Exclusive Interview with the Minister of Antiquities of Egypt

Interview with Mamdouh Al-Damaty, Minister of Antiquities and Heritage, Egypt

What are the main challenges and problems that you’re facing right now?

The current Ministry of Antiquities came from the previous administration’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, and when this administration was formed, they financed this Ministry from its income, not from the state. This means that I have to finance all of the projects, improvements to the archaeological areas, restorations, and payments to workers and employees through this ministry’s income, which comes from entrance fees and tickets to museums and archaeological areas, antiquities replica factory, and rent from our bazaars. We also generate some income from the open-air events at archaeological sites, like the Citadel. We had good income before the revolution, and we could finance projects and improve museums, the Islamic Museum of Arts, but most were destroyed and then we rebuilt again, Coptic Museum and Grand Egyptian Museum, National Museum for Egyptian Civilization. We also have restoration projects, for example the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, to improve the pyramid plateaus and short areas. There were about 50 projects before the revolution, and most of these projects stopped after the revolution because the main challenge was financing.

The administration says that we have to finance ourselves, but if we don’t collect money from entrance tickets, which are the main source of our income, then we must either completely stop or continue with these projects very slowly. For example, the Grand Egyptian Museum has been worked on non-stop, but the quality of work over the last four years has dipped 10-20%. We continue working, but know that we are facing serious problems and challenges regarding this financing. The second challenge is the bureaucratic ‘waiting period,’ which has increased over the last four years because of the lack of security, and the leaders were afraid to sign off on any papers and many projects stopped because of this wait. The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization had enough money for a specific phase, but payments stopped going to the contractor in 2011 because of this bureaucracy, and the work stopped for over three years. The change of the administration added longer waiting periods, as well. I like to think that I solved a big part of this problem, with the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, and we are trying to do the same to other projects.

My short-term vision is to finish all the projects that started before the revolution. I hope to finish those 10 museums in the next 2 years, and then the Egyptian Museum should be finished in 2018.

The third challenge we face is a lack of security, and it’s better now than it has been over the last four years. We have a special police sector, the Sector of Tourism and Antiquities, who work with us. Directly after the revolution, there was a tense situation throughout Egypt and the police couldn’t work in a riot atmosphere; we had several attacks in archaeological areas and museums because of this. In the last year, this situation became better, but it is not good enough or improved itself to say it is better than before the revolution – things are twice as better now than last year. Over the last three months, we received 42 more people in the police and antiquities sectors. We also improved security systems, and the Temple of Luxor will re-open on March 20th with new cameras and lighting security systems.

The fourth challenge is the media, including journalists, TV channels, and social media. This is dangerous because rumors quickly increase, even when we have a small problem, the problem becomes bigger and more serious through online media. For example, one rumor was about the restoration of the Step Pyramid. There was some damage to the burial chamber and some galleries inside and outside of the pyramid after the earthquakes in 1992. We started analyzing the pyramid to create a restoration project in 2001, and started restoring the pyramid several years later in 2006 – it was a long-term, in-depth study of what we needed to do. There were some problems when the work started, in regards to finding a contractor for the restoration, but eventually the contractor began the project. After the revolution, some other contractors started to say negative things against the contractor we hired. In September 2011, the head of the antiquities sector of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) called UNESCO who, in turn, conducted a report that the work is good and can continue. But, after that, due to the fact of finance and money, the work stopped until I became minister. I reached out to the contractors to try and start the project again. The next day, negative rumors started about this contractor. I held a press conference from inside the pyramid to address these rumors, and invited the press to investigate and see that everything was OK – that the pyramid was not destroyed like the rumors in the media were saying. At the end of the day, some of the tourists cancelled their plans to come to the area, which was a very serious problem because of the media.

After I became minister, I went to the 22 governorates, 86 archaeological areas, and 30 museums to meet the overseers, see what problems they were having, and try to solve them. When I went and tried to tackle the problem, some of the media joined me – and even though they witnessed what my solutions would be – they distort the issue and claim that Minister of Antiquities isn’t fixing anything or solving any problems. I started last September [2014], to finish restoring and re-open a new museum or site every month: the Hanging Church in Old Cairo after its restoration finished (which had started in 2001), Mizer Street that had damage from the revolution, the Suez Museum, the Royal Jewelry Museum in Alexandria, the Sphinx Courts, the Statue of Amenhotep III in Luxor, and the Necropolis of Fatimid. That same day, of opening these museums and sites, some talk shows (or media outlets) will call and only ask about problems with the projects that have been stalled or stopped – not about these new openings. They try to move people to their side, not to inform people about the new projects that we had just finished. Thus, as I stated before, these are the four challenges: financing, lack of security, bureaucracy, and the media.

You are also forming and promoting partnerships with large museums, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institute. What is your interest and strategy in attracting partnerships with these museums and institutions from all over the world? How can you increase these collaborations?

We have good cooperation and collaborations with friends from all over the world. For example, we have about 200 missions in archaeological areas and 80% of them are from the Egyptian foreign mission. We erected the Statue of Amenhotep III with Germans and Europeans, we opened the chapel in the Temple of Deir el-Bahari with colleagues from Poland, with Germans on the Necropolis of Fatimid in Aswan, we work with the French at the Karnak Temple. One year ago, the Islamic Museum of Art was destroyed, and we are trying to reopen it after completing the restorations and renovations. Our Italian colleagues gave us money through UNESCO, and the larger museums, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institute, offered the restorators training to work in the museum; this type of collaboration is not only with Americans, but everyone else – the Grand Egyptian Museum is in collaboration with the Japanese.

It’s possible to increase these collaborations, and they have increased over the last four months through the good relationship between the Ministry of Antiquities and our colleagues. We have a new ministry of International Cooperation, and the minister of this administration has more active since I appointed a new director for our department two months ago. He has been creating collaborations and building contacts with UNESCO, because with UNESCO we can go anywhere. The first meeting with UNESCO was in Cairo with the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM). They visited historic Cairo and surveyed our work at the Grand Egyptian Museum, National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, and the renovations at the Islamic Museum, as they haven’t been here for a while because of the political situation. After that, I went to Paris for the second meeting to continue discussions about these three museums, and added the Greek-Roman Museum in Alexandria, which has been closed since 2005 and needs interior renovations.

What can you do to protect and promote the Egyptian heritage? Do you have any means to advertise yourself or attract attention?

The Islamic Cairo Committee is connected with the Governor of Cairo, other ministries (Antiquities, Housing, Environment, Culture, and Tourism), and traffic police, and was established by the Prime Minister in order to solve these problems. Through this committee, we have a special administration to carry out decisions after finding problems. Also, we use this committee in collaborating with UNESCO to research and improve the heritage area of Cairo, which is 32 km2. We add new things every day in order to promote our culture, and publicize and market everything through the tourism ministry: the Hanging Church, the Sphinx courts, and the Statue of Amenhotep III in Luxor. We promote museum and archaeological site openings through the media, and the Ministry of Tourism and tourism offices abroad market them outside of the country.

What is your long-term vision or wish? What do you wish to achieve?

My short-term vision is to finish all the projects that started before the revolution. I hope to finish those 10 museums in the next 2 years, and then the Egyptian Museum should be finished in 2018. When I finish all of those projects, all 50 of them, then I have achieved my short-term goal. After that, my long-term vision would be finding new ways or creating a new system to improve all these areas (museums and archaeological sites), reuse the archaeological buildings in Islamic Cairo, improve the replica factory, and how to form and generate more money from the cultural heritage industry.