Chirac, Mubarak unveil Egyptian treasure trove in Paris

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac unveiled an exhibition of sunken treasures recovered by French underwater explorers and spanning 1,500 years of Egyptian history. Mubarak, in Paris as part of a five-day European tour, toured the display of 500 rare pieces at the Grand Palais in Paris in company of his wife Suzanne, Chirac and his wife Bernadette.

The artefacts, dating from 700 BC to 800 AD, were recovered by a team of archaeologists led by the Frenchman Franck Goddio, who have been working on the sea floor off Egypt's coast for the past 10 years.

They include the largest known statue of Hapy, the Egyptian god of the Nile, a five-metre (11-foot) colossus dating from 2,000 years ago, which forms the centrepiece of the display along with statuettes of deities, coins and everyday objects.