Egypt’s antiquities ministry reiterated on Thursday that Cleopatra had “white skin and Hellenistic features”, amid a continuing dispute over a Netflix drama-documentary that portrays the female pharaoh as black.
The film, Queen Cleopatra, is scheduled to be released on the streaming platform on 10 May. The famous Egyptian ruler is played by actress Adele James.
Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Archaeology, said that the depiction of Cleopatra as black is a “falsification of Egyptian history and a blatant historical misconception”, especially as the film is classified as a documentary.
The official’s comments are reinforced by an online petition signed by 40,000 people, which accused the production of distorting history.
An Egyptian MP has called on parliament to ban the streaming platform altogether, due to what it called repeated offensive behaviour and an attack on “family values”.
In its statement, the antiquities ministry quoted experts and historians who all agreed that Cleopatra had “white skin and Hellenistic characteristics”.
“Bas reliefs and statues of Queen Cleopatra are the best proof,” argued the authority in a post on social media which was accompanied by photos.
According to Waziri, the view that Cleopatra was not black is not driven by racism but rather by a desire to protect the historical record of the queen, who is a significant figure in ancient Egypt’s history.
Cleopatra belonged to the Macedonian Lagides dynasty descended from Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, who founded the Ptolemaic dynasty on the banks of the Nile.
Despite her fame and status, the interpretation of Cleopatra’s skin colour continues to be a source of debate.
