Parisians caught under spell of Egyptomania

The current exhibition 'The Artists of the Pharaoh' has pushed Egyptomania in the French capital to new heights in recent months with displays of a sumptuous period of ancient Egyptian history.

ÊÊÊ On display are the carvings and stonework by workers and craftsmen of the Valley of Kings.

ÊÊÊ The Louvre, with its glass pyramid over the ticket hall lends the event a special magic.

ÊÊÊ The exhibition opened on 19 April and was supposed to have run until 22 July.

ÊÊÊ By overwhelming popular demand the closing date was shifted to 5 August, by which time more than half a million visitors will have seen the displays and revenues will have hit the LE l2 million mark.

ÊÊÊ The exhibition features 250 pieces dating back to l295-l069 BC. Most of the items were found at Deir Al Madina area on the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor, 725 kilometres from Cairo.

ÊÊÊ The villagers of Deir Al Medina were the craftsmen who worked on the pharaohs' tombs and whose work was a passport to eternal life beyond the grave.

ÊÊÊ Skilled craftsmen were hired by the pharaoh's court and were given accommodation in Deir Al Madina, which became a close-knit society of artists.

ÊÊÊ After completing their assignments for the king, these artists fashioned their own tombs after the model of the royal tombs that they had built and adorned with their own hands.

ÊÊÊ Among the most beautiful tombs found at Deir Al Madina was that of an artist called Ka.

ÊÊÊ The tomb's contents were all taken to Turin to give the public an insight into the artist's daily life, his clothing, food, furniture, and even his hairstyle.

ÊÊÊ The Louvre took pains to publicize the exhibition, with a 30-metre-high hoarding, small advertisements in Metro stations, and posters everywhere.

ÊÊÊ The display is in four sorted sections: life, death, creation and doctrine.

ÊÊÊ Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, Zahi Hawas said that the exhibition will move to Brussels in September, and thence to Turin in February 2003.

ÊÊÊ The first exhibit that visitors see is the tent and equipment used by the team from the French Archaeological Institute in l9l7 at Deir Al Madina.

ÊÊÊ This team was the first to unearth a block of 68 of the artisans' houses. Some of their walls were still intact.

ÊÊÊ In compliance with the law at the time, finds could be divided between Egyptian and foreign working on the site, provided that the Egyptian party receive the rarer, more valuable items.

ÊÊÊ But such a defective law did not prevent thousands of artifacts from finding their way to museums.

ÊÊÊ Having the lion's share of rare antiquities, the Louvre is in a position to stage many exhibitions.

ÊÊÊ The current exhibition was organized with the help of the National Museums Association, the Royal Museums in Brussels, and the Egyptian Museum in Turin.

ÊÊÊ Not a single piece was brought directly from Egypt for this event.

ÊÊÊ Among the exhibits are incomplete steles, on which outlines had been drawn and revised by the foreman or the craftsman in charge, statues, some literary texts, invoices and medical prescriptions on papyrus, and a model of the tomb of Sengam.