After Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Anani inaugurated on Tuesday two new museums at Cairo International Airport, what are the artefacts displayed in the museums and what is the story behind its opening?
According to the museum manager, Engy Aziz, creating a museum in Cairo Airport is Egypt's pioneering idea to establish an honorable civilized façade, where we project our civilized and cultural side for foreigners through the ancient artifacts in the museum.
We also aim to stimulate tourism in our country by providing a brief perspective of our country's history, which gives visiting tourists an incentive to explore more of our museums and historical locations. The convenience of these museums lies in the time travelers spend waiting for their plane departures, which ranges from an hour to two hours, which is enough time to spend a few minutes looking through the artifacts in the museum.
The museum houses artifacts from the modern era, the Greek and Roman eras and the Islamic era.
It has a display of the religions that exist in Egypt starting from the Jewish to the Coptic to the Islamic religion.
We also have a display of Egypt's upper ruling family's belongings that ruled Egypt for a long time. Most of these belongings were kept at the Central Bank of Egypt where they are being extracted for display in museums.
Most distinguished artifacts in the Museum
We have the statue of King Thutmose the Third, the sixth king of the eighteenth royal family, who ruled Egypt for four years and had a great role in implementing special rules for order and justice during his ruling period. This is an important message that we aim to send to foreigners who visit Egypt, that artifacts are not just for artistic entertainment, but they are also for acknowledging the educational backgrounds of the pieces where it portrays the idea of justice and order.
We also have the Coptic church's psalm that is chanted during the month of Kiahk, as well as the Quran from the Khedive Tawfik's reign.
The Jewish display contains items from the Jewish temple that were used for circumcision, “these items were taken years ago but were recently retrieved to be displayed in our museum”.
As for the Islamic era, we display items from their daily life such as jugs, perfume bottles and the coins used for trading.
The presence of three religions proves the spirit of tolerance that existed and still prevails in Egypt, and displays the idea that this country embraces all religions, ethnicities and cultures.
We also provide a general idea of why pharaohs used to mummify their dead and its importance in their culture.
The museums are located in terminal 2 and 3. Working hours are rotational shifts from 8am to 8pm daily, tickets for Egyptians are 25 L.E. each, and 3 US Dollars for foreigners. Phone photography is permitted and professional photography requires a specific ticket and permit.
According to Hossam Zedan, expert in ancient Egyptian monuments, the museums are a cooperation between the ministry of tourism and antiquities and the ministry of civil aviation.
Both museums contain about 363 pieces, from the ancient to the modern era. It consists of one showroom containing five glass displays of different items, a mummy, items from the Coptic era, Islamic era, Modern era and items from different religions.
The museum gives a brief about Egyptian history, shows a general idea on Egyptian Islamic, Coptic, Pharaonic and Modern artifacts, as well as Egypt’s capitals throughout its history and all its museums, it gives foreigners a summary of the country’s historical background.