National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, a multi-purpose entity

CAIRO – 3 November 2020: The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization displays a large number of artifacts that highlight aspects of the Egyptian physical and intangible heritage and the influence of the Egyptian civilization on other civilizations that arose and flourished on an infrastructure of science and knowledge thanks to the Egyptian civilization.

In addition to the artifacts that will be housed in the museum, it offers a number of cultural events and activities that are closely linked with the ancient Egyptian antiquities.

Ahmed Ghoneim said the museum consists of two main buildings, the museum building and the reception building, in addition to a garage for cars and another garage for buses and service buildings such as the building of the power and air conditioning station, the electrical distributor building for the museum, the security rooms, and parking spaces for the museum's employees.

This is also in addition to the general site of the museum, which includes gardens and places for exhibiting, the Roman theater, and the area surrounding the archaeological laundry.

Also, the Ain el- Sera Lake, where there is a future vision for it that includes many cultural and entertainment activities.

The total area of the project is 33 acres and the building area is on an area of approximately  96000.00 m2.

According to Ghoneim, the reception building, which has a total area of 31,375 square meters, consists of three levels, the first level which includes a commercial center (42 stores and galleries), a cinema with 332 seats, as well as garages for cars.

The second level includes a lecture hall with a capacity of 187 seats, a conference room, educational classes (5 classes), a hall for receiving children, a cafeteria and a restaurant.

The third level includes a theater with a capacity of about 486 seats distributed among the hall and the balcony, a snack bar, a shop selling gifts and souvenirs, inquiries section, tickets and entrance to the museum, and a suite for VIP visitors.

The CEO of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat indicated that the museum includes a building of various galleries consisting of the basement floor and the upper service level, then the level of the permanent and temporary exhibition halls and the mezzanine floor, and it also includes exhibition halls on a total area of 21977 square meters.

The basement floor contains the archaeological stores, approximately 14 archaeological stores on an area of about 27462 square meters, in addition to the maintenance laboratories and workshops. The total surface of workshops and restoration factories is 22984 square meters.

It also includes the Printing and Publishing Center. The center works to provide many educational and intellectual resources through publications and periodicals on the most important archaeological discoveries, temporary archaeological exhibitions, seminars and conferences held inside and outside Egypt, as well as printing scientific journals and books.

This center is considered the archaeological press of the State’s Ministry of Antiquities. 

Attached to the center is a complete design office and an integrated modern printing press according to the latest international technologies in this field.

The floor also includes a photography studio, which is a studio equipped with the latest photography equipment, lighting systems and backgrounds necessary to document all antiquities of different sizes and types.

The museum’s upper first floor includes the Antiquities Reception Area. The NMEC is the first to implement the Antiquities Reception Area, which is the area that governs the entry of artifacts inside the museum and the packaging and unwrapping operations are carried out as well as the archaeological registration and imaging operations, fumigation and sterilization of organic antiques infested with insects and organic bacteria using anoxia. 

In order to ensure that the museum’s safety, holdings are isolated in the quarantine area, then sterilized before entering the museum.

The floor also includes the International Training Center, which is the first of its kind in Egypt undergoing training specialists in the fields of archaeological restoration, preventive maintenance, museum sciences, heritage preservation, excavations, human strains and excavations, whether from inside Egypt or those coming from the Arab world or Africa, through training courses approved by the Ministry of Antiquities, UNESCO and relevant international organizations and institutions or through specialized technical periodicals.

The first floor also houses the museum’s observation rooms and the museum’s management.