Midan
Ramses is the name of the large square fronting
Cairo’s main railway
station ‘Ramses Station/ Mahattat Ramses’ and the district of
streets and neighborhoods surrounding it. It is located immediately
north of the city center, ‘Midan Tahrir’. Ramses Square is not
considered the most attractive part of modern Cairo as it is a core
point of Cairo’s transportation system, notorious for swirling
traffic and massive crowds at peak hours, though many tourists leave
out of the station on overnight trains into southern Egypt.
An older view of Ramses Square a few years after
the Statue of Ramesses II was erected at this location in Cairo
Despite all this, the district does have some graces
to offer the traveler. Located at the eastern end of Ramses Station
is the Egyptian
National Railways Museum. This museum houses an
amazing
collection of steam locomotives, including that used by Empress
Eugenie during her opening of the
Suez Canal in
1863. The square is also home of the ancient
Ramesses II
statue and the main train station.
Ramses Station was first built in 1856 but was
reconstructed in 1892 to incorporate a more traditional Arabic style
of architecture. In 1955 the facade was refurbished in the same
style and it was during this time that a statue of
Ramesses II was
placed in the esplanade near the train station. The red granite
statue of Ramesses II
had been found in 1882, broken into
six
pieces, at the Great Temple of
Ptah at
Mit-Rahina (ancient
Memphis).
At the time of the discovery, there were restoration attempts to
re-erect the statue, however, they failed and it remained as it was
until February 1955 when the minister Abdel-Latif El-Boghdadi,
decided to move it to ‘Bab Al-Hadid’, now named ‘Ramses Square’.
Only then was it restored and reassembled by inserting iron bars
inside the body. Standing on a three-meter-high base specially built
to hold it, it rested on the edge of a rectangular fountain. The
statue soon became a famous
Cairo landmark,
appearing on postcards, tourist maps and guide
books.
Ramesses II was the third king of the 19th dynasty and ruled Egypt
from 1304 to 1237 BC. He presided over an era of great military
expansion, erecting statues and temples all over Egypt. He is
traditionally believed to be the pharaoh mentioned in the biblical
story of Moses, though more recent studies have cast doubt on that
tradition. He was buried in the
Valley of the Kings,
in
KV7, but his mummy was later moved to the mummy cache at
Deir al-Bahari.
It was found in 1881 and placed in the
Egyptian Museum in
Cairo five years later, where it is still exhibited.
The statue has stood in the square for more than 50
years but with the growth of the city, the square has become
increasingly noisy and polluted. Raised pedestrian walkways make it
hard to see the eleven meter (35-foot) statue from some angles.
Culture Minister Farouk Hosni told a news conference that after
lengthy studies and debate the government had decided to move the
statue away from the city center to the tranquility of the outskirts
of Cairo, where it
would
be safer and probably viewed by more tourists.
This decision was reached given the tests that were carried out on
the statue revealed 12 types of polluting materials accumulating
over the surface of the statue, including dust, carbon, lead and
oxides. However, the most endangering problem threatening the
survival of the statue is the underground running underneath it,
which is a constant source of vibrations.
However, it is no easy task moving the 3,200 year old Pharaoh
Ramesses II,
which weighs around 83 tons. Studies and careful planning have been
in progress since 2002 in order to
guarantee
a safe trip for the pharaoh.
To test the accuracy of the plan, a copy of the statue was made with the exact same measurements and weight. The replica even took the deteriorating parts of the real statue into account. The contracting company that will be carrying out the transportation of the real statue, in collaboration with German experts, moved the replica some weeks ago through the same route intended for Ramesses II. This trial was intentional to test the stability and power of the vehicles meant to transport it. The vehicle traveled the 30-kilometer route through the city's streets at just five kilometers per hour to guarantee the statue's safe arrival.
A view of the mock trial of the Pharoah
transportation that took place from Tahrir Square to the Giza
plateau.
The pharaoh’s route has been determined in
collaboration with the
Cairo and Giza governorates as well as the army, police and
other concerned ministries. All obstacles will be removed from
the
designated route in preparation for the transportation due on
Friday, August 25 in the early hours of morning when Cairo’s traffic
is quietest.
Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) officials
stated that the red granite statue will be wrapped and covered in
rubber foam. Then, it will be transported vertically in one piece. A
steel cage will be constructed around the statue and connected to
steel beams supported on two vehicles specially adapted to carry the
83-ton statue.
The
ongoing process started by strengthening the current statue base
with external supports and replacing the existing steel rods with
additional reinforcement. The steel beams holding the cage will be
erected and the old base will afterwards be destroyed, shifting the
weight of the cage and the statue onto the beams. Using jacks of 400
ton capacity, the front and back ends of the beams will be lowered
onto the two vehicles. The two flatbed trucks will carry it through
the city overnight to avoid traffic on the eight-mile trip west of
Cairo, that will take
several hours to reach its destination.
The
statue will reach a temporary location at the
Giza
Plateau, where it will undergo a 6 to 12 month restoration
process. When the construction of the nearby Grand Museum base is
complete, the statue will be moved there. The statue’s new home is
to be the 480,000 square meter site of the Grand Egyptian Museum
(GEM), overlooking the Giza Plateau, which is now under
construction.
The site lies on a higher hill at the beginning of
the Cairo-Alexandria
desert road and is also accessed from the Fayoum Desert road. The
top of the museum level has a wonderful clear panorama of the three
Giza
Pyramids. The new museum - due to open in 2010 – will exhibit at
least 100,000 artifacts from the
Pharaonic and
Greco-Roman
periods. A large triangular gate in the facade will lead into
the museum, where the statue of
Ramesses II will
greet visitors. The government is gambling that the museum will lure
an additional 3 million tourists to Egypt every year.
Many argue that moving the ancient granite statue out of the square
may not save it from the ravages of
Cairo's pollution.
Archaeologists and others have expressed concerns over the necessity
and safety of the plan, saying that the statue's future
home
is not much cleaner. At the same time, many have expressed their
dismay with the project's cost, which comes up to 6 million LE,
arguing that this amount could have been better used in other
restoration projects and emergency stabilization of other monuments.
The project is definitely controversial, as it far from an easy
plan. However, even though it might be a better home from the
Pharaoh, he will surely be missed both by Cairenes who have grown
accustomed to his towering presence and by the square that bears his
name, which will be left vast and empty.
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Last Updated: 08/22/2006