En su adolescencia, Eid Mertah pasaba leyendo libros sobre el faraón egipcio Tutankamón, trazando jeroglíficos y soñando con tener en sus manos la máscara dorada del monarca. “Estudié arqueología por Tut”, cuenta Mertah, de 36 años. “Mi sueño era trabajar con sus tesoros, y ese sueño se hizo realidad”.

Mertah es uno de los más de 150 curadores y 100 arqueólogos que han trabajado en silencio por más de una década para restaurar miles de artefactos del Gran Museo Egipcio (GME), un proyecto de 1.000 millones de dólares a orillas de la meseta de Guiza. Su lanzamiento estaba programado originalmente para el 3 de julio pero fue reprogramado para los últimos meses del año por motivos de seguridad.

Cuando finalmente abra, el GME será el mayor museo arqueológico del mundo consagrado a una sola civilización. Albergará más de 100 mil artefactos, la mitad de ellos en exhibición, e incluirá un laboratorio vivo de conservación.

Desde atrás de las paredes de vidrio, los visitantes podrán ver a los expertos trabajando para restaurar un bote de 4.500 años que fue enterrado cerca de la tumba del faraón Jufu para trasladar su alma hasta Ra, el dios del sol. Pero la estrella del museo será la colección de Tutankamón, con más de 5.000 objetos, muchos de los cuales serán exhibidos juntos por primera vez.

Incluye su máscara funeraria de oro, ataúdes y amuletos de oro, collares de cuentas, carros ceremoniales y dos fetos momificados que se cree que son sus hijas que nacieron muertas.

Muchos de estos tesoros no han sido restaurados desde que fueron descubiertos por el arqueólogo británico Howard Carter en 1922. Los métodos de conservación empleados por el equipo de Carter buscaban proteger los objetos, pero más de un siglo después, su preservación es un desafío.

Cubrir superficies de oro con cera, por ejemplo, “preservó los objetos en su momento”, indica el curador Hind Bayoumi, “pero ocultó los detalles que quería que todo el mundo viera”. Durante meses, Bayoumi de 39 años y sus colegas removieron la cera aplicada por el químico británico Alfred Lucas. A lo largo de las décadas, esa cera atrapó tierra y opacó el brillo del oro.

La restauración ha sido un esfuerzo conjunto entre Egipto y Japón, que aportó créditos por 800 millones de dólares y apoyo técnico.

El ataúd dorado de Tutankamón, trasladado desde su tumba en Luxor, fue uno de los trabajos más complejos. En el laboratorio de madera del GME, la curadora Fatma Magdy, de 34 años, utilizó lupas e imágenes de archivo para rearmar sus delicadas láminas de oro. “Fue como resolver un rompecabezas gigante”, comentó. “La forma del corte, el flujo de los jeroglíficos, cada detalle importaba”.

Antes de la restauración, la colección de Tutankamón fue recuperada de varios museos, almacenes y tumbas en Egipto. Algunos objetos fueron restaurados ligeramente antes de su traslado para poder moverlos de forma segura.

Antes de tocar los objetos, los equipos realizaron documentación fotográfica, análisis de rayos x, así como pruebas del material para entender la situación de cada artefacto. “Debíamos entender la condición de cada pieza, las capas de oro, los adhesivos, la estructura de madera, todo”, explicó Mertah.

La filosofía del equipo ha sido la precaución. “La meta es siempre hacer lo menos necesario y respetar la historia del objeto”, apunta Mohamed Moustafa, un restaurador de 36 años.

Pero más allá del trabajo de restauración, el proceso ha sido un viaje emocional para muchos de los involucrados. “Creo que nosotros estamos más emocionados de ver el museo que los turistas”, admite Moustafa. “Cuando los visitantes caminen por el museo, verán la belleza de estos artefactos. Pero para nosotros, cada pieza es un recordatorio de las horas interminables de trabajo, los debates, los entrenamientos”, asegura.

“Cada pieza cuenta una historia”, concluye.

Fuente: AFP

[Fotos: Khaled Desouki / AFP]

FIRST ON FOX: College newspaper articles written by New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani shed light on the surging candidate’s early views on a variety of topics, including his promotion of an anti-Israel boycott and concerns about «white privilege,» a Fox News Digital review found.

