning their five-mile trek to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization into a gala parade. The spectacle was part of a larger effort to showcase Egypt’s storied past and stimulate post-pandemic tourism.

Dubbed the “Pharaohs’ Golden Parade,” the procession (pictured below) included dancers, mounted guards, dramatic music, newly-commissioned murals along the route, and a light show. Each of the mummies had its own float designed to evoke the royal barges that carried the pharaohs of old to their tombs. The guests of honor included Ramses II, often styled “the Great” and portrayed as the pharaoh mentioned in the biblical Book of Exodus. Also Hatshepsut, an accomplished builder, forceful leader, and one of ancient Egypt’s few female pharaohs. Also paraded: A decade-long ruler, Seti I (pictured above).

This wasn’t the mummies’ first road trip, however. As writer Tom Mueller reports, the royals were moved from their original tombs thousands of years ago to protect them from grave robbers. Then, in the late 1800s, they were transported up the Nile on steamships to take up residence in Cairo museums. Ramses even flew to Paris for a makeover in 1976.

Many Egyptians enjoyed the parade as a moment of festivity amid the trials of the pandemic. But others worry that the mummy migration has brought bad luck. A recent fatal train wreck in central Egypt, a building collapse in Cairo, and the bizarre blockage of the Suez Canal all have been blamed on a modern-day mummy’s curse connected to the parade.

But archaeologist Zahi Hawass, formerly head of Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities, dismisses the notion.

“There is no such thing as a curse,” he laughs, “just a lot of superstitious people.”

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