Head of Museums Sector: Expect an announcement of night activities and events at the museum to keep it always alive
Learn about the Egyptian Museum's journey from Azbakeya to Tahrir since 1835
By Akram Medhat - Travel Yalla journalist
The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir celebrated the 113th anniversary of its opening yesterday evening and received its Egyptian and foreign visitors free of charge. The celebration was attended by Minister of Antiquities Dr. Mamdouh El-Damaty, a number of ambassadors, most notably the Brazilian ambassador in Cairo, the Chinese cultural attaché in Cairo, and a number of actresses, namely Elham Shahin, Athar El-Hakim and Ola Ramy. The Reda Troupe presented shows representing the diverse cultures and popular folklore that characterize Egypt.
The Egyptian Museum is one of the largest and most famous museums in the world and is located in Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo. It was founded in 1835 in the Azbakeya Garden and housed a large number of diverse antiquities. Its contents were then moved to the second exhibition hall at the Citadel of Saladin, until French Egyptologist "Auguste Mariette", who worked at the Louvre Museum, thought of opening a museum to display a collection of antiquities on the bank of the Nile in the Bulaq Abu El-Ela area. When these antiquities were threatened by flooding, they were moved to a special annex of Khedive Ismail's palace in Giza.
Then Egyptologist "Gaston Maspero" came and, in 1902, during the reign of Khedive Abbas Helmy II, opened the new building at its current location in the heart of Cairo.
The museum houses more than 150,000 artifacts, the most important of which are the archaeological collections found in 1894 at Dahshur in the tombs of the kings and royal entourage of the Middle Kingdom, and it holds the greatest archaeological collection in the world, covering all stages of ancient Egyptian history.
In statements to Travel Yalla, Elham Salah, head of the Museums Sector at the Ministry of Antiquities, said that cultural "archaeological" tourism was and still is the most affected by the crisis the Egyptian tourism sector has been going through for about 5 years, and the Ministry of Antiquities has been relying on itself for its spending. Therefore, the first priority must be to think about boosting domestic tourism, since the museum is for society and must play its real role by activating activities that engage society and introduce it to ancient Egyptian civilization in all its eras.
She added that there is a plan to organize events and activities with community participation, so that there is an activity every day at the world-famous Egyptian Museum to keep it always alive, and offering these activities at night is being studied, which would also bring promotion and financial return.
She stressed that the Ministry of Tourism's activity is tangible in boosting domestic tourism, particularly to archaeological cities such as Luxor and Aswan, in addition to promotion and the focus on restoring the recovery of cultural tourism, especially in the southern governorates.
She pointed out that there are educational departments attached to all museums, which are responsible, in coordination with the public relations and marketing department, for holding meetings at schools and universities to share opinions and interact.
She noted that although the museum's revenues have declined, it has begun to receive growing attention through visits by Egyptians.
.jpg)
.jpg)
