Museum of Egyptian medical history to open soon in 19th century palace
Egypt, Local, 9/16/2003

A new museum on the history of medicine in Egypt and how it developed from the time of the Pharaohs up to present day, will open in Cairo soon.

The museum is situated in the el-Sakkakini Pasha Palace that has just undergone a full-scale restoration, which is almost complete.

Director of the Museum Sector at the Ministry of Culture, Mahmoud Mabrouk said that the museum will display papyri, rare medical equipment and surgical tools, which doctors invented and used through the ages.

The museum will have a special section dedicated to ancient manuscripts, which include medical prescriptions, Dr Mabrouk told a daily newspaper.

These give full descriptions of diseases, their symptoms and treatment, he told Al-Ahram, adding that they also show how the Pharaohs improved their health care systems.

"Some of these papyri prove that Pharaonic doctors performed complex surgery. They also invented surgical instruments, which they used in the mummification process," he said.

Ancient Egyptian doctors identified 93 diseases and managed to find cures for them, he added.

The new museum will also include sections showing the progress of medicine during the Coptic and Islamic periods, he said.

The idea of establishing the el-Sakkakini Museum of Health and Medicine came when one of el-Sakkakini Pasha's grandsons donated his share of the palace to the Ministry of Health.

This grandson, a renowned doctor, wanted the ministry to turn the 100-year old palace into a public museum, to relate the story of medical science in Egypt, Dr. Mabrouk said.

Italian architects designed and built the palace in 1897 for el-Sakkakini Pasha, who was one of the most colourful members of the Egyptian aristocracy, his granddaughter, Asmaa el-Bakri told the newspaper.

El-Sakkakini Pasha, who was of Syrian origin, settled in Cairo and the whole suburb near to el-Dhaher was named after him, she said.

He planned the el-Sakkakini area in an innovative way with all streets leading to his large palace, which was at the centre of the new suburb, Ms. el-Bakri added.

In the 1960s, the government nationalised the palace, but in the 1970s it was returned to el-Sakkakini Pasha's grandchildren, she said. Ms. el-Bakri told a story about el-Sakkakini Pasha to prove that he loved Egypt and the Egyptians.

It dates from the mid-1860s, when thousands of Egyptian farmers were digging the Suez Canal under the worst imaginable working conditions.

"As if the scorching sun, freezing cold and bad working conditions were not enough for the poor farmers, desert rats attacked them while they were asleep," Ms. el-Bakri said.

"When the news of these incidents reached Cairo, el-Sakkakini Pasha ordered that all the stray and domestic cats from Cairo's streets and homes be collected and shipped to the Suez zone," she said.

The cats killed the rats and rescued the poor workers from disease, she added. The three-storey el-Sakkakini Palace is considered one of the most beautiful buildings of 19th-century Cairo.

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