seine Exzellenz Mohammed el Orabi: Do you speak English?
Rosette-Team, Jan Romberg: A little bit
el Orabi: So you can manage
(Wir setzen uns)
It is a nice program, one of the Arab channel, they are talking about very interesting subjects.
What you like to drink, tea, coffee or Wasser?
Rosette-Team, Jonathan Groß: Coffee
Romberg: Tea

el Orabi: They are talking about, to drink one or two glasses of red wine every day is good for your health.
(wir lachen)
So, what do you here?
If you want to speak in Germen I will help.
Romberg: Thank you very much
At the beginning we want to present our project
You know, the Rosetta stone was found in 1799. The core of our project consists of replicating the stone to visuali.. (Visualisierung) in our school.
First, an acrylic glass was formed in shape of the Rosetta stone an than the plate was coloured and so it matches that the colouring it really like the original.
el Orabi: I would show you a sample, we have one here
Groß: Oh, that's nice.
Der Botschafter eilt hinaus, kehrt mit einer Schautafel des Steines von Rosette zurück
el Orabi: It is not original, of course.
(Gelächter)
Groß: Its, of course, more (diffrerentziert - difficult) then our sample, we engraved the signs with machines, but the size is one to one
el Orabi: Ah, its big
Groß: Like the original one
Romberg: We have some photos here
Groß: These pictures are from the presentation, that here. One year ago, at school.
el Orabi: What kind of stone?
Groß: Its acrylic glass, a kind of plastic. We let it melt, so that we could ...
el Orabi: Who many month did you took for that…
Groß: About two month, but he made the most of the preparation and engraved all the signs, I wrote them on the stone.
el Orabi: And this are the three languages? Yes!
el Orabi: Did you engrave typical letters or change you or any kind of letters?
Romberg: We tried to copy all the signs.
el Orabi: It was not easy.
Romberg: Of course
el Orabi: I think, You are not understanding the letters?
Romberg: Only the Greek part
el Orabi: The Greek part did you understand, Greek is good.
Romberg: Today this copy of the stone is standing in our school, so every day the pupil see this stone. I think, this is important, because it is a symbol on the one hand for the old Egyptian culture and one the other hand for the ability to decode the hieroglyphs. You know, they weren't known any time. It is good, because we are an humanistic school, so we ...
el Orabi: Is our school in Berlin, here?
Groß: Yes, we discover old languages and by this project also Egyptian language. in a small part.
el Orabi: Not easy. But is a good project. What is the reaction of your friend and the pupils in the school? It is I mean a (circus/discuss)
Groß: Many pupils had not known about the Rosetta stone before that and I cant remember to learned it in school but I think, it is really important, as my partner named it, that the pupil know something about this stone, because its great for the discovering the old languages and the great culture of Egypt. And now they ask they teachers, what the stone is good for. So we made a plate with some information about the Rosetta stonier, but I am sure that it isn't enough, it is only one page, so we decided to took it into our Abitur.
el Orabi: Yes, I think it is a good project, but you do you know the man who discovered the ...
Groß: Bouchard
el Orabi: Champollion!
Romberg: A yea, he decoded the hieroglyphs.
el Orabi: At what age he died?
Romberg: Very early, I think.
Groß: With 42 or 42, he was born in 79 and he died in 1832, like Goethe.
el Orabi: When he was 41, he died as a young man. And he said, I was born to decipher this Rosetta and it was my mission in the world in my life.
And I think he was right, he was absolutely right.
And I think its one of the most important discovering since the beginning of life on earth, because you know, everybody could any sample read and listen there and what kind of a ...
I think it is a good project, bit I think you have to continue this project by learning this three languages (Gelächter) and than come to Egypt and read all the signes, written on this kind of objects.
Groß: I was been in Karnac and Luxor three years ago, I was fifteen, wasn't really much interested in Egypt, but now I…
(Exzellenz zeigt uns ein Buch, in dem gezeigt, wird, wie die Ruinen einst prächtig und farbenfroh glänzten)
el Orabi: This is a project of friends of Egypt in Stuttgart, and they were trying to imagine, what the reality of this kind of temples and the old time so this is why they took plastic sheets: to give us an impression that is was coloured.
Romberg: What a very nice book!
el Orabi: Some people think that it wasn't coloured in old Egypt. I mind this all was coloured, it was a wonderful world.
Groß: One think to say: WOW!
(Eine Angestellte bringt zwei Bücher, die der Botschafter uns schenkt)
el Orabi: It is calendar of the Egyptian embassy and you will find a lot of think about Egypt and in German, if you feigned your friends in the school.
(Die Angestellte bringt zwei Exemplare des Stuttgarter Farb-Projekt Buches, die uns der Botschafter überreicht)
Groß: We have two parts in our project, one is about the ancient meaning of the stone and this is my part, about the Greek world and the Ptolemaic world an his part is about the meaning in our time, for discovering this language.
el Orabi: Well, first I remember a very important think: You know whether the Zoo in Berlin (You know were it is?) There is a bank, called Volksbank, now they have a big exhibition about the "Totenbuch". I want you to visit this Ausstellung.
