An
ancient Egyptian mummy thought to be that of Pharaoh Ramses I
has returned home after more than 140 years in North American
museums.
The body was carried off the plane in Cairo in a box draped in
Egypt's flag.
The Michael Carlos Museum gave it back after tests showed it
was probably that of the man who ruled 3,000 years ago.
The US institution acquired it three years ago from a Canadian
museum, which in turn is thought to have bought it from Egyptian
grave robbers in 1860.
The mummy was welcomed back home with songs and military band
music during a ceremony at the national museum in Cairo.
Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities,
travelled from the US with the body and said it would be moved
next year to the Luxor Museum in southern Egypt.
"We are not 100% sure that the mummy is that of Ramses I,"
said Mr Hawass. "But we are 100% sure that it is of a king."
Atlanta's Michael Carlos Museum acquired the mummy in 1999, but
offered to return it after hi-tech scanning equipment indicated
it was likely to be that of Ramses I.
The museum website said it had been acquired from the Niagara
Falls museum.
It is thought a Canadian collector bought the mummy for the Niagara
Falls institution around 1860 from an Egyptian family which had
stumbled on a tomb filled with royal mummies at a site near Luxor.
According to the Atlanta museum's website, the family sold treasures
from the site until they were discovered and the tomb - with an
empty coffin bearing the name Ramses I - officially revealed in
1881.
Mr Hawass praised the handover as "a great, civilised gesture".
And he appealed to other world museums to return Egypt's antiquities,
particularly the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum and the bust
of Nefertiti in the Berlin Museum.
Ramses I ruled for just two years but is renowned for founding
the 19th Dynasty, which spawned many Ramses - including Ramses
II who was on the throne for several decades.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2003-10-29 01:00