Kamal el-Mallakh ( ar, كمال الملاخ) was a famous
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
ian archaeologist who was among the
Egyptian antiquities
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...
inspectors who discovered the ''King
Khufu Solar ship'' in 1954.
Life
El Mallakh was born to a
Coptic Christian Orthodox family from
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.
In ancient E ...
on 26 October 1918 and died on 29 October 1987.
He graduated from the ''School of Fine Arts'' in 1943 with a degree in
Architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
and then received a master's degree in
Egyptology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...
from
Cairo University
Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...
.
In 1954 El Mallakh discovered two pits just south of the
Great Pyramids
The Giza pyramid complex ( ar, مجمع أهرامات الجيزة), also called the Giza necropolis, is the site on the Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt that includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of ...
of
Giza on Cairo's western outskirts, he found
Cheops
Khufu or Cheops was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having ...
' first boat, the oldest wooden relic of
Ancient Egypt Kingdom.
El Mallakh maintained that a nearby pit contained another boat. His theory was that the two boats were to ferry
Cheops
Khufu or Cheops was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having ...
' soul on a perpetual circle through the heavens, one for day time one for night. Other
Archeologists
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...
denied the pit but it was an American
National Geographic society who discovered it which indeed held a boat. Kamal worked in the
Giza area for 14 years where he discovered
Khufu ship
The Khufu ship is an intact full-size solar barque from ancient Egypt. It was sealed into a pit at the foot of the Great Pyramid of pharaoh Khufu around 2500 BC, during the Fourth Dynasty of the ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom. Like other buried ...
.
In his later life he became one of the founders of the
Cairo International Film Festival
The Cairo International Film Festival ( ar, مهرجان القاهرة السينمائي الدولي) is an annual internationally accredited film festival held in Cairo Opera House. It was established in 1976 and has taken place every year si ...
while working as a journalist for ''
Al-Ahram'' newspaper.
Books
*''The Gold of Tutankhamen,'' Kamal El-Mallakh & Arnold Brackman (1978).
*''Treasures of the Nile: art of the temples and tombs of Egypt'' (1980).
*''Al-Ustadh'' (1981).
*''al-Akawan Sayf wa-Adham Wanli'' (1984).
*
''Gamal Es-Seguini'' (1985). ASIN B000KW144Y
*''Cairo: Giza-Sakkarh-Memphis'' (1987).
See also
*
List of Copts
This list of Copts includes notable Copts figures who are notable in their areas of expertise. For saints, please refer to ''Coptic Saints''.
Performing arts
* Rami Malek, actor
* Mena Massoud, actor
* Ash Atalla, British television produce ...
*
Lists of Egyptians
The following is a list of some of the notable Egyptians inside and outside of Egypt:
Actors Male actors
* Abdel Moneim Madbouly
* Adel Emam
* Ahmed Zaki
* Ahmed El Sakka
* Ahmed Ezz
* Ahmed Helmy
* Ahmed Mekky
* Ahmed Ramzy
* Ali Mans ...
References
External links
Kamal El-Mallakh life by Zahi Hawas*An article about Cairo film festival and Kamal El-Mallakh by Lobna abdel Azi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mallakh, Kamal
1918 births
1987 deaths
Egyptian Egyptologists
Egyptian archaeologists
20th-century Egyptian writers
Coptic Orthodox Christians from Egypt
Egyptian newspaper journalists
20th-century archaeologists