Anani: 300 foreign missions currently work in Egypt

CAIRO - 4 December 2019: Minister of Antiquities Khaled el-Anani reviewed the recent archaeological discoveries and projects implemented by the Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt.

This came during the seminar organized by Canada-Egypt Business Council (CEBC), where Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, former Minister of State for Family and Population Mushira Khattab, former Minister of Tourism Munir Fakhry Abdel Nour, and a number of ambassadors and public figures were on attendance.

The minister of antiquities pointed out that the antiquities sector is receiving exceptional support from the political leadership and the Egyptian Government, describing the Egyptian antiquities as “unique”.

He pointed out that the reason for the increase in the number of archaeological discoveries is the resumption of foreign archaeological missions' work after a hiatus of several years. Currently, 300 archaeological missions from 25 countries are working in Egypt, including missions that work in Egypt for the first time such as the joint Egyptian-Chinese mission.

Anani expressed his pride in the efforts exerted by Egyptians to expose the ancient Egyptian civilization to the whole world. These Egyptian missions include distinguished teams of labor, technicians and archaeologists.

Additionally, Anani presented a full explanation about the nature, history and importance of a number of recent archaeological discoveries and the recently inaugurated archaeological projects. He referred to the role played by these projects and discoveries in raising the archaeological awareness of the Egyptian people, especially children and youth.

The minister also shed light on a number of ongoing national projects, such as the restoration project of the Baron Palace, which is scheduled to open in December to act as an exhibition illustrating the history of Heliopolis as the first capital of Egypt. This is in addition to the opening of many national museums, such as the National Museum of Sohag.

Moreover, Anani highlighted the ongoing work to develop the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, to which the royal mummies were transferred in a grand procession from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir. He also underlined the establishment of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is considered Egypt’s gift to the world.

Furthermore, Anani drew the attention of the audience to the role played by foreign exhibitions in activating the cultural tourism movement to Egypt, referring to the exhibition “Treasures of Tutankhamun”, which has so far visited three countries.

Anani added that the exhibition encouraged the American, French and British people and all the peoples of the world to visit Egypt to see the rest of the treasures of the young king and learn about Egypt's ancient and unique civilization.

He explained that -according to statistics conducted by the organizer of the exhibition- 300,000 tickets were sold in London, a number exceeding the number of tickets previously sold in the official opening of the exhibition in its second stop, Paris, where it was visited by more than 1.4 million people.

At the end of the seminar, Anani answered the audience's questions. Many attendees praised the efforts exerted by the Ministry of Antiquities to improve the services provided to the visitors of archaeological sites in coordination with the private sector, and the efficient role it plays to attract the world's attention to Egypt and its unique artefacts through abundant archaeological discoveries and projects.