Secretary-General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Zahi Hawass voiced his hope to strengthen cooperation with China in archaeological excavations during an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

He said he is going to negotiate with the Chinese concerned bodies to hold a new exhibition for the Egyptian antiquities in China.

He also asserted that he is going to call for holding a meeting next year with all countries concerned to discuss the topic of retrieving artifacts to their countries of origin.

He expressed his willingness to cooperate with the nations of glorious civilizations, including China, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Greece, Italy and Mexico, to make up a list of stolen artifacts that every country wants to recover.

In that respect, Hawass said that he now tries to recover, according to the UNESCO agreement, the Egyptian artifacts stolen since 1972. Besides, Egypt will also try to retrieve other items smuggled abroad before 1972 if there are evidences corroborating its illegal status.

He pointed out that some letters will be sent this week to the Berlin Museum which displays Nefertiti's bust, Le Louvre Museum where the Zodiac is found, the British Museum which has the Rosetta stone and the Boston Museum which has the statue of the Great Pyramid's architect to borrow those items for three months for exhibiting at the Egyptian museums.

Hawass mentioned that the big eye of King Imhotep III, the father of Akhenaton, that was stolen in 1970 was returned to Egypt last week, and the statue of Imhotep will return to Egypt this week after 20-year stay in London.

Preparations are underway to restitute 80 items that were stolen by an American pilot, Hawass said, adding that the current negotiations and haggles between the Egyptian side and the Art Museum in Saint Louis of United States regarding the return of Nefr's mask to Egypt.

Additionally, Hawass stressed that Egypt is launching a massive worldwide campaign to show that its stolen antiquities must be returned to their motherland.

"Any museum which rejects to give us back our stolen antiquities will be completely excluded from our scientific cooperation efforts including excavations, visits and so on," he said.

Concerning the latest scientific discoveries in Egypt, Hawass said his team unearthed last October a pyramid's base dating back to the fifth dynasty which belongs to King Min Ko Hor.

He also said that he is going to declare one of his highly paramount archaeological discoveries on November 11.

He added that he is currently conducting some very important archaeological excavations and is looking for the tomb of queen Cleopatra and Mark Anthony.

He expressed his belief that both of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony were buried in a temple 50 km west of Alexandria where he found some statues for Queen Cleopatra and coins depicting her.

He made clear that he is going to use a radar set to try to detect the entrance of the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony on January 15, 2009, expecting that it will be a world-shaking discovery.

Meanwhile, he said he is making preparations to unveil the secrets of the King Cheops pyramid as he is going to select a team to work with him to find what is hidden behind the three secret doors recently discovered inside the pyramid.

He also pointed out that the most important project that he currently carries out and supervises is the study of the mummies of Tutankhamun's family through CT scan and the DNA test to exactly determine the identities of both of Tutankhamun's father and mother.

Hawass said after conducting an analysis of the DNA of the Tutankhamun's mummy in the Valley of Kings, the mummy of Imhotep III and the fetus mummies of Tutankhamun's children Yuia and Tuia in the Egyptian museum.

"If we can determine that those fetuses are the children of Tutankhamun, then will know the mummy of their mother who is the daughter of Queen Nefertiti and will consequently know the mummy of Queen Nefertiti," he added.

Moreover, Hawass said that Egypt now witnesses a golden era of astonishing archaeological discoveries.

As for the new Grand Egyptian Museum, Hawass said the museum will be located at the foot of pyramids which contains some pharaonic antiquities of about 1,000 artifacts.

He added that those items will be displayed for the first time, and the statue of King Ramses II will be moved from Cairo's Railway station to become a landmark of the new museum later on.

Hawass also revealed that a theatre and a cinemascope will be constructed beside the museum which will be completed by 2012.

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2008)