Ancient mummies will parade through the streets of Cairo

Abu Simbel - The Ramses II complex south of Aswan and the site of two temples built by the oldest Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great (reigned 1279-13 BC) (Credit: Khaled Desouki / AFP / Getty Images)

(CNN) -

The ancient mummies of Egypt's royal pharaohs will emerge from their resting places this weekend and parade through the streets of Cairo in search of a new home.

What sounds like a movie plot is in fact part of a lavish celebration of Egyptian history and a project to move some of its greatest treasures to a new high-tech facility.

On Saturday, the mummies of Ramses the Great and 21 of his fellow pharaohs will take part in what is billed as "The Golden Parade of Pharaoh," a highly anticipated event organized by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

The celebrations are reported to include horse-drawn carriages, choirs singing in ancient languages ​​and a plethora of movie stars and dignitaries, but the Egyptian authorities have kept official details of the event under lock and key.

"It's a surprise," Ahmed Ghoneim, executive director of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, the institution that will be the final resting place for the mummies, told CNN.

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However, it is difficult to keep an event of this magnitude a surprise, especially when dress rehearsals were recently held in downtown Cairo.

Excited Egyptians snapped photos of custom-made mummy vehicles adorned with golden ancient motifs and quickly uploaded them to social media.

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The final journey of the mummies of Egypt

The goal of the parade is to transport the 18 kings and four queens of Egypt, along with their coffins and belongings, from their former home in the Egyptian Museum.

They will be transported five kilometers south to their new high-tech resting place at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC).

No, it is not the huge Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which will also open to the public later this year.

The NMEC is a completely different museum in Cairo's Fustat neighborhood that will complete a trio of must-see Egyptian-themed museums in and around Cairo.

Although NMEC had a partial opening in 2017, the parade will mark the grand opening.

"This is a presidential inauguration," says Ghoneim.

And the completion of the Hall of the Royal Mummies, which appears to be a unique museum experience.

"The idea is not the mummies, the idea is how you display the mummies ... It's how you tell the story, it's the atmosphere, it's the atmosphere you feel when you enter," he added.

Ghoneim says that visitors who enter the Hall of the Royal Mummies will experience something akin to entering a tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

The 22 royal mummies are from the New Kingdom, an era when tombs were built underground with hidden entrances to protect them from grave robbers.

A world apart, and some 600 years, from their wacky royal Old Kingdom counterparts who built colossal pyramidal tombs.

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Preparing the mummies

Dr. Mostafa Ismail, head of conservation at NMEC's ​​Warehouse and Mummy Conservation Laboratory, led a team of 48 people to prepare the royal mummies.

The preservation process, he told CNN, involves placing each mummy in an oxygen-free nitrogen capsule "that can keep it preserved without being damaged by the effects of humidity, especially we are talking about bacteria, fungi and insects."

The capsule is surrounded by soft material that distributes pressure and reduces vibrations during transport.

When the mummies arrive at NMEC, the display units will have exactly the same conditions as the nitrogen capsules.

"So there will be no shock to the mummy when we take it out of the box and put it in these units," adds Ismail.

Accompanying each mummy will be belongings discovered alongside them, including their coffins.

The screens will also show CT scans that reveal what's under the wraps and sometimes any broken bones or diseases that plagued royalty.

"The main thing we want visitors to know about these mummies is how they have been mummified and preserved for a long time," he explained.

When asked if his team discovered anything new about the mummies while preparing them for the move, Ismail commented: "a lot of things," but none that he would reveal before the parade.

So there are more surprises ahead.

A new cultural center in Cairo

The Hall of the Royal Mummies will undoubtedly be the star attraction for visitors to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, but Executive Director Ahmed Ghoneim hopes to position the museum differently from its neighboring institutions.

"I'm not focusing on the Pharaonic era as most people would think," he says.

"Most Egyptians and non-Egyptians, every time they go to an Egyptian museum, they think they are going to see the pharaohs," he explains.

"Here I am establishing myself in a different way, I am telling a different story, going through history and reaching the present."

The first temporary exhibition will focus on Egyptian textiles and fashion.

"The whole story, from rugs to clothes," says Ghoneim.

Through the exhibits, the museum will tell a richer history of the achievements of the Egyptian civilization.

But the museum will also be a cultural center.

“A place that offers everything, part educational, part cultural, part entertainment, part night dining, and so on.

It is something that is unique, "he says.

And finally, 3,234 years after his death, Ramses II can finally be buried.

The museum will be open to the public the day after the parade, April 4.

The Hall of the Royal Mummies will open two weeks later, on April 18.

The Pharaoh's parade will be broadcast live on the YouTube channel of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

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