Egypt

The curse of the mummies (2)

http://www.algomhuria.net.eg/gazette/5/

By Zahi Hawass: "At the end of the 1999 season, I opened Bahariya to tourists and moved five mummies from Tomb 54 to the museum there. One of them was a boy aged five and a younger girl.It had never occurred to me until I moved these two children that the so-called curse of the mummies existed. But both these children began to haunt me in my dreams each and every night. They were reaching out for me with their long white arms, trying to grab me. I did not understand why they were disturbing my rest. This same year I had gone to Los Angeles to teach archaeology at UCLA and the dreams continued night after night.I

had to do many TV and magazine interviews about the new discovery and I was invited to give a lecture in Richmond Virginia at the Museum of Art. On the day of my lecture, I was to fly to Richmond at 7 o'clock in the morning. I set my alarm clock for 4:03 but it did not ring; I woke up at 5 o'clock and had to race to the airport without even washing my face. I barely made the flight but arrived in Philadelphia only to find the flight to Richmond canceled. I had to take a later flight and landed an hour before my lecture. The taxi driver got lost, so I was late to the museum. I finally gave my talk two hours late, and found myself talking about the curse of the mummies.

The next morning I was to talk at a school. I had asked for awake-up call, but forgot and took the phone off the hook. All night the children haunted me. I awoke at 9:30 hearing my escort banging on my door.I could not ignore the golden children any longer. As I waited for a plane back to Los Angeles, I realised what they wanted: they wanted their father to come with them to the museum. In September 1999, I returned to Bahariya and moved their father to the museum. The children never haunted me again."

Part One was posted on the 10th January.

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Egypt