Despite bad weather, work resumes in GEM

CAIRO - 17 March 2020: The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is working on preparing, packaging and transporting artifacts from several locations to the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is scheduled to be inaugurated at the last quarter of 2020.

Essa Zidan, director general of the Executive Affairs for the Restoration and Transportation of Antiquities at the Grand Egyptian Museum, said that the bad weather conditions that lasted for two whole days, did not affect the process of preparing and packaging the artifacts to be transported from the various archaeological sites across the country to the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Zidan further stated that the archaeological work did not stop inside the Grand Egyptian Museum, where lifting and fixing the artifacts on the grand staircase resumed on Saturday.

In addition, Zidan also noted that work inside the Grand Egyptian Museum starts from 8 a.m. to midnight, and takes place under the constant supervision and follow-up of Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled el-Anani and General supervisor of the Grand Egyptian Museum and the surrounding area Atef Moftah.

Furthermore, Director of Archeology at the GEM El-Tayeb Abbas said that four themes of statues of deities and kings will be exhibited on the Grand staircase of the museum.

The first theme will focus on 3D sculptures / statues of ancient kings, while the second will focus on the statues of the different deities in the several eras of ancient Egypt. This will include a representation of kings while participating in religious rituals and offering sacrifices to deities.