Transferring Tutankhamun’s 401 statues to the Grand Museum

CAIRO – 18 June 2017: 401 statues all bearing the face of king Tutankhamun will be transferred to the Grand Egyptian Museum in the next few days, as recounted by Tarek Tawfeek the General Supervisor of the Museum on Thursday.

‘’Transferring the 401 statues is part of the procedures of transferring all Tutankhamun holdings to the Grand Egyptian Museum according to the prepared schedule, to complete moving the rest of the holdings before the partial opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum,’’ said Tawfeek.

Tawfeek pointed out that the 401 pieces are called Ushabti statues. Ushabti means the respondent. Tawfeek explained that in ancient Egypt they used to put some Ushabti statues with each dead person in his tomb. They used to put a number of statues equal to the days of the year, meaning the Ushabtis’ number inside each grave is 365.

‘’In Ancient Egypt they believed that the dead is the king of his cemetery, so if anybody in the afterlife ask the king to perform a certain duty, each statue must do this duty on his behalf,’’ added Tawfeek.

He further elaborated that inside King Tutankhamun’s grave there were 365 statues to fulfil all the year demands on his behalf. In addition to appointing for these statues assistance, resulting of the total number of king Tutankhamun statues to add up to 401, which all bear Tutankhamun’s face.