Friday, November 25, 2005

The rose of the Nile

"A massive restoration project is breathing new life into the long-neglected Rashid National Museum". This article focuses on the newly restored Arab Killy House, the 400-year-old residential house of Rashid's Ottoman governor, now a museum whcih exhibits the history of Rashid from the town's construction in ancient times right through to the modern era. Politics, as ever, intrudes in the form of heritage ownership issues: "Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the SCA, said the highlight of the exhibition was a life-size replica of the Rosetta Stone offered by the British Museum in response to an official request submitted by Hawass to the museum's ancient Egyptian department. The replica stone, which arrived early this week, will be on show in the museum foyer. Hawass expressed his happiness and gratitude, but said he wished to see the original Rosetta Stone back in its place of origin on special loan to the exhibition."
See the above article for more about the museum and about Hawass's attempts to repatriate significant artefacts,l including the Rosetta stone.

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