Curse or no curse, Cairo's mummy parade goes smoothly
Cairo's procession of royal mummies roused national pride among Egyptians, though observers warned that disturbing the dead may have unleashed the "curse of the pharaohs."
All was pomp and pageantry as 22 royal mummies — 18 kings and four queens — paraded through the streets of Cairo on the evening of April 3 to their final resting place at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, located where the ancient capital of El Fustat once stood in Old Cairo overlooking Ain El Seera Lake.
The remains of the pharaohs had been showcased in a gallery at the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square, transported there from the Valley of the Kings on the Nile's West Bank near Luxor more than a century ago.
Excitement had been building for months ahead of the lavish multi-million-dollar relocation ceremony. When the day finally came, families huddled around their TV sets to watch the live broadcast and were not disappointed. To many Egyptians, the fanfare was a reminder of their glorious ancient heritage and a distraction from the harsh realities of their daily lives.
Watching their royal ancestors make the theatrical five-kilometer (three-mile) 40-minute journey from downtown Cairo to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in nitrogen-filled glass capsules, many enthralled Egyptians proudly shared images of the royal procession on social media using the Arabic hashtag #egypt_dazzles_the_world.
