 Egypt, as we all know, is the center of all the world's attention in terms of ancient history. All but even think the words ancient history and images of ancient Egypt artifacts immediately pop into your mind. But what if we were to tell you that the Egyptian government and the rulers of Egypt from the past and present do not care about historical values of these artifacts? What if we were to tell you that the shunning of history in this region is a trend that has been in practice for millennia and the constant smuggling of antiquities for all these years should assert the sheer size this empire was on at the height of its glory. Wait to hear this. We are not talking thousands of artifacts or even hundreds of thousands. We are talking millions of ancient artifacts that have been looted, sold, shipped, lost, destroyed, and even reclaimed by other civilizations as their own. This has been trending for centuries and is still a thriving market even today. If you consider how much has been stolen and how much is in museums the world over, and also taking into consideration the private collection market and again the undocumented black market, then you are left with a staggering statistic. And the statistic we are about to reveal here isn't even an exaggeration. It is an underestimate at best. So take every jewel and royal collections from every royal family on this planet, most of whom have Egyptian jewels in their collection by the way, multiply all that by two and you are still hard push to match the ancient Egyptian artifacts that are all over the place now. Doesn't this again ponder the question of the answer we no doubt already know in that of the ancient Egyptians were not the dynastic Egyptians we are told of in school? According to historical accounts, Menes was the first pharaoh of the first dynasty with whom the human history of Egypt began right around 3100 BC. Even this first pharaoh tells that the greatness of Egypt had already passed. He claimed to be related to the god Horos and this one him sway in the ascent to the throne. Probably because the people wanted the gods to return. This was a time when Egypt had descended into chaos and Menes is credited with bringing stability and unification back to the region at this time and the tradition of god worship was then born. Now isn't it strange to think that countries like the UK and France can actually protect these artifacts with ease compared to the roaring trade that is on the up in Egypt in terms of loss of these precious things and get this. Menes is sitting on a treasure trove of precious antiquities. Those that are housed in world museums seem to be only a pebble in the ocean in terms of what lies beneath the land of Egypt. The illegal excavation of antiquities is happening in many parts of the country with a relatively high success rate. Meanwhile, as the Egyptian government focuses on projects that might help citizens in the future they are paying less attention to protecting and promoting antiquities which, if better managed, could provide vast amounts of revenue today yet a blind eye appears to being turned. The Italian government's recent discovery of 23,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts concealed in a diplomatic container truly shocked the world and indeed the Egyptian people who pride themselves on the rich history of their country and rightly so. The great number of artifacts made it obvious that the illegal trafficking of antiquities is a well-organized and powerful business in Egypt. Had it not been for the Italian government's seizure of the container, those ancient pieces would be for sale on the black market today. The recent partial opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which cost about 1 billion pounds to build and funded by Japan, by the way, was a historic move to provide a proper home for 100,000 ancient artifacts. But if you consider what Italy just happened to stumble upon, the value of these things and the grand cost just to house them, you must consider a value in extent of the highest figure you could possibly imagine for the things that have been lost. Isn't that just shocking or what? A constant flow of artifacts for many hundred and possibly thousands of years leaving the country in which they were meant to have been entombed for all time and yet still it is estimated that a small fraction has only been uncovered. It just blows the mind, is it not? One commenter wrote in one of our previous videos that we are standing on the ruins of the gods, we couldn't agree more. The government should consider offering Egyptians free entry tickets to museums to enable them to better understand the history that is right in front of them and indeed below their very feet as they make their journey through life. Perhaps this way the smuggling would be made much harder as the people become more enlightened of their rich heritage. Perhaps it would begin to make sense to them the things that have caught the imagination of the world. This is a time of awakening after all, right? Just a thought. Anyway guys, it is pretty shocking that this takes place in the today and now and it is pretty hard to imagine what an answer could be. The government of Egypt seems to be happy to allow this to happen to a certain degree and it would appear that the international community would be more responsible with these objects but also more dangerous as they would indeed no doubt spread the belief that history of Egypt is only 5,000 years old and that the gods were nothing but myth. It is pretty disconcerting as no apparent action is being taken and this goes on constantly. What do you think anyway? Comments below and as always, thank you for watching.