Egypt has recovered 354 archaeological objects that were seized by authorities in the UAE, AFP reported Sunday (November 5th).
Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed al-Qasimi, ruler of the emirate of Sharjah, had ordered the pieces returned to Egypt after police captured them, the antiquities ministry in Cairo said Saturday.
The ministry did not provide any details on where or how the pieces were recovered, or from whom.
Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Enany inspected the pieces at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo on Saturday, it said, adding that they would be placed on display in a "special exhibition".
The recovered pieces include antiques from the Pharaonic era and some from Islamic times, it said.
Among them are a pottery container carrying the name of Ramses III, who ruled Egypt around 3,000 years ago, and several bronze statues depicting Egyptian gods including Isis and Osiris.
They also include tombstones from the Islamic era.
Egypt is rich with its monuments from different eras, whether ancient Egyptian, Pharoanic, Islamic, Fatimid, or Graeco-Roman. All those eras left their own monuments which depicted their time in this country. However, in the dark ages which Egypt has been through, those monuments disappeared and then appeared at museums across the world and in the safes of amateurs. Those monuments were smuggled via the various forms of smuggling.
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