Amateur archaeologists curse pharoahs' guardian

22.11.2004

By ALEX DUVAL SMITH in Paris

Dr Zahi Hawass is one of the most powerful men in history – at least of archaeology – and he is angry.

The 57-year-old is secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities but, as any Egyptologist will tell you, this is the least of his titles.

The self-styled guardian of the pharaohs, commonly referred to as the “Big Zee”, is the minder of 4000 years of history, 500 kings, scores of legends, thousands of tourists and hundreds of competing archaeologists.

Yet the theatrical, outspoken and Stetson-wearing Egyptian with a string of academic credits to his name and the power to dictate what the world is told about Ancient Egypt is being challenged relentlessly by two plucky French amateurs.

Retired estate agent Jean-Yves Verd’hurt and architect Gilles Dormion have for two years been applying for permission to poke a 15mm lens through a floor of the Great Pyramid at Giza.

They believe they will find the burial chamber of Cheops (Khufu), the pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty who built the seventh wonder of the world, the 150m-high Great Pyramid.

The Frenchmen’s challenge to the Big Zee’s authority has ruined the image of Egyptology as the gentlemanly pursuit of studied introverts.

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