A life dedicated to antiquity

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s never a good idea to keep Zahi Hawass waiting.

“You’re three minutes late,” the celebrated Egyptian archaeologist told a group of San Francisco visitors one very warm April morning at Saqqara, an ancient burial city site dominated by the world’s oldest pyramid (circa 2700 B.C.).

Hawass was standing in full Egyptian sunlight, shielded only by one of the battered, sweat-stained leather hats that have become his trademark costume pieces in public and on numerous History Channel, Discovery Channel and National Geographic TV special appearances. Hawass didn’t smile as he led his guests to the opening of a nearby cave. He rarely does.

Inside the cave, Hawass pointed out a touchingly beautiful wall carving that he believes represents a young Tutankhamun with his wet nurse, Maya, their faces close together and arms intertwined.

“Look at this beautiful young boy,” Hawass said, his steely gaze widening and his voice taking on a cadence both tender and urgent. “He looks about the age of 9. Look at his face. The cobra is in the forehead, protecting him, and Maya is putting her hand out to him in love and affection, like a mother and child. And look — he’s holding the sign of the ahkh [the hieroglyphic character for eternal life]. It’s amazing.”

That was an altogether fitting introduction to Hawass, 62, who has marshaled his passion for the ancient Egyptian world into a one-man force to promote, preserve and protect his native country’s cultural treasures. As secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, a lofty title perfectly suited to his outsized personality, Hawass combines no-nonsense determination, a deep knowledge of his subject and a canny flair for attention-getting publicity and its attendant revenue streams.

If he sometimes comes off as a kind of self-styled archaeological “rocks star,” enamored with the Emmy Award and photograph of himself with Celine Dion that adorn his Cairo office, the sense of purposeful mission is unmistakable. Everything he does — the TV gigs; the current Tutankhamun show he co-curated with David P. Silverman; the audaciously bold, press-baiting claims of forthcoming discoveries that will “reveal the mysteries” of millennia past — serves an ambitious, far-sighted agenda.

Hawass’ master plan includes the construction of 19 new museums in Egypt, the eventual closing of tourist-beleaguered attractions such as Tut’s tomb (with a precisely rendered replica as a replacement lure) and the cleaning of the pyramids. Only 30 percent of ancient Egyptian artifacts, he believes, have been discovered. The work to be done is enormous, unending, all-consuming. When Hawass speaks of himself as living in the time of the pharaohs or recounts his dreams of dancing with mummies, it sounds like the natural expression of a focused, fully integrated personality.

Poised over a sarcophagus he recently excavated at Saqqara, Hawass stood at the bottom of a 40-foot shaft and recalled the discovery in his winningly idiosyncratic English. “When I took the coffin out, I thought this is the most important moment in the life of anyone. It makes you think: I am the happiest person on Earth.” Hawass continued, “People fight, or they want to make money. I only want to do this. I don’t care about anything else.”

It wasn’t always so for Hawass. After setting out to study law, which he found he despised, Hawass idly switched to archaeology and drifted along for a few years. He had his conversion experience at 19, when he was sent to a desert excavation site. Reluctant at first to leave a girlfriend and the delights of Cairo behind, Hawass had his eyes opened when a tomb was uncovered on the site. “I found my life,” he said simply. Hawass earned his Ph.D in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. He was appointed to his current Supreme Council post in 2002.

Several days after the Saqqara visit, Hawass led the way into the tomb of the 19th Dynasty pharaoh Seti I, in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor. At 463 feet and counting, this is by far the longest and deepest burial site in the valley and still very much under excavation, with iron bars bracing the mine-shaftlike ceiling and workmen hauling cartloads of small rocks from the bottom. Hawass was in his element, pouring sweat as he paused to muse on this “most mysterious tunnel.” His finds of pottery shards, cartouches and a model boat have “everyone talking,” he said, “about the secret tomb of Seti” that’s still to be fully explored. “This tunnel has been in my mind for 38 years. It was in my mind that I should excavate it, to reveal the mystery,” Hawass said.

Ten minutes later, Hawass was back on the surface, signing autographs for tourists from around the world who know him from his magnetic television presence. And then he was holding court in a makeshift wooden office, discoursing on a battle with the St. Louis Museum of Art about a mask “stolen” from Saqqara in 1966, the importance of “not wearing a suit and tie and sitting in my office” and “a vision of Egyptians, for the first time, being in charge of the monuments.” It went without saying, when it came to that last matter, that he would be the Egyptian in charge of all that.

Hawass leaned back in his chair and took a long pull from a bottle of water. “Some people would say that I’m something of an a--hole,” he said. “But the rest would probably say I’m OK.”

For once, reaching that conclusion about himself, Hawass smiled.

Zahi Hawass

Born

• May 28, 1947

Education

• B.A., Greek & Roman Archaeology, Alexandria University
• Ph.D, University of Pennsylvania,Fulbright Fellow

Position

• Secretary General, Supreme Council of Antiquities

Honors

• National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence
• Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People
• Honorary Doctorate, The American University in Cairo

Fun facts

• Recently toured the Giza Pyramids with President Obama
• First Egyptian ever to win an Emmy

For complete coverage and more information:

www.sfexaminer.com/kingtut

http://www.famsf.org/deyoung/