Min. of Antiquities to celebrate 116th anniversary of Egyptian Museum

CAIRO – 15 November 2018: The Ministry of Antiquities is set to organize a ceremony marking the 116th anniversary of the establishment of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir square on Monday, November 19 at 6:30 p.m.

The ceremony, which will take place at the museum, will be attended by Antiquities Minister, Khaled al-Anani, along with a number of ministers, ambassadors as well as national and international dignitaries.

Anani inspected the museum to follow up on the final preparations of the ceremony. He also inspected the rehabilitation processes of some of the museum’s halls that will be opened on that day.

The Egyptian Museum is home to the largest collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the world. It displays 120,000 artifacts. The museum was first build in 1835 near Al-Azbakeyah Garden and in 1855 it was moved to the Cairo Salaheddin Citadel.

In 1855, the Egyptian government gave Archduke Maximilian of Austria many of the artifacts that are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

In 1858, following the establishment of Egypt’s Antiquities Service under the direction of French archaeologist August Mariette, a new museum was established at Boulaq's Nile bank.

But regretfully in 1878, the building suffered significant damage from the Nile River flooding. In 1892, the collections were moved to a former royal palace in Giza where they remained safe until 1902 when the museum in Tahrir Square was built.