Romberg: Its very interesting.
Groß: Of course, we ...
el Orabi: ...Should go, you would be amazed by the ancient Egyptian and you will find a lot thinks of … this book, this was each one, when he died, he should berry of him one book like this and this book has instructions of what kind of think you would see in the heaven, what kind of think in the paradise, if you go to the hell (Gelächter), so I got it very interesting when I were there, they have translations to German of this book and I want you to go at the weekend or so on, it is a nice trip
Groß: I didn't know about this exhibition.
el Orabi: It is in the Kunstforum of the Volksbank.
But you speak a good English.
You did have some questions?
Romberg: Yes, my first question is about Napoleon.
The Europeans are looking divided to Napoleon, because he brought war over the continent but civil rights he brought, too.
In which way he is regarded in Egypt?
el Orabi: Well, of course, Egypt was an object of many invasions: the British, the French and of course the Osmanics by the Turks and many invasions, but the greatness of Egypt is that we never get a silly digested by any of this foreign occupations on the continent. we always overturned this foreign forces, that why if napoleon came to Egypt as an invader or as an surveyor, he left Egypt as a great lover a great thinker about Egypt and so this is the power of the civilisation of Egypt and he were come as greedy person and he wanted to invade Egypt and to contain Egypt, but after a while Egypt will transfer you to a fan of Egypt or a lover and this is what happened to Napoleon. Of course, as Egyptians, we fought against Napoleon in the beginning, but after a while or let me say after he left Egypt he kept some scientists and scholars, French scholars in Egypt and I think that is, may be, the only let us say, golden time of the invasion to Egypt, that he was trying to heard the Egyptians understand the envisions and, may be, that's why we could see the French invasion or the French campaign as the best think in the mean time we recognize, that the French occupation brought many good thinks also to the Egyptian society and the Egyptians.
Do you think, you can remember, what I said?
Romberg: We take some notes, but the most we will remember?
el Orabi: They are young, so the can remember.
There were some builder of the cultural time of invasion. It still has been an invasion, but it has positive cultural sites
Groß: Even the discovering of the Rosetta stone.
Yes, that's why I' am saying.
Now, if Champollion were a company, this campaign may be all of us did not now.
der Skeretär seiner Exzellenz: There were ten Egyptian at the TU, the university, the history professors and he was thinking and sitting there. Ones of them talked to us a tell and Spain were conquered by the Arab, describing the Arabs as thieves and what I wanted to say, if the French invaded us carried also a lot of thinks. In the Museums in Berlin, in France ands in England and were else in Europe very important pieces of our history. That's may be one thing, actually what I meet with German, I will always live to correct this crime because the professors of us such thinks to invasion will talked to a crime history. We were invaded and you were also invaded and those who invaded archentaded also very important parts of our history with them and lots of our sources and this is very important.
el Orabi: Of course very good pieces were discovered and than went to Europe, to French, to the British or the German but anywhere we are looking to all this peoples as the human been heritages. So we are proud that all of our monuments and objects represent the culture of us. You can go to the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.- There are a lot of good thinks.
Romberg: Yes, we had been there
Of course, today Egypt don't have the same culture then 2000 years ago.
How much do the Egypt population feel joined with the old culture an which old traditions are living until now?
el Orabi: Of course we are very prod, that we defender of the ancient Egyptian for a honoured time and Yes, many thinks exists and that's why I talked about this exhibition because, you know, parts of the tradition of the European in Egypt part of this comes from this bionic aera. Also if you read this books you will find many good thinks in that as instructions to you, when you are living your daily life, don't pollute the river, this is the instruction in this books, don't harm your neighbour, don't scream in your parents faces, don't be dirty, clean yourself, don't destroy a tree, even in the desert. So all of this instructions, if you compared with the instructions which we are trying to live in the young people it a sort of greeting the awareness of environmental in behaviour. If you don't pollute the river if you will to try to keep the motor running in the river, if you not kill animals. All these instructions come from ancient Egyptians and it is still now swelled and applied in our daily live. I think in European religion they instructed you, to be good with your parents and to be good to your neighbour, to your colleagues, to your friends, so all this instructions you will find in the Totenbuch and you discovered that the ancient Egyptians were very civilised in their behaviour, they even pray to one god, many good, one god, and all the think actually its part if our nature, part of our traditions, part of our behaviour as modern Egyptian.
Romberg: Our project occupy oneself with the question why the stone is an unique specimen.
How do you estimate the probability that a twice of Rosettana will be found?
el Orabi: It is a great possibility, I' am sure that we find many other pieces like this even from the shape of the Rosetta, it will give you the impression of this part of a big thing, so may it will found the rest of this stone left and it will help us to have more information about the ancient Egyptians life, but you should always think that the Egyptian civilisation was always based on stone and stone it mean in the mind of the ancient Egyptians didn't … If you look to the Pyramids now, there are some stones, but it was more for them. So this is the greatness of the or let us say the importance of the stone, any kind of stone, in our culture, it is not just an material or not just a dead object. It is a demon peaces and it will remain forever and any kind of civilisation, you will find that they are based on stone and building. They build something. If you go to China, you will find that the Chinese build a lot of things, Egypt, if you go to Latin-American, to the Inca, the civilisation find also the same way, so stone and building, they are the pupillars of the ancient Egyptian civilisation. So I guess you have a lot of German working in Egypt and they try to find many other thing but this trail one is unique but I guess we can have more pieces like this.
