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Egypt’s cultural heritage in danger
Display cases broken, ancient sarcophagi pushed over and hundreds of artifacts stolen… Looters ransacked the Malawi Museum in the central Egyptian city of Minya last week. These shots were taken after the vandals broke in and have been shared on the “Egypt Heritage Task Force” Facebook page, a group run by archeologists who are concerned about the threat the political unrest and violence poses to the country’s cultural heritage.
Over 1,000 objects, spanning 3,500 years of history, have reportedly been looted from the Malawi museum. The Egyptologists are trying to catalogue the stolen artifacts in this photo gallery. The aim being to help collectors, art dealers and customs services the world over to identify them.
The scientists have also condemned the recent spate of attacks on churches and other Christian institutions, like this 19th-century Franciscan school in the region of Beni Suef which was recently torched by Egyptian Islamists.
The group is also trying to report suspicious activity or behaviour around museums and archeological sites to police. But given the current political situation the security forces are generally deployed elsewhere, which leaves the doors wide open for illegal digging, like here in Dahshur.
Speaking on behalf of the organization, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova expressed grave concerns for Egypt’s cultural heritage and has urged the Egyptian authorities to do everything in their power to protect these institutions and ... Go on reading on our web site.
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