Friday, Jan 28, 2011 20:26 ET
Egypt’s military secures famed antiquities museum
To prevent looters from getting inside, citizens form a human chain around the home of King Tut’s gold mask
The Egyptian army secured Cairo’s famed antiquities museum early Saturday, protecting treasures including the famed gold mask of King Tutankhamun from looters.
The greatest threat to the Egyptian Museum first appeared to come from the fire enguling the ruling party headquarters next door on Friday night as anti-government protests roiled the country.
Then dozens of would-be thieves started entering the grounds surrounding the museum.
Suddenly other young men — some armed with truncheons taken from the police — formed a human chain outside the main gates on Tahrir Square in an attempt to protect the collection inside.
“I’m standing here to defend and to protect our national treasure,” said one of the men, Farid Saad, a 40-year-old engineer.
Another man, 26-year-old Ahmed Ibrahim, said it was important to guard the museum because it “has 5,000 years of our history. If they steal it, we’ll never find it again.”
Finally, four armored vehicles took up posts outside the massive coral-colored building in downtown Cairo. Soldiers surrounded the building and moved inside to protect mummies, monumental stone statues, ornate royal jewelry and other pharaonic artifacts.
samiam60
January 29, 2011
We are seeing amazing things SH and you know, it is going to get worse before it gets better.
samhenry
January 29, 2011
Sad to say it will because there are other autocratic regimes in the Middle East that many would like to see ended. As usual you are right my friend.
DarcsFalcon
January 29, 2011
A human chain! That is so awesome! What a wonderful story of triumph. I don’t have any nice names for looters. It’s bad enough they steal from store owners during turbulent times, but national treasures? That’s just despicable.
samhenry
January 29, 2011
It made me cry that citizens banded to protect their heritage. We need to keep our eye on them and forget the trash who will get away with anything they can.