site.btaBulgaria–Egypt Centenary Marked with Black Sea Egyptian Cults Exhibition in Alexandria

The exhibition “Egyptian Cults Around the Black Sea” is on view at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria between February 10 and 17 to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Egypt. 

This centenary is preceded by a millennia-long history of interaction between the Bulgarian and Egyptian lands, with Alexandria playing a key role, said Bulgarian Ambassador to Egypt Deyan Katrachev. From the migration of ancient Thracians to Egypt at the end of the Bronze Age, through the participation of St Athanasius in the Council of Serdica in 343 AD, the establishment of a Bulgarian colony of entrepreneurs and traders in Alexandria during the National Revival Period in Bulgaria (18th-19th centuries), which existed for over 80 years, to the emigration of the Bulgarian royal family to the Mediterranean city after the monarchy fell in 1946.

The exhibition, organized by the Bulgarian Embassy in Cairo, is part of the project “Thrace and Egypt in the Greco-Roman World,” led by Dr Vesela Atanasova from the Institute of Balkan Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who attended the opening. She is a curator alongside Prof Laurent Bricault from the University of Toulouse III, while the design and pre-press preparation were done by Eli Filipova.

The poster exhibition displays historical monuments from ancient cities along the Black Sea coast: Chersonesus Taurica (Crimea), Olbia (Parutino, Ukraine), Tyras (Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Ukraine), Tomis (Constanta, Romania), Apollonia Pontica (Sozopol, Bulgaria), Mesambria (Nessebar, Bulgaria), Odessos (Varna, Bulgaria), Byzantion (Istanbul, Turkiye), Vani (Georgia) and others. The monuments, which illustrate the penetration of Egyptian cults in the region, are presented in seven sections according to type: epigraphic monuments, bone objects, terracotta, bronze, sculpture, gems and rings, and coins.

It is believed that the first contacts of the Black Sea coast with Ancient Egypt were established at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Numerous Egyptian or Egyptian-style amulets discovered in the Greek colonies of Chersonesus Taurica, Olbia, Apollonia Pontica, and Mesambria attest to the early development of these trade and cultural relations.

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the rise to power of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, some cults from the Nile Valley spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean and reached the coastal areas of the Black Sea. Their Egyptian origins were soon combined with Alexandrian and Greek features, which facilitated their acceptance by the local population.

The exhibition will be presented in Cairo later.