Photos: Major traveling exhibition ‘Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs’ opens in Paris Friday

CAIRO – 7 April 2023: The major traveling exhibition “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs” showcasing the sarcophagus of Ramses II among many of Ancient Egypt’s greatest treasures opens in Paris on Friday at the Grande Halle de la Villette.

The sarcophagus of Ramses II will be displayed for the first time in Paris in nearly 50 years.

Tourism Minister Ahmed Issa said 145,000 tickets were sold so far ahead of the official opening of the exhibition in the French capital before moving on to its next destination, Sydney, Australia.

In a press conference Thursday, the minister said the exhibition will continue for five months, expecting the event to draw more visitors than King Tut exhibition that attracted 1.42 million visitors in 2019.

Displaying more than 180 dazzling Egyptian artifacts, the touring exhibition features exquisite sculptures, precious treasures, and state-of-the-art multimedia reproductions that demonstrate the opulence and beauty of ancient Egyptian civilization.

The exhibition was first inaugurated in November 2021 at its first location in Houston, it was then displayed at the city of San Francisco in August 2022, Issa said.

The journey will begin with a film that presents impressive panoramic views, followed by a detailed exploration of the life of King Ramses, and the famous rediscovery in 1881 of a hidden cache in the Theban necropolis in which lay Ramses and several other royal mummies.

The exhibition will also offer a virtual reality tour of the fabulous temple of Abu Simbel and the tomb of Nefertari, he added.

Some of the objects are over 3,000 years old and are being exhibited for the first time outside Egypt, the minister added.