For an hour and a half, the world’s greatest expert on Egyptology took us on a tour of the latest discoveries made during excavations at the pyramids.
“I am a lucky man. I have been working there, in the pyramids, all my life,” he said at the beginning of the event that filled the auditorium of the NOVA University of Lisbon this Saturday (8th).
The lecture, entitled “New discoveries about the pyramids, Tutankhamun and the Golden City”, was part of the celebrations of 50 years of diplomatic relations between Portugal and Egypt – and the visit to Lisbon of Zahi Hawass, who has also been an honorary doctor of NOVA since 2011, was jointly promoted by the university and the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Portugal.
Proud of an unprecedented career, Hawass stressed several times that his discoveries are “absolutely incredible” and that this is more than enough reason to visit Egypt – also revealing that this was the moment chosen to launch the Egypt-Portugal Year of Tourism 2025.
“Thank you for choosing NOVA for this moment,” thanked João Sàágua, Rector of NOVA, at the beginning of the session, recalling that the university has a very special relationship with Egypt: “Not only is it the birthplace of one of our emeritus professors – Salwa Castelo Branco – it is also where NOVA Cairo has been based for several years, the only campus of a Portuguese university abroad”.
But that’s not all: it was Zahi Hawass, as Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities, who authorised the first excavations by NOVA researchers in Egypt, a milestone for the team led by Maria Helena Trindade Lopes, Professor of the History of Oriental Antiquity and specialist in Egyptology.
Wael El-Naggar, Egypt’s Ambassador to Portugal, expressed his gratitude and returned the compliments: “These are important milestones in the bilateral relations between the two countries, which is why we have chosen this year as the Year of Portugal-Egypt Tourism”, and made the appeal that Hawass would later repeat: “Come, it is a safe country”.
While the audience marvelled at the results of research carried out in emblematic places such as the Valley of the Kings, Saqqara and Giza – explored with the help of robots that sweep the tunnels found inside them – Zahi Hawass also made other curious revelations: “I am often asked if I am not afraid to go inside,” he commented, adding: “And I understand the question. But when I go down the cable, I don’t think about anything else but getting there”.
In the end, Hawass not only showed photographs alongside several celebrities who have visited the sites of his research – from Barack Obama to Bill Gates, including Shakira – but also stressed that all the artefacts found are in the Grand Museum, the name given to the Grand Egyptian Museum, which has already been partially inaugurated and houses the largest archaeological collection in the world. “It’s for everyone to see. These discoveries belong to everyone.