Romberg: One important source for our work is the "Lexikon der Ägyptologie", written by Wolfgang Heck and Wolfhart Westendorf. I´ found it in Germany, England and the Netherlands and it is being in every famous library around the world.
Could you recommend a better standard reference work?
el Orabi: For you, but I' am sure, that we have a lot of references here. May be Professor Wildung will help you, he is the director of the Egyptian Museum here in Berlin.
Sekretär: Wenn ihr mal im Internet guckt, der Mann schreibt sich Zahvy Hawass. Vielleicht findet man Hinweise auf Bücher oder Artikel.
Romberg: The speech and so nearly the whole culture of the old Egypt was driven out by the influence of other cultures.
Is a new replacement threaten by the influence of America?
el Orabi: No, but the Greek civilisation and the Roman civilisation and the British civilisation you can say that these change with independence, but America?
Europe is very closed to Egypt and that's why we remember the history of Cleopatra and Marc Antonio from Rome and that was a part of influence of the Egyptians and the Roman empire. But I don't se any … Some people say that the Egyptians sailed from Egypt to Latin-America, not the USA, but I' am not sure about this.
Romberg: Heyerdahl tried to sail with an ancient-Egypt ship.
el Orabi: I don't know. There were many attempt, but I don't think scientifically that Egyptians reached this area, I don't think so.
Romberg: One last question. Would you say, that the hieroglyphs would be decoded without the Rosetta stone, too?
el Orabi: No, I don't think so. You know, it wasn't so that cannot some didn't speak this language. The language was disafinished and this is strange by the religion, but I guess that the language was finished, because of the change of the religion, in curtain time Buddhism strut from Egypt and than Christianity and than Islam, so we were the creator of the three religions, so that's why the republic still exists because if the change of religion, but in Hebrew, in Hebrew language, there is some influence for a long period, still now.
I think without the discovering of this stone it would be impossible to imagine, because of you know, this language was not alphabetic. You know, one time, you can say one word, with shape let as say bird or something like this and sometimes you are writing from up to down and sometimes you are writing from right to left and so I think it was very difficult to imagine how to write and understand this language. I were trying to understand this languages, many times, but you might it is not easy. We have to repeat and to study it very carefully and it was curtain times each shape it was the meaning of it and sometimes the same shape will give different meaning in different place. If it starts the sentence the bird or the arm mean something, if it at the end of the sentence it means something else. So it is not easy, not an easy language. I think we have to study why it is preserved this language still now as Egyptians, I think the language is playing a very important role, for the religion. The change of the religion in Egypt is playing a very important role to finish this language and not to be used and this is a different object. Imagine you are trying to write your test or to have a letter to your friends and to do all this you need a kind of shapes and a lot of power, but anytime you go to this museum, you will find a lot of things and you find even what is the meaning of the characters and different shapes. What is the meaning of this in the language. But I think it was difficult and one of the reason is that people in an other time they have a lot of time, they had no TV, no Internet and so it was easy to write the whole day to delay the kind of shapes and there were a curtain shops or offices in ancient Egyptian time to write to you what you want. The writers were professions at that time and they were very, let us say temple and were writing in a very neap no way and if you are talked, so you buy the so in black and white, but if you are rich you can buy a copy what is coloured and they putted two things in this exhibition
And also the paper is purple in this time and also they used linen, this is a very good material with a nice colour, a beige colour, and they were writing on this linen and the linen is very strong, I was even trying to test it. I think, they were wonderful people, they discovered everything, they did everything, they did know the technique how to preserve the bodies. This is not knowing, how they keep it
It is very difficult, but they were very good ingenieurs.
We are prod, that we are the sons of this great people and you should be prod that you are Germans, you have also a great tradition
Groß: Yes, but not as ancient as the Egyptians.
el Orabi: Yes, one day you will be ancient. (wir lachen alle)
But anywhere you have artists and you have awareness and we will be happy to help you in the project and we will consider you as friend of this Egyptian embassy here in Berlin, we want you anytime to come here, to come here with your friends. May be we can arrange for the next year, for the next school year that you come here with your class.
Romberg: Yes, perhaps in our Geography-courses, next year we talk about African states and so it would be very nice.
Yes, anytime this is a friendly place for you and you can invite your friends anytime the Egyptian embassy, you can come to look nice videos about Egypt in German so you can come here to watching, if you have any immediately plane, let me know, you can post me, because of the end of this school year.
Groß: Thank you very much for your statements, it was for offer to visiting you.
el Orabi: You are most welcome and we always think, that young people are the future and when we have this good contact with you, so we have a good future.
Groß: And we thank you for the books.
el Orabi: I hope you enjoyed that we are friends and I will be happy to see you here.
Thank you very much and I will see you, Ok!
Groß: We hope
el Orabi: Yes, we want se you at any time. Thank you. Auf wiedersehen.