Off the coast of Alexandria, the underwater antiquities date back thousands of years and include palaces, columns, ships, castles and statues that sunk after Alexandria witnessed a series of earthquakes throughout history. The exhibition “Osiris: Egypt’s sunken mysteries” displays many artifacts discovered through underwater archaeological excavations, and is currently on display at the Rietberg Museum in the Swiss city of Zurich. Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anani opened the exhibition on Feb. 10.
The exhibition in Zurich displays 293 artifacts that tell the myths of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld, and Egypt's sunken antiquities that were found in the towns of Heracleion and Abu Qir and the eastern port of Alexandria. The artifacts have been selected from several Egyptian museums.
In September 2015, the exhibition opened in France for a period of five months. Here, more than 250 artifacts were on display. The second place to host the exhibition was the British Museum in London, where the artifacts were on display in May-November 2016. The London exhibition displayed 293 artifacts, roughly 270 of which had been pulled from the depths of the sea off the coast of Alexandria.
Before the inauguration of the exhibition in Switzerland, Anani announced at a press conference Feb. 9 that the exhibition had been a success in the European capitals of Paris and London.
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