Your Egypt

[kamar]

BEIJING, April 2, (Xinhuanet) -- An Egypt archaeological team was sent to France on Thursday to retrieve 3,200-year-old strands of hair from the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II, who presided over an era of great military expansion in Egypt, Egyptian media said Monday.

The existence of the hair came to light last year when some of the strands were offered for sale on the Internet for between 2,668 U.S. dollars and 3,336 U.S. dollars, as well as some tiny pieces of resin and embalmed cloth taken from the mummy.

The seller said his late father had worked in a French Lab entrusted with analyzing and restoring the body of Ramses in the 1970s. He gained the relics from his father and can provide the certificates of authenticity to would-be buyers.

Knowing the hairs were on sale, French archaeologists reacted with horror and arrested the suspected seller in November.

Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass praised the efforts of the French authorities to stop the sale of the hair, and said that the "theft of the mummy's hair was not appropriate behavior."

Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, was born around 1304 BC and ruled Egypt for more than 60 years during the 19th dynasty of pharaohs. He is a popular feature on Egyptian postcards and is traditionally believed to be the pharaoh mentioned in the biblical story of Moses.

Ramses's mummy was discovered in 1881 and shortly afterwards moved to Cairo's Egyptian Museum. In the early 1970s the authorities noticed his body was deteriorating and sent it to Paris, where it was treated for a fungal infection.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-04/02/content_5924783.htm