70 percent of Grand Museum completed: Antiquities Minister

CAIRO – 26 November 2017: Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, Khaled al-Anani, said on Sunday that Acting Prime Minister, Mustafa Madbouly followed up on the Grand Museum project, indicating that 70 percent of it is complete.

Forty two thousand-artifacts out of 100,000 were move to the Grand Museum which plans to hire international companies for service management, al-Anani stated during a press conference in the cabinet.

The first phase of the museum is expected to be open by the end of 2018, and will display the treasures of King Tutankhamun for the first time in history since their excavation in 1922, according to Tariq Tawfik, the General Supervisor of the Museum.

The excavated treasure amounts to over 5,000 artifacts which are currently being transferred to laboratories located in the museum’s restoration center with the plan to feature them in a separate building on the complex once restored.

The Grand Egyptian Museum is expected to hold the largest collection of artifacts from Egyptian history; this will include treasures from the Greco-Roman era and many other periods.

This project comes in tandem with the Tourism Authority’s efforts to prepare an agenda of events varying from artictic to sportif throughout the year, emphasizing the importance of cultural tourism and engaging with Egypt’s cultural heritage.