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Mr. Mubarak, meet Mr. Tutankhamen?
Egypt dithers with talk of cloning pharaohs
March 12, 1997
Web posted at: 7:13 p.m. EST (0013 GMT)From Correspondent Gayle Young
CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- For decades the mummified remains of Ramses II have rested in the Cairo Museum, and hauled out occasionally for the viewing pleasure of visiting dignitaries.
Like his fellow pharaohs, Ramses wanted nothing more than to live for eternity.
Now, some 3,000 years later, some observers speculate that maybe the ancient Egyptians, with their determination to preserve their bodies, were not so much prone to wishful thinking as they were to thinking ahead.
Reports that Scottish scientists have cloned an adult sheep named Dolly have led to rampant speculation that humans could be cloned as well.
This tempest in a petri dish is heading to Egypt. For the past several years, scientists have been extracting samples of DNA from mummies.
"For example from the teeth, for example from the skin, from the tissues, soft tissues and from the bones and from the hair," said mummy expert Nasry Iskander.
The question now is whether such DNA could be cloned so the great Ramses, or perhaps Seti I or even King Tutankhamen, rise again and have the life-after-death they so desperately craved?
"It is too early to speak about this," Iskander said.
The Cairo Museum says it knows of no program in the works to clone mummies. The DNA that has been extracted from dozens of bodies is being used to unravel who fathered whom in the tangled ruling families of Egypt.
But the idea of mummies getting a second lease on life certainly gave tourists at the museum something to think about. They had a range of reactions.
"Go for it, see what happens," said one man.
"I think it would be unethical to bring someone back in this kind of culture. I don't know how he'd handle the traffic of Cairo and things like that," said another man, laughing.
The Great Ramses in a Cairo traffic jam? Actually, that doesn't have to be imagined, since his statue sits in the city's busiest square.
As for his being cloned, for once in Egypt that involves a mystery of the future instead of a mystery of the past.
Related stories:
- Scientist: Human cloning 'need not happen' - March 12, 1997
- Scientists grow monkeys from cloned embryos - March 2, 1997
- Mummy's curse powerless against theft of Egypt's artifacts - June 18, 1996
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