Two major artifacts from a collection of 788 ancient Egyptian treasures were unveiled in the Shanghai Museum on Monday, offering a glimpse into the soon-to-open exhibition in July.
Arriving in Shanghai on Sunday, this collection of artifacts will be on display at the exhibition themed "On Top of the Pyramids: The Civilization Exhibition of Ancient Egypt," which will run from July 19 to Aug 17 at the Shanghai Museum.
Of the two artifacts, the statue of Akhenaten (1353-1336 BC) -- a pharaoh of 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt -- with its original height at 4 meters, will be exhibited in a bust. The other one is a colored mummy coffin with inscriptions from the middle part till the base, which was unearthed at the Saqqara necropolis in recent years.
As part of the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, 24 km southwest of Cairo, the Saqqara necropolis contains the oldest stone building complex in history, as well as Egypt's oldest pyramid, among other treasures.
To better protect these ancient treasures, the organizers from China and Egypt decided to use a chartered cargo plane to transport these artifacts to Shanghai.
Chu Xiaobo, director of Shanghai Museum, said that these 788 pieces of artifacts cover a range of different times in ancient Egypt and more than 95 percent of the collection will make their debut in Asia.
"This concentrated exhibition curated outside Egypt, including the latest archaeological findings in the Saqqara region, has been unprecedented even in Egypt in terms of the scale. So, I believe many visitors coming to this exhibition will have a general understanding of the history of ancient Egyptian civilization," Chu said.
Two ancient Egyptian artifacts unpacked in Shanghai for upcoming exhibition
Two ancient Egyptian artifacts unpacked in Shanghai for upcoming exhibition
