Throughout the evening, all the guests present (cca 70 people) were acquainted with the scope, sphere of functioning and the individual activities of both the Czech and Polish archeologic missions in Egypt. The first lecture was given by the director of PVC, Dr. Zbigniev Szafanski. The focus was mainly on the activities of the polish mission in the Karnak Temple Complex of the Queen Hatshepsut. The second lecture was given by the director of ČEgÚ professor Miroslav Bárta. Referring to the Swimmers Cave lying in the Western Desert and to some other relevant points, he concentrated mostly on the theories of the geographical roots of the pre- historical Egyptian civilisation and culture. The third lecture was given by Dr. Izabela Uchman from PVC, who was then cooperating with the Japanese mission. The main focus of the lecture of Dr Uchman was on the conservation and restoration of the ancient Egyptian monuments. This was accompanied by a screening of concrete examples. The last lecture of the evening concentrating on the shaft tombs of the Abusir archeologic site was given by professor Ladislav Bareš from ČEgÚ.

The tradition of the Egyptological lectures at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Cairo is very long. An evening of lectures, which was wider in scope and included Hungarian, Polish and Czech experts on Ancient Egypt, was organized by the Embassy for the first time in 2014. The repeated attendance of the Polish archaeologists on this year’s Egyptological lecture evening helped to start up a new tradition in which we aim to continue.