Galina Belova who heads the Centre of Egypt Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which was set up in 1998 and opened its branch in Cairo in 2000, has been engaged in excavations in Egypt since 1995. Over the past five years, Russian expeditions have been busy digging in Luxor's cache of pharaoh mummies, investigating into Memphis, examining the temples and settlements in Delta and penetrating the necropolis and a medieval Christian monastery in the town of Al Fayyum. Since 2003, the Russians have been involved in underwater archeological prospecting into the 20-kilometer area close to the Alexandria coastline. Russian restorers have spent the last year rehabilitating wall paintings in the church of al Muallaka in Cairo.
"The contribution by Russian archeologists has been appreciated by the Egyptian side, which is proved by the proposal to participate in the restoration and studies of three more ancient Coptic churches," said Belova.
Outstanding Russian Egyptologist Vladimir Golenishchev, whose collection of almost 6,000 artifacts is kept at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and the Hermitage in St.Petersburg and who made 64 expeditions to the country of the ancient civilization, once dreamt of a purely Russian expedition to carry out excavations in Egypt. From the mid-50s, Egypt hosted distinguished Soviet scholars Mikhail Korostovtsev and Boris Piotrovsky while now research is carried on by the Center for Egypt Studies.
