Sharm el-Sheikh museum highlights Coptic history

The Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh hosts the fourth edition of the World Youth Forum which started on January 10 and will last until January 13.

The forum coincides this year with Christmas celebrations.

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities took this chance to hold a temporary archaeological exhibition in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Titled, 'The Journey of the Holy Family', the exhibition starts on January 11 and will last for six months.

The exhibition is held in cooperation with the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities Sector of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Coptic Orthodox Church, according to Head of the Museums Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mo'men Othman.

The exhibition showcases three important manuscripts of the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo.

It also displays nine rare icons for the first time. The icons were brought together from a large number of Egyptian churches.

Othman said a number of specialized educational lectures would be organized on the sidelines of the museum.

The lectures, he said, would discuss the history of Coptic art.

"There will also be workshops that give participants information about Coptic symbols," he said.

He noted that the exhibition would come to an end on June 1.

There will be, he said, a celebration marking the entry of the Holy Family into Egypt.

The icons showcased in the museum include this of the Holy Family and Saint John the Baptist, the icon of the birth of Christ, and the icon of the Annunciation, in which the angel appears in front of Virgin Mary, announcing her pregnancy and holding a branch of flowers in his left hand. There is a bird in the middle.

As for the manuscripts, Othman said, they include a manuscript of the Four Good News.

"This manuscript refers to the journey of the Holy Family to Egypt," Othman said.

On the right and left pages, some excerpts from the Gospel of Matthew that mention this solemn event appear.

The manuscript has a total of 207 folios, most of which are decorated with blue, red, and gold ink.

These manuscripts compound another that represents the second part of the Synaxarium which contains the memory of the entry of the Holy Family into Egypt, specifically on the 24th of the Coptic month of Bashans.

This manuscript is written in Arabic. It is made up of 247 papers, in which the heads of the topics are written in red ink.

At the end of the exhibition, Othman said, the entry of the Holy Family into Egypt would be celebrated, exactly on June 1.

For her part, Maryam Edward, general supervisor of the Sharm El-Sheikh Museum, said the exhibition would be held in the Byzantine corner of her museum.

"The icons displayed all date back to the 18th and 19th centuries AD," Edward said.

The World Youth Forum returns this year, after a two-year suspension that was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is Egypt's message of peace to the world, bringing together the world's most outstanding youths, entrepreneurs and thinkers.