Mamdani wrote 32 articles for the Bowdoin Orient during his four years studying at Maine’s prestigious Bowdoin College from 2010 to 2014, including an article his senior year promoting an academic boycott of Israel.

«This academic and cultural boycott aims to bring under scrutiny the actions of the Israeli government and to put pressure on Israeli institutions to end the oppressive occupation and racist policies within both Israel and occupied Palestine,» wrote Mamdani, who co-founded his college’s Students for Justice in Palestine organization.

Students for Justice in Palestine has become one of the biggest drivers of anti-Israel protests on college campuses since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, with some going so far as to celebrate the attack. 

THE PLOT TO STOP MAMDANI: DEMOCRATS SCRAMBLE TO BLOCK FAR-LEFT TAKEOVER IN NEW YORK

Mamdani was taking issue in his article with Bowdoin College’s president, Barry Mills, opposing the boycott. 

«Lastly, Mills regrettably makes no mention of Palestinians or Palestine,» Mamdani wrote. «The call for the boycott comes in response to more than 60 years of Israeli colonial occupation of Palestine. When Mills speaks of the ‘free exchange of knowledge, ideas, and research, and open discourse’ in academia, he does so while privileging partnerships with Israeli institutions over basic freedoms for Palestinians, including the rights to food, water, shelter and education, which many Palestinians are denied under Israeli rule.»

In a 2013 op-ed, Mamdani responded to a White student who took issue with criticism of the school’s editorial page being too White by accusing him of holding «white privilege.»

«White males are privileged in their near-to-exclusive featuring as figures of authority in print, on television and around us in our daily realities,» Mamdani wrote. «We, the consumers of these media, internalize this and so believe in the innate authority of a white male’s argument and the need for its publication. So, white privilege is both a structural and an individual phenomenon, the former propelling the latter. Therefore, even when the individual is silent, the structures continue to exist and frame our society through their existence.»

MAMDANI CAMP SILENT WHEN CONFRONTED WITH CALLS TO ‘RADICALIZE’ HIGH SCHOOLERS, ‘DISMANTLE’ US

Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani takes the stage at his primary election party on Wednesday, June 25, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Mamdani said the «pervasive male whiteness» of the school’s opinion pages «builds on the sadly still-present white male monopolization of both discourse and understanding.»

Mamdani explained, «While whiteness is not homogenous, white privilege is. This privilege is clear in not having to face institutional racism in access to housing subsidies, college grants, financial institutions, or civil rights. It allows a white person to universalize his own experiences. It restricts society’s ability to understand its flaws, and projects a false image of meritocracy upon a nation built on institutional racism.»

In another post, titled «Bearded in Cairo,» Mamdani discussed his time studying abroad in Egypt as the Muslim Brotherhood was violently toppling President Morsi’s regime. He explained that before arriving he had grown a beard «mostly as a symbolic middle finger» to the stereotype that «pervades America» that brown individuals with beards are a «terrorist.»

Mamdani discussed privilege again, saying that he had «arrived in a society where privilege was a different color.»

«Gone was the image of the white Christian male that I had grown accustomed to, and in its place was a darker, more familiar picture – ­­­one that, for the first time, I fit: brown skin, black hair, and a Muslim name,» Mamdani wrote. «With the right clothing, some took me for an Egyptian and most thought I was Syrian – either identity allowed me unrestricted access to exploring Cairo.»

In a 2014 article titled «On the 50th anniversary of MLK’s visit to campus, let’s acknowledge what we still need to achieve,» Mamdani lamented that his school, which doubled its diversity student population over the previous 13 years, was still behind where it should be. He wrote that the school had prematurely achieved a «satisfaction with the level of diversity.»

«I have been forced to personally grapple with these inconsistencies during my time here,» Mamdani wrote.

RESURFACED MAMDANI PHOTO SPARKS SOCIAL MEDIA FIRESTORM, OUTRAGE FROM KEY VOTING BLOC: ‘SHAMEFUL’

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is of Indian descent and was born in Uganda. (Reuters/Bing Guan)

«I sit in class not knowing whether to correct everyone’s mispronunciation of an Indian woman’s name. I usually do, but today I’m tired. I’m tired of being one of a few non-white students in a classroom, if not the only one. I bring up race in discussions only to see the thought flicker in my peers eyes and on their tongues. They sigh without a sound. I’ve brought up race again. I’ve sidetracked the discussion. I’ve chosen to make an issue out of it.»

In the same post, Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, outlined his struggles feeling uncomfortable being a non-white student.

«I grow a beard only to be called a terrorist,» Mamdani wrote. «I pronounce the ‘h’ in my name only to hear muffled laughs. Clothing becomes exotic once it clads my body. Cotton shirts are called dashikis and sandals ethnic.»

Mamdani continued, «While I am now comfortable in my own skin, I can remember wishing for whiteness my first year when I thought certain types of girls were impossible to talk to due to my skin being more kiwi than peach. Months later, I remember thinking that attraction might only be possible when a girl had ‘a thing for brown guys.’»

Mamdani explained that he has found «solidarity» with some students on campus but that «still, too few people acknowledge that race is an issue on our campus, or that it has ever been one.»

«But if people say they are color blind, do they even see me?» Mamdani wrote.

Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment.

Zohran Mamdani is challenging incumbent Mayor Adams, who is running as an independent, in November’s mayoral election. (Getty Images)

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Mamdani burst onto the national political scene last month when he won a surprising victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary despite facing criticism for his far-left policies, which included city-run grocery stores, defunding police, safe injection sites and raising the minimum wage to $30.

Mamdani’s victory has sparked a civil war of sorts within the Democratic Party between those pushing to moderate since VP Kamala Harris’s defeat in November and those embracing a progressive shift toward the mold of Rep. Alexandria-Cortez, D-N.Y., who endorsed Mamdani.

Mamdani, thanks to his primary victory, is the clear frontrunner in the general election in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a roughly six-to-one margin.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

A team of researchers recently discovered a historic bow that was blown off a World War II U.S. Navy ship during a historic battle that took place nearly 83 years ago.

The long-lost bow — which was torn off the USS New Orleans in the Battle of Tassafaronga in November 1942 — was found around 2,200 feet underwater in the Solomon Islands’ Iron Bottom Sound, according to a news release from the Ocean Exploration Trust.

DEADLY SHIPWRECK UNCOVERED BY FORMER MILITARY PILOT WHO SPOTTED ONE HISTORIC CLUE

Hundreds of experts worked together to identify the finding covered in marine growth by observing details in its paint, structure and anchor. Trash had also accumulated around parts of the wreckage, as noted in the release.

«The wreck was located during seafloor mapping operations by an uncrewed surface vehicle, then investigated shortly thereafter by a deep-diving remotely operated vehicle,» Ocean Exploration Trust’s Chief Scientist Daniel Wagner said in a statement. «This imagery was viewed in real-time by hundreds of experts around the world, who all worked together to make a positive identification of the finding.»

MARINE EXPERTS FIND LIKELY REMAINS OF 18TH-CENTURY TREASURE SHIP THAT WAS LOST FOR CENTURIES

In a naval engagement involving U.S. and Japanese forces during WWII, the USS New Orleans was struck by one of the Japanese Navy’s Type 93 «Long Lance» torpedoes, which detonated the ship’s forward magazines and tore off nearly one-third of the ship — including the bow. 

The structure and stamps on the base of the anchor helped researchers confirm the identity of the bow. (Ocean Exploration Trust/ Nautilus Live, NOAA)

NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS REVEAL WWI-ERA SUBMARINE 1,300 FEET BEFORE SURFACE WHERE 19 SAILORS PERISHED IN 1917

More than 180 crew members died in the explosion, the Ocean Exploration Trust noted.

Three crew members lost their lives while trying to save the USS New Orleans, which was flooding and bow-less, and later received posthumous Navy Crosses for their heroic efforts. The Navy ship was taken back to the nearby Tulagi Harbor, and the crew used coconut logs to stabilize the ship enough to sail it back to the U.S. for permanent repairs, according to the Ocean Exploration Trust.

USS New Orleans was heavily damaged in the WWII Battle of Tassafarronga at Guadalcanal when hit by a Japanese torpedo. (US National Archives)

«By all rights, this ship should have sunk, but due to the heroic damage control efforts of her crew, USS New Orleans became the most grievously damaged US cruiser in WWII to actually survive,» Naval History and Heritage Command Director Samuel J. Cox, a retired Navy Rear Admiral, said in a statement.

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Last year, the wreckage of the USS Edsall, an American warship that was sunk during a battle with Japanese forces in World War II, was discovered more than 80 years after it was lost at the bottom of the sea.