Science Quote by Zahi Hawass

You can hear the showman straining against the scientist. Hawass isn’t cataloging an archaeological find so much as staging an event: “Two hundred and fifty” is a drumbeat number, a headline baked into a sentence. Then he repeats himself - “mummy after mummy” - as if language needs to physically keep pace with the spectacle. The insistence that it “cannot be explained” is doing double duty: it’s awe, yes, but also a strategic refusal of moderation. Explanation belongs to footnotes and lab reports; Hawass is protecting the discovery from being domesticated by context, debate, or bureaucratic caution.

Gold is the real co-star here. Not “gilded,” not “adorned,” but “covered,” “shining” - totalizing words that turn bodies into radiance. That choice tilts the scene toward visual consumption: museum lighting, television cameras, Instagram glare. The subtext is cultural branding. Hawass has long been the public face of Egyptian archaeology, and this line reads like a pitch for Egypt-as-wonder, a reminder that national heritage is also soft power and tourism economics. The mummies aren’t just ancestors; they’re assets.

There’s also a defensive edge. “Cannot be explained” pre-empts skepticism about provenance, preservation, ownership, the long shadow of extraction and display. By placing the find in the realm of the ineffable, he sidesteps the questions that inevitably follow when ancient bodies become modern spectacle. Awe becomes both invitation and shield.