Egyptologists should focus on deciphering inscriptions and dating artifacts, but for Wafaa El Saddik, her work also involved fending off corrupt officials and protecting relics from the criminals that mingled with protesters in Tahrir Square. As the first female director of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, a storehouse of ancient treasures, she had to face workers who grumbled under the supervision of a woman and—during the post-revolution regime of the Muslim Brotherhood—the probable rollback of civil rights for women. Protecting Pharaoh’s Treasures is an unusual memoir by an insider who witnessed the corruption of the Mubarak era and the uncertainty that followed. Despite many bitter notes, she sustains herself with hope for her nation’s future and love of its past